Indian Historical Review, Volume 50, Issue 1, Page 198-200, June 2023.
Santosh Kumar Rai, Weaving Hierarchies: Handloom Weavers in Early Twentieth Century United Provinces (Delhi: Primus, 2021), xx + 515 pp., ₹1,595, ISBN: 9789390737758 (Hardback).
Shifting Narratives of Soil in Scientific Discourses of Colonial Assam Tea Plantations
Indian Historical Review, Volume 50, Issue 1, Page 129-145, June 2023.
With the establishment of tea plantations in Assam in the first half of the nineteenth century, colonial tea planters and scientists began to examine ways to profitably produce tea for a growing global market. Apart from the visible landscape alterations through mass deforestation, tea monocultures also surreptitiously effected considerable transformation on its immediate physical environment, particularly on the soil. This paper highlights how the question of soil came under the purview of the colonial tea scientists when over the years, consequently and inevitably, these plantations showed a decline in the quality and quantity of tea produced. As a result, the initial conviction in the fertility of Assam’s soil within the tea discourse began to be replaced with discussions that revealed how plantation cultivation of tea itself was at the root of these problems in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
With the establishment of tea plantations in Assam in the first half of the nineteenth century, colonial tea planters and scientists began to examine ways to profitably produce tea for a growing global market. Apart from the visible landscape alterations through mass deforestation, tea monocultures also surreptitiously effected considerable transformation on its immediate physical environment, particularly on the soil. This paper highlights how the question of soil came under the purview of the colonial tea scientists when over the years, consequently and inevitably, these plantations showed a decline in the quality and quantity of tea produced. As a result, the initial conviction in the fertility of Assam’s soil within the tea discourse began to be replaced with discussions that revealed how plantation cultivation of tea itself was at the root of these problems in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Temple Desecration in Pre-modern India and Indo-Muslim States: A Discussion Beyond Historiography
Indian Historical Review, Volume 50, Issue 1, Page 159-192, June 2023.
Recent articles on temple desecration in pre-modern India and Indo-Muslim states by Richard M. Eaton published in Frontlilne have contributed to the popular Western narratives about India and Indian history. There are many contested areas, misunderstandings and misinterpretations in Eaton’s deliberations on the problem arising out of the conventional historiographic method. Here, an attempt has been made to critically review some of the arguments of Eaton on temple desecration in pre-modern India in a wider methodological perspective, that is, beyond historiography. The historiographic evidence alone in interpreting Indian history may not be enough in view of the complexity of Indian situation, thus necessitating validation of historiography by careful application of contemporary ethnological evidence, circumstantial material evidence and specific Indian contextual situation.
Recent articles on temple desecration in pre-modern India and Indo-Muslim states by Richard M. Eaton published in Frontlilne have contributed to the popular Western narratives about India and Indian history. There are many contested areas, misunderstandings and misinterpretations in Eaton’s deliberations on the problem arising out of the conventional historiographic method. Here, an attempt has been made to critically review some of the arguments of Eaton on temple desecration in pre-modern India in a wider methodological perspective, that is, beyond historiography. The historiographic evidence alone in interpreting Indian history may not be enough in view of the complexity of Indian situation, thus necessitating validation of historiography by careful application of contemporary ethnological evidence, circumstantial material evidence and specific Indian contextual situation.
Book review: Jean-Francois Salles, Sources on the Gauda Period in Bengal: Essay in Archaeology
Indian Historical Review, Volume 50, Issue 1, Page 201-202, June 2023.
Jean-Francois Salles, Sources on the Gauda Period in Bengal: Essay in Archaeology (Delhi: Primus Book, 2020), xvi + 249 pp., ₹1,095, ISBN: 9789390022847 (Hardback).
Jean-Francois Salles, Sources on the Gauda Period in Bengal: Essay in Archaeology (Delhi: Primus Book, 2020), xvi + 249 pp., ₹1,095, ISBN: 9789390022847 (Hardback).
Education and Communalism in Colonial India: The Context of the 1930s
Indian Historical Review, Volume 50, Issue 1, Page 47-69, June 2023.
The decade of the 1930s appears to be one of the most tumultuous as well as complex in the timeline of India’s anti-colonial struggle. It witnessed a close interplay of community-based identities and their politico-cultural manifestations. Education was one such important cultural attribute which increasingly pervaded the political domain. Its various manifestations, viz., language, script, textbooks and curriculum, etc., gradually acquired political connotations. Such a process began with the nineteenth-century socio-religious reform movements when in the pursuit of cultural nationalism, education and its symbols were appropriated to create community-specific cultural identities. One of the key objectives of this article is to delineate the process by which this appropriation resurfaced with much more vigour during the 1930s; this time associating itself with the idea of separate nationhood. Thus, the category of education was used as an agency to create and further accentuate sociocultural identities with specific political dimensions. Also, a critical observation of the ideological tussle, associated with the various symbols of education during the 1930s, along with the structures of British colonialism would unravel the process which culminated in the Pakistan Resolution of the Muslim League (1940) and ultimately the Partition of India. This would also reveal that amongst a section of Muslims, cultural alienation preceded political alienation.
The decade of the 1930s appears to be one of the most tumultuous as well as complex in the timeline of India’s anti-colonial struggle. It witnessed a close interplay of community-based identities and their politico-cultural manifestations. Education was one such important cultural attribute which increasingly pervaded the political domain. Its various manifestations, viz., language, script, textbooks and curriculum, etc., gradually acquired political connotations. Such a process began with the nineteenth-century socio-religious reform movements when in the pursuit of cultural nationalism, education and its symbols were appropriated to create community-specific cultural identities. One of the key objectives of this article is to delineate the process by which this appropriation resurfaced with much more vigour during the 1930s; this time associating itself with the idea of separate nationhood. Thus, the category of education was used as an agency to create and further accentuate sociocultural identities with specific political dimensions. Also, a critical observation of the ideological tussle, associated with the various symbols of education during the 1930s, along with the structures of British colonialism would unravel the process which culminated in the Pakistan Resolution of the Muslim League (1940) and ultimately the Partition of India. This would also reveal that amongst a section of Muslims, cultural alienation preceded political alienation.
Education and Communalism in Colonial India: The Context of the 1930s
Indian Historical Review, Volume 50, Issue 1, Page 47-69, June 2023.
The decade of the 1930s appears to be one of the most tumultuous as well as complex in the timeline of India’s anti-colonial struggle. It witnessed a close interplay of community-based identities and their politico-cultural manifestations. Education was one such important cultural attribute which increasingly pervaded the political domain. Its various manifestations, viz., language, script, textbooks and curriculum, etc., gradually acquired political connotations. Such a process began with the nineteenth-century socio-religious reform movements when in the pursuit of cultural nationalism, education and its symbols were appropriated to create community-specific cultural identities. One of the key objectives of this article is to delineate the process by which this appropriation resurfaced with much more vigour during the 1930s; this time associating itself with the idea of separate nationhood. Thus, the category of education was used as an agency to create and further accentuate sociocultural identities with specific political dimensions. Also, a critical observation of the ideological tussle, associated with the various symbols of education during the 1930s, along with the structures of British colonialism would unravel the process which culminated in the Pakistan Resolution of the Muslim League (1940) and ultimately the Partition of India. This would also reveal that amongst a section of Muslims, cultural alienation preceded political alienation.
The decade of the 1930s appears to be one of the most tumultuous as well as complex in the timeline of India’s anti-colonial struggle. It witnessed a close interplay of community-based identities and their politico-cultural manifestations. Education was one such important cultural attribute which increasingly pervaded the political domain. Its various manifestations, viz., language, script, textbooks and curriculum, etc., gradually acquired political connotations. Such a process began with the nineteenth-century socio-religious reform movements when in the pursuit of cultural nationalism, education and its symbols were appropriated to create community-specific cultural identities. One of the key objectives of this article is to delineate the process by which this appropriation resurfaced with much more vigour during the 1930s; this time associating itself with the idea of separate nationhood. Thus, the category of education was used as an agency to create and further accentuate sociocultural identities with specific political dimensions. Also, a critical observation of the ideological tussle, associated with the various symbols of education during the 1930s, along with the structures of British colonialism would unravel the process which culminated in the Pakistan Resolution of the Muslim League (1940) and ultimately the Partition of India. This would also reveal that amongst a section of Muslims, cultural alienation preceded political alienation.
Women as Bangles, Bangles as Women: Migration, Gender, and Female Agency in Bangladeshi Writer Nashid Kamal’s The Glass Bangles
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“A Majority with a Minority Complex”: Reorientation of Myths and the Making of Hindu Cadres
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Transecology as “Lines of Flight” in Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
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Gandhiji and RSS: The Cultural Grounding of Social Representations
Indian Historical Review, Volume 50, Issue 1, Page 109-128, June 2023.
Exploring the cordial relationship and mutual respect between Gandhiji and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), this article critically examines the political rhetoric against the RSS and its implications. As a nationalist cultural organisation, the RSS had been well aligned with most of the social and cultural programmes initiated by Gandhiji. When critics of the RSS like Jawaharlal Nehru were keen on crushing the RSS, the truth-seeking political philosopher Gandhiji applauded its discipline, annihilation of untouchability and the rigorous simplicity. This article demonstrates how the serious charges against the RSS that were brought to the notice of Gandhiji by a section of Congress leaders further cemented the cultural grounding of social representations between the two, instead of making Gandhiji be the stranger of the RSS.
Exploring the cordial relationship and mutual respect between Gandhiji and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), this article critically examines the political rhetoric against the RSS and its implications. As a nationalist cultural organisation, the RSS had been well aligned with most of the social and cultural programmes initiated by Gandhiji. When critics of the RSS like Jawaharlal Nehru were keen on crushing the RSS, the truth-seeking political philosopher Gandhiji applauded its discipline, annihilation of untouchability and the rigorous simplicity. This article demonstrates how the serious charges against the RSS that were brought to the notice of Gandhiji by a section of Congress leaders further cemented the cultural grounding of social representations between the two, instead of making Gandhiji be the stranger of the RSS.