Indian Historical Review, Volume 50, Issue 2, Page 345-348, December 2023.
Sudit Krishna Kumar and Suvobrata Sarkar, Contextualizing the Body: An Indian Experience. New Delhi: Manohar Publisher, 2021, ₹1,650, ISBN: 9789 390035540.
Book review: J. S. Grewal, Guru Gobind Singh (1666–1708): Master of the White Hawk
Indian Historical Review, Volume 50, Issue 2, Page 344-345, December 2023.
J. S. Grewal, Guru Gobind Singh (1666–1708): Master of the White Hawk. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2019, xv + 297 pp., ₹1,100, ISBN 9780199494941.
J. S. Grewal, Guru Gobind Singh (1666–1708): Master of the White Hawk. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2019, xv + 297 pp., ₹1,100, ISBN 9780199494941.
Settlement Patterns: Discernible Trends in the Sub-Regions of Early Medieval Bengal
Indian Historical Review, Volume 50, Issue 2, Page 280-303, December 2023.
The present study seeks to look for discernible trends in the way settlement patterns took shape in the various sub-regions of Bengal (c. fourth to thirteenth century), broadly corresponding to the modern Indian state of West Bengal as well as Bangladesh. The sources primarily include the epigraphs issued by various ruling dynasties and the thirteenth-century text by Sandhyākaranandi, the Rāmacaritam. The essay has also made a comparison with the scenario prevailing in Assam. Certain pertinent findings on the occupation of people living in largely the marshy and riverine terrain of Bengal and Assam have also been commented upon. Occupations and settlement patterns both being traditional responses to ecological settings and historical factors, many people living in the marshy lands in Bengal and Assam took to fishing and boatmanship in the period under study. Conspicuous presence of the groups of Kaivarttas (traditionally associated with fishing and boatmanship) in both regions, and individuals having names suffixed with ‘-naukins’ in Assam substantiate this fact. Tentative map(s) prepared on the basis of inscriptions show that rural settlements were both nucleated and single farm kinds, regularly interacted at various levels, and for Assam, the possibility of nucleated form is more than what has been acknowledged by scholars so far.
The present study seeks to look for discernible trends in the way settlement patterns took shape in the various sub-regions of Bengal (c. fourth to thirteenth century), broadly corresponding to the modern Indian state of West Bengal as well as Bangladesh. The sources primarily include the epigraphs issued by various ruling dynasties and the thirteenth-century text by Sandhyākaranandi, the Rāmacaritam. The essay has also made a comparison with the scenario prevailing in Assam. Certain pertinent findings on the occupation of people living in largely the marshy and riverine terrain of Bengal and Assam have also been commented upon. Occupations and settlement patterns both being traditional responses to ecological settings and historical factors, many people living in the marshy lands in Bengal and Assam took to fishing and boatmanship in the period under study. Conspicuous presence of the groups of Kaivarttas (traditionally associated with fishing and boatmanship) in both regions, and individuals having names suffixed with ‘-naukins’ in Assam substantiate this fact. Tentative map(s) prepared on the basis of inscriptions show that rural settlements were both nucleated and single farm kinds, regularly interacted at various levels, and for Assam, the possibility of nucleated form is more than what has been acknowledged by scholars so far.
Book review: Sunita Lall, Neeraj Kumar and Kathinka Sinha-Kerkhoff, BIHAR: Crossing Boundaries
Indian Historical Review, Volume 50, Issue 2, Page 351-353, December 2023.
Sunita Lall, Neeraj Kumar and Kathinka Sinha-Kerkhoff, BIHAR: Crossing Boundaries. New Delhi: Primus Books: 2020, 374 pp., ₹1395, ISBN: 9789390022281.
Sunita Lall, Neeraj Kumar and Kathinka Sinha-Kerkhoff, BIHAR: Crossing Boundaries. New Delhi: Primus Books: 2020, 374 pp., ₹1395, ISBN: 9789390022281.
Book review: Dipesh Chakrabarty, The Climate of History: In a Planetary Age
Indian Historical Review, Volume 50, Issue 2, Page 349-351, December 2023.
Dipesh Chakrabarty, The Climate of History: In a Planetary Age. New Delhi: Primus Books: 2021, vi + 284 pp., ₹995, ISBN: 9789390737543 (Hardback).
Dipesh Chakrabarty, The Climate of History: In a Planetary Age. New Delhi: Primus Books: 2021, vi + 284 pp., ₹995, ISBN: 9789390737543 (Hardback).
Beyond the Colonial Lens: An Investigation into the Chequered History of Assam Tea
Indian Historical Review, Volume 50, Issue 2, Page 322-343, December 2023.
This article presents a fresh perspective on tea cultivation in Assam, negating the widely held belief that the British Empire’s introduction to Assam tea symbolised societal advancement and economic growth. This article argues that the primary intention of the British was pure economic that catapulted the destruction of the thick forested areas, marginalised the native population and abolished their kingdoms. Despite this, colonial Assamese elites and mainstream industrialists have glorified the British tea venture. In this attempt of reviewing the history of Assam tea from an alternative point of view, efforts have also been made to analyse how the East India Company’s desire to maintain its monopoly in the Chinese tea trade, the Calcutta Botanical Garden’s desire to uphold the supremacy of the Chinese tea plant, and the military personnel’s quest for new sources of tea played their roles in it.
This article presents a fresh perspective on tea cultivation in Assam, negating the widely held belief that the British Empire’s introduction to Assam tea symbolised societal advancement and economic growth. This article argues that the primary intention of the British was pure economic that catapulted the destruction of the thick forested areas, marginalised the native population and abolished their kingdoms. Despite this, colonial Assamese elites and mainstream industrialists have glorified the British tea venture. In this attempt of reviewing the history of Assam tea from an alternative point of view, efforts have also been made to analyse how the East India Company’s desire to maintain its monopoly in the Chinese tea trade, the Calcutta Botanical Garden’s desire to uphold the supremacy of the Chinese tea plant, and the military personnel’s quest for new sources of tea played their roles in it.
Book review: Sudit Krishna Kumar and Suvobrata Sarkar, Contextualizing the Body: An Indian Experience
Indian Historical Review, Volume 50, Issue 2, Page 345-348, December 2023.
Sudit Krishna Kumar and Suvobrata Sarkar, Contextualizing the Body: An Indian Experience. New Delhi: Manohar Publisher, 2021, ₹1,650, ISBN: 9789 390035540.
Sudit Krishna Kumar and Suvobrata Sarkar, Contextualizing the Body: An Indian Experience. New Delhi: Manohar Publisher, 2021, ₹1,650, ISBN: 9789 390035540.
Book review: J. S. Grewal, Guru Gobind Singh (1666–1708): Master of the White Hawk
Indian Historical Review, Volume 50, Issue 2, Page 344-345, December 2023.
J. S. Grewal, Guru Gobind Singh (1666–1708): Master of the White Hawk. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2019, xv + 297 pp., ₹1,100, ISBN 9780199494941.
J. S. Grewal, Guru Gobind Singh (1666–1708): Master of the White Hawk. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2019, xv + 297 pp., ₹1,100, ISBN 9780199494941.
Materiality and Marginalia across the World: The Role of Things in Christopher Columbus’s Annotations on Marco Polo
The Medieval History Journal, Volume 26, Issue 2, Page 376-424, November 2023.
The recension of Marco Polo’s Devisament dou monde—an incunable of Francesco Pipino’s Latin translation titled De consuetudinibus et conditionibus orientalium regionum—used by Christopher Columbus is one of five annotated books known to have survived from the explorer’s library. The exemplar contains in its margins copious notes and drawings attributable to Columbus himself and other members of his immediate circle. These marginalia reveal that Columbus was a highly distinctive reader of content transmitted in the Poline textual tradition. He rarely dwelt on topographic, ethnographic or historical information. Rather, he was almost exclusively concerned with material things. His notes consist of brief references either to single objects or to lists of multiple objects associated with specific places. Cross-referencing allowed him to highlight similarities and differences between the regions of the known world, as well as to organise these regions hierarchically depending on the potential value of their manufactured and natural resources to himself and his fellow Europeans. He placed particular emphasis on mineral deposits and other substances such as gold, pearls and spices that he apparently considered to have an especially elevated intrinsic value. This article examines the revision, dissemination and especially interpretation of Polo’s late thirteenth-century work at a particular historical moment in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. In so doing, it draws attention to Columbus’s contribution to a shift in the relationship between materiality and cosmography that would prove to be of key importance to modern colonialism.
The recension of Marco Polo’s Devisament dou monde—an incunable of Francesco Pipino’s Latin translation titled De consuetudinibus et conditionibus orientalium regionum—used by Christopher Columbus is one of five annotated books known to have survived from the explorer’s library. The exemplar contains in its margins copious notes and drawings attributable to Columbus himself and other members of his immediate circle. These marginalia reveal that Columbus was a highly distinctive reader of content transmitted in the Poline textual tradition. He rarely dwelt on topographic, ethnographic or historical information. Rather, he was almost exclusively concerned with material things. His notes consist of brief references either to single objects or to lists of multiple objects associated with specific places. Cross-referencing allowed him to highlight similarities and differences between the regions of the known world, as well as to organise these regions hierarchically depending on the potential value of their manufactured and natural resources to himself and his fellow Europeans. He placed particular emphasis on mineral deposits and other substances such as gold, pearls and spices that he apparently considered to have an especially elevated intrinsic value. This article examines the revision, dissemination and especially interpretation of Polo’s late thirteenth-century work at a particular historical moment in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. In so doing, it draws attention to Columbus’s contribution to a shift in the relationship between materiality and cosmography that would prove to be of key importance to modern colonialism.
Political Thought in Iberian Educational Centres: An Excursus Through the Circulation of Books and Ideas (Thirteenth to Fifteenth Centuries)
The Medieval History Journal, Ahead of Print.
This paper aims to analyse the circulation of political ideas within the context of Iberian educational centres with a special focus on their contribution to the settlement of new dynasties—like the Avis in Portugal, Trastámaras in Castile, Aragon and Navarre—or the annexation of other kingdoms—like Mallorca—and the relationship with Muslim territories—Granada and the Merinid Empire. To achieve this goal, we undertake a twofold study: (i) the writings and ideas on political theory that have been read and copied in Iberian educational centres; (ii) the books of some relevant thinkers in each kingdom, looking at who, where and when their works have been used.
This paper aims to analyse the circulation of political ideas within the context of Iberian educational centres with a special focus on their contribution to the settlement of new dynasties—like the Avis in Portugal, Trastámaras in Castile, Aragon and Navarre—or the annexation of other kingdoms—like Mallorca—and the relationship with Muslim territories—Granada and the Merinid Empire. To achieve this goal, we undertake a twofold study: (i) the writings and ideas on political theory that have been read and copied in Iberian educational centres; (ii) the books of some relevant thinkers in each kingdom, looking at who, where and when their works have been used.