Rabindra Ray
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198077381
- eISBN:
- 9780199081011
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198077381.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
The Naxalite beginnings are by now history, and not a little nostalgia tinges the memory of these dreaded events. The leaders, the organizers, the spine, and the continuity of the movement are the ...
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The Naxalite beginnings are by now history, and not a little nostalgia tinges the memory of these dreaded events. The leaders, the organizers, the spine, and the continuity of the movement are the revolutionary intellectuals. The Naxalite movement is not principally a rural, agrarian problem as the doctrine of the Naxalites argues, but is a problem of the leading edge of the urban intelligentsia. Though the Naxalites take their name from the incident at Naxalbari in 1967, the defining attributes of the Naxalite view of revolution emerged only later. From the beginning, it was not the labouring poor of the nation or Bengal that Charu Mazumdar addressed, but, first, the disaffected revolutionary activists within the communist movement and, later, the ‘student–youth’. This book discusses the ideologies of the Naxalite terrorists, the terrorist in the Bengali society, the Communist Party of India, and the Indian economy.Less
The Naxalite beginnings are by now history, and not a little nostalgia tinges the memory of these dreaded events. The leaders, the organizers, the spine, and the continuity of the movement are the revolutionary intellectuals. The Naxalite movement is not principally a rural, agrarian problem as the doctrine of the Naxalites argues, but is a problem of the leading edge of the urban intelligentsia. Though the Naxalites take their name from the incident at Naxalbari in 1967, the defining attributes of the Naxalite view of revolution emerged only later. From the beginning, it was not the labouring poor of the nation or Bengal that Charu Mazumdar addressed, but, first, the disaffected revolutionary activists within the communist movement and, later, the ‘student–youth’. This book discusses the ideologies of the Naxalite terrorists, the terrorist in the Bengali society, the Communist Party of India, and the Indian economy.
Michael Madhusudan Datta
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- October 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195167993
- eISBN:
- 9780199835805
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195167996.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Hinduism
“The poem is rising into splendid popularity. Some say it is better than Milton — but that is all bosh — nothing can be better than Milton; many say it licks Kalidasa; I have no objection to that. I ...
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“The poem is rising into splendid popularity. Some say it is better than Milton — but that is all bosh — nothing can be better than Milton; many say it licks Kalidasa; I have no objection to that. I don't think it impossible to equal Virgil, Kalidasa, and Tasso.” Michael Madhusudan Datta wrote this in a letter to a friend about his verse narrative, The Slaying of Meghanada (1861). The epic, a Bengali version of the Ramayana story in which Ravana, not Rama, is the hero, has become a classic of Indian literature. Datta lived in Bengal at the height of what is frequently called the Bengal Renaissance, a time so labeled for its reinvigoration and reconfiguration of the Hindu past and for the florescence of the literary arts. It was also a period when the Bengali city of Kolkata was a center of world trade-the second city of the British empire — and thus a site of cultural exchange between India and the West. Datta was the perfect embodiment of this time and place. The Slaying of Meghanada is deeply influenced by western epic tradition, and is sprinkled with nods to Homer, Milton, and Dante. Datta's deft intermingling of western and eastern literary traditions brought about a sea change in South Asian literature, and is generally considered to mark the dividing line between pre-modern and modern Bengali literature. Datta's masterpiece is now accessible to readers of English in this translation, which captures both the sense and the spirit of the original. The poem is supplemented by an extensive introduction, notes, and a glossary.Less
“The poem is rising into splendid popularity. Some say it is better than Milton — but that is all bosh — nothing can be better than Milton; many say it licks Kalidasa; I have no objection to that. I don't think it impossible to equal Virgil, Kalidasa, and Tasso.” Michael Madhusudan Datta wrote this in a letter to a friend about his verse narrative, The Slaying of Meghanada (1861). The epic, a Bengali version of the Ramayana story in which Ravana, not Rama, is the hero, has become a classic of Indian literature. Datta lived in Bengal at the height of what is frequently called the Bengal Renaissance, a time so labeled for its reinvigoration and reconfiguration of the Hindu past and for the florescence of the literary arts. It was also a period when the Bengali city of Kolkata was a center of world trade-the second city of the British empire — and thus a site of cultural exchange between India and the West. Datta was the perfect embodiment of this time and place. The Slaying of Meghanada is deeply influenced by western epic tradition, and is sprinkled with nods to Homer, Milton, and Dante. Datta's deft intermingling of western and eastern literary traditions brought about a sea change in South Asian literature, and is generally considered to mark the dividing line between pre-modern and modern Bengali literature. Datta's masterpiece is now accessible to readers of English in this translation, which captures both the sense and the spirit of the original. The poem is supplemented by an extensive introduction, notes, and a glossary.
Rachel Fell McDermott
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195134346
- eISBN:
- 9780199868056
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195134346.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Hinduism
This collection presents 145 brief Bengali lyric poems dedicated to the Hindu goddesses Kālī and Umā. The poems — many of which are presented here for the first time in English translation — were ...
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This collection presents 145 brief Bengali lyric poems dedicated to the Hindu goddesses Kālī and Umā. The poems — many of which are presented here for the first time in English translation — were written from the early eighteenth century up to the contemporary period. They represent the unique Bengali tradition of goddess worship (Śāktism) as it developed over this period. The author's lucid introduction places these works in their historical context and shows how images of the goddesses evolved over the centuries. The lively translations of these poetic lyrics evoke the passion and devotion of the followers of Kālī and Umā and shed light on the history and practice of goddess worship.Less
This collection presents 145 brief Bengali lyric poems dedicated to the Hindu goddesses Kālī and Umā. The poems — many of which are presented here for the first time in English translation — were written from the early eighteenth century up to the contemporary period. They represent the unique Bengali tradition of goddess worship (Śāktism) as it developed over this period. The author's lucid introduction places these works in their historical context and shows how images of the goddesses evolved over the centuries. The lively translations of these poetic lyrics evoke the passion and devotion of the followers of Kālī and Umā and shed light on the history and practice of goddess worship.
Hugh B. Urban
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195139013
- eISBN:
- 9780199871674
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195139011.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This book is a companion volume to the author's The Economics of Ecstasy: Tantra, Secrecy, and Power in Colonial Bengal, but while The Economics of Ecstasy engages the theoretical issues of secrecy ...
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This book is a companion volume to the author's The Economics of Ecstasy: Tantra, Secrecy, and Power in Colonial Bengal, but while The Economics of Ecstasy engages the theoretical issues of secrecy and concealment associated with the Kartābhajās — a Bengali sect devoted to Tantra, an Indian religious movement notorious for its alleged use of shocking sexual language and rituals, this book presents the first English translation of the sect's body of highly esoteric, mystical poetry and songs. The period from the late eighteenth to the early nineteenth centuries, during which these lyrics were written, was an era of change, experimentation, and transition from the older medieval styles to the new literary forms of “modern” Bengal. The original songs presented are an important part of this transitional period, reflecting the search for new literary forms and experimentation in new poetic styles. Long disparaged as an inferior, low‐class, or corrupt form of Bengali literature, these songs are concerned with contemporary social life in colonial Calcutta and with the real lives of common lower‐class men and women. With their vision of a universal “religion of humanity,” open to men and women of all classes, the Kartābhajā songs offer an alternative model of community, which made a special appeal to the working classes of colonial Calcutta. They delight in ridiculing and satirizing the foppish British rulers and pretentious upper classes, although at the same time, however, the satirical urban imagery is mingled with older Tantric connotations and employed in ingenious new ways to express profoundly esoteric and mystical religious ideas.Less
This book is a companion volume to the author's The Economics of Ecstasy: Tantra, Secrecy, and Power in Colonial Bengal, but while The Economics of Ecstasy engages the theoretical issues of secrecy and concealment associated with the Kartābhajās — a Bengali sect devoted to Tantra, an Indian religious movement notorious for its alleged use of shocking sexual language and rituals, this book presents the first English translation of the sect's body of highly esoteric, mystical poetry and songs. The period from the late eighteenth to the early nineteenth centuries, during which these lyrics were written, was an era of change, experimentation, and transition from the older medieval styles to the new literary forms of “modern” Bengal. The original songs presented are an important part of this transitional period, reflecting the search for new literary forms and experimentation in new poetic styles. Long disparaged as an inferior, low‐class, or corrupt form of Bengali literature, these songs are concerned with contemporary social life in colonial Calcutta and with the real lives of common lower‐class men and women. With their vision of a universal “religion of humanity,” open to men and women of all classes, the Kartābhajā songs offer an alternative model of community, which made a special appeal to the working classes of colonial Calcutta. They delight in ridiculing and satirizing the foppish British rulers and pretentious upper classes, although at the same time, however, the satirical urban imagery is mingled with older Tantric connotations and employed in ingenious new ways to express profoundly esoteric and mystical religious ideas.
Lisa I. Knight
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199773541
- eISBN:
- 9780199897353
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199773541.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
In the popular imagination, Bauls in West Bengal (India) and Bangladesh are depicted as a sect of musical mendicants with flowing hair clad in ocher-colored clothes and carrying a one-stringed ...
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In the popular imagination, Bauls in West Bengal (India) and Bangladesh are depicted as a sect of musical mendicants with flowing hair clad in ocher-colored clothes and carrying a one-stringed instrument. Their popularity stems from their mystical songs and their carefree, whimsical behavior. Somewhat less celebrated are Baul beliefs and practices: they are fiercely opposed to the caste system and sectarianism and, at least in the context of their sexo-yogic rituals and philosophy, extol women over men. Despite the importance of women among Bauls, scholarly and popular discourses on Bauls marginalize Baul women by depicting the ideal Baul as male and as unencumbered by social constraints and worldly concerns. For Baul women, these ideals pose distinct challenges to their position and reputation as women in rural Bengal, where gendered norms limit women’s actions. However, as musical performers hoping for patronage, behaving as a Baul can ensure their livelihood. This book shows how Baul women interpret and respond to these various constructions of gender and Baul identity and suggests that Baul women are encumbered actors. It argues that Baul women negotiate their identity, position, and life choices in light of contradictory expectations of appropriate behavior for Bengali women and for Bauls. It demonstrates that Baul women draw on the very tools of their encumbering to create for themselves a meaningful life and a more just society. As they sing, wander, take renunciation, and raise a family, they expand ideas about both women and Bauls in Bengal.Less
In the popular imagination, Bauls in West Bengal (India) and Bangladesh are depicted as a sect of musical mendicants with flowing hair clad in ocher-colored clothes and carrying a one-stringed instrument. Their popularity stems from their mystical songs and their carefree, whimsical behavior. Somewhat less celebrated are Baul beliefs and practices: they are fiercely opposed to the caste system and sectarianism and, at least in the context of their sexo-yogic rituals and philosophy, extol women over men. Despite the importance of women among Bauls, scholarly and popular discourses on Bauls marginalize Baul women by depicting the ideal Baul as male and as unencumbered by social constraints and worldly concerns. For Baul women, these ideals pose distinct challenges to their position and reputation as women in rural Bengal, where gendered norms limit women’s actions. However, as musical performers hoping for patronage, behaving as a Baul can ensure their livelihood. This book shows how Baul women interpret and respond to these various constructions of gender and Baul identity and suggests that Baul women are encumbered actors. It argues that Baul women negotiate their identity, position, and life choices in light of contradictory expectations of appropriate behavior for Bengali women and for Bauls. It demonstrates that Baul women draw on the very tools of their encumbering to create for themselves a meaningful life and a more just society. As they sing, wander, take renunciation, and raise a family, they expand ideas about both women and Bauls in Bengal.
Rowan Strong
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199218042
- eISBN:
- 9780191711527
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199218042.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
This book demonstrates that British imperialism was integrally connected to British religion. Using published sources, the book identifies the construction, development, and ingredients of a public ...
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This book demonstrates that British imperialism was integrally connected to British religion. Using published sources, the book identifies the construction, development, and ingredients of a public Anglican discourse of the British Empire between 1700 and c.1850. It argues that the Church of England exhibited an official and conscious Anglican concern for empire and for missions by the Church of England, from the foundation of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts in 1701. Much of that earlier 18th century understanding went on to shape later Anglican Evangelical imperial attitudes in the Church Missionary Society founded in 1799. In this Anglican engagement with the British Empire, a public theological discourse of empire was formed and promulgated. This religious public discourse of empire was developed in an imperial partnership with the state. It was formulated in the Anglican engagement with the North American colonies in the 18th century; it underwent a revival of the church-state partnership in the period between 1790 and 1830, as witnessed in Bengal; and it was fundamentally transformed in a new paradigm of imperial engagement in the 1840s, which was implemented in the colonies of Australia and New Zealand. Both the old and the new imperial Anglican paradigms developed a religious and theological imperial discourse that constructed the identities for various colonized peoples and British colonists, as well as contributing to English-British identity between 1700 and 1850. It was a Christian lens that proved remarkably consistent and enduring for both the old and the new British Empires.Less
This book demonstrates that British imperialism was integrally connected to British religion. Using published sources, the book identifies the construction, development, and ingredients of a public Anglican discourse of the British Empire between 1700 and c.1850. It argues that the Church of England exhibited an official and conscious Anglican concern for empire and for missions by the Church of England, from the foundation of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts in 1701. Much of that earlier 18th century understanding went on to shape later Anglican Evangelical imperial attitudes in the Church Missionary Society founded in 1799. In this Anglican engagement with the British Empire, a public theological discourse of empire was formed and promulgated. This religious public discourse of empire was developed in an imperial partnership with the state. It was formulated in the Anglican engagement with the North American colonies in the 18th century; it underwent a revival of the church-state partnership in the period between 1790 and 1830, as witnessed in Bengal; and it was fundamentally transformed in a new paradigm of imperial engagement in the 1840s, which was implemented in the colonies of Australia and New Zealand. Both the old and the new imperial Anglican paradigms developed a religious and theological imperial discourse that constructed the identities for various colonized peoples and British colonists, as well as contributing to English-British identity between 1700 and 1850. It was a Christian lens that proved remarkably consistent and enduring for both the old and the new British Empires.
June McDaniel
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- May 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195177060
- eISBN:
- 9780199785438
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195177060.003.0010
- Subject:
- Religion, Hinduism
This chapter explores the ritual practices of women active in tantric traditions in West Bengal. These female tantrikas tend to reject the traditional domestic values associated with women's ...
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This chapter explores the ritual practices of women active in tantric traditions in West Bengal. These female tantrikas tend to reject the traditional domestic values associated with women's householder rituals, emphasizing instead ritual practices allied more closely with renunciation and its goals. In this context, renunciation is highly valued in women, as it is in men, while sexuality returns a woman to the sphere of traditional domesticity where she takes on the role of supporter and helper of a man rather than the role of individual seeker. Hence, the world of female tantric ritual challenges the connection between domesticity and women's ritual practices predominant in other contexts.Less
This chapter explores the ritual practices of women active in tantric traditions in West Bengal. These female tantrikas tend to reject the traditional domestic values associated with women's householder rituals, emphasizing instead ritual practices allied more closely with renunciation and its goals. In this context, renunciation is highly valued in women, as it is in men, while sexuality returns a woman to the sphere of traditional domesticity where she takes on the role of supporter and helper of a man rather than the role of individual seeker. Hence, the world of female tantric ritual challenges the connection between domesticity and women's ritual practices predominant in other contexts.
Nicholas J. Wheeler
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199253104
- eISBN:
- 9780191600302
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199253102.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
Examines the justifications, motives, and outcomes surrounding India's use of force against Pakistan in December 1971. It shows how international society as reflected in the positions taken by the ...
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Examines the justifications, motives, and outcomes surrounding India's use of force against Pakistan in December 1971. It shows how international society as reflected in the positions taken by the Security Council and the General Assembly interpreted India's action as a breach of the legal rules prohibiting the use of force rather than as a rescue of the Bengali people.Less
Examines the justifications, motives, and outcomes surrounding India's use of force against Pakistan in December 1971. It shows how international society as reflected in the positions taken by the Security Council and the General Assembly interpreted India's action as a breach of the legal rules prohibiting the use of force rather than as a rescue of the Bengali people.
Bharati Ray
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780198083818
- eISBN:
- 9780199082186
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198083818.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Women's Literature
This book is a story of two outstanding Bengali women fighting for a cause, so similar and yet so strikingly different at multiple levels. It presents a historical evaluation of Sarala Devi ...
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This book is a story of two outstanding Bengali women fighting for a cause, so similar and yet so strikingly different at multiple levels. It presents a historical evaluation of Sarala Devi Chaudhurani and Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain. It specifically determines the similarities and differences in the ideas and activities of these women from two different communities in colonial Bengal, Hindu-Brahmo and Muslim, and thus also sheds some light on contemporary Hindu and Muslim societies, their patterns of change during the colonial encounter, and the emergence among both the communities of a new generation of women. It concentrates on their concern and work around women’s issues. It first introduces the lives of Sarala and Rokeya. It then investigates the steps Sarala and Rokeya advocated or adopted to enhance the lives of women. It concludes by addressing how their contemporaries viewed Sarala and Rokeya, and how are they regarded today.Less
This book is a story of two outstanding Bengali women fighting for a cause, so similar and yet so strikingly different at multiple levels. It presents a historical evaluation of Sarala Devi Chaudhurani and Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain. It specifically determines the similarities and differences in the ideas and activities of these women from two different communities in colonial Bengal, Hindu-Brahmo and Muslim, and thus also sheds some light on contemporary Hindu and Muslim societies, their patterns of change during the colonial encounter, and the emergence among both the communities of a new generation of women. It concentrates on their concern and work around women’s issues. It first introduces the lives of Sarala and Rokeya. It then investigates the steps Sarala and Rokeya advocated or adopted to enhance the lives of women. It concludes by addressing how their contemporaries viewed Sarala and Rokeya, and how are they regarded today.
Rachel Fell McDermott
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195134353
- eISBN:
- 9780199834457
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195134354.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Hinduism
The central concern of this book is the influence of bhakti, or the devotional attitude, in transforming perceptions of Hindu deities and their famous poet‐saints. Methodologically, this study ...
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The central concern of this book is the influence of bhakti, or the devotional attitude, in transforming perceptions of Hindu deities and their famous poet‐saints. Methodologically, this study combines textual, historical, and anthropological approaches: transformations in the presentation of the goddesses Kālī and Umā, and their poets are charted through historical reconstructions of textual history and augmented, for the modern period, by fieldwork carried out in West Bengal, India, in 1988–90, 1991, 1995, 1996, 1998, and 1999. The book has three principal aims: the first is to introduce the life stories and contexts of Śākta poet‐devotees who, though not much known outside Bengal, represent an important three‐hundred year literary and spiritual tradition centered around Hindu goddesses; the second is to provide the material necessary for the Bengali Śākta padas (short poems written according to a particular meter and rhyme) to be noticed, discussed, and recognized within the larger field of bhakti literary studies; and the third is to contribute to a “history of ideas” about Bengali goddesses.Less
The central concern of this book is the influence of bhakti, or the devotional attitude, in transforming perceptions of Hindu deities and their famous poet‐saints. Methodologically, this study combines textual, historical, and anthropological approaches: transformations in the presentation of the goddesses Kālī and Umā, and their poets are charted through historical reconstructions of textual history and augmented, for the modern period, by fieldwork carried out in West Bengal, India, in 1988–90, 1991, 1995, 1996, 1998, and 1999. The book has three principal aims: the first is to introduce the life stories and contexts of Śākta poet‐devotees who, though not much known outside Bengal, represent an important three‐hundred year literary and spiritual tradition centered around Hindu goddesses; the second is to provide the material necessary for the Bengali Śākta padas (short poems written according to a particular meter and rhyme) to be noticed, discussed, and recognized within the larger field of bhakti literary studies; and the third is to contribute to a “history of ideas” about Bengali goddesses.
Ronojoy Sen
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780231164900
- eISBN:
- 9780231539937
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231164900.003.0006
- Subject:
- Sociology, Sport and Leisure
How sport and football in Bengal played directly into anti-colonial agitation and nationalism.
How sport and football in Bengal played directly into anti-colonial agitation and nationalism.
Amartya Sen
- Published in print:
- 1983
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198284635
- eISBN:
- 9780191596902
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198284632.003.0006
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Development, Growth, and Environmental
A case study of the Great Bengal Famine of 1943, which had a reported death toll of about 1.5 million. An explanation for the famine is analysed in terms of the most common approach used—food ...
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A case study of the Great Bengal Famine of 1943, which had a reported death toll of about 1.5 million. An explanation for the famine is analysed in terms of the most common approach used—food availability decline (FAD), and this is rejected for various reasons. Analyses are next made in terms of exchange entitlements and the causes of the sharp movements of these, and of the class basis of the destitution. The last part of the chapter discusses the role of theory in the failure of the official policy for tackling the famine.Less
A case study of the Great Bengal Famine of 1943, which had a reported death toll of about 1.5 million. An explanation for the famine is analysed in terms of the most common approach used—food availability decline (FAD), and this is rejected for various reasons. Analyses are next made in terms of exchange entitlements and the causes of the sharp movements of these, and of the class basis of the destitution. The last part of the chapter discusses the role of theory in the failure of the official policy for tackling the famine.
Anindita Mukhopadhyay
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- October 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195680836
- eISBN:
- 9780199080700
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195680836.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Indian History
This book investigates the deeper area of class antagonism between the privileged and underprivileged classes as they faced the colonial state and its different ideas of legality and sovereignty in ...
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This book investigates the deeper area of class antagonism between the privileged and underprivileged classes as they faced the colonial state and its different ideas of legality and sovereignty in colonial Bengal. It examines the ambiguity in the bhadralok — the educated middle class — response to courts and jails. The author argues that the discourse of superior ‘bhadralok’ ethics and morals was juxtaposed against the ‘chhotolok’ — who were devoid of such ethical values. This enabled the bhadralok to claim for themselves the position of the ‘aware’ legal subject as a class — a ‘good’ subject obedient to the dictates of the new rule of law, unlike the recalcitrant and ethically ill-equipped chhotolok. The author underlines the development of a new cultural language of morality that delineated the parameters of bhadralok public behaviour. As the ‘rule of law’ of the British government slid unobtrusively into the public domain, the criminal courts and the jails turned into public theatres of infamy — spaces that the ethically bound bhadralok dreaded occupying. The volume, thus, documents how the colonial legal and penal institutions streamlined the identities of some sections of the lower castes into ‘criminal caste’. It also examines the nature of colonial bureaucracy and highlights the social silence on gender and women's criminality.Less
This book investigates the deeper area of class antagonism between the privileged and underprivileged classes as they faced the colonial state and its different ideas of legality and sovereignty in colonial Bengal. It examines the ambiguity in the bhadralok — the educated middle class — response to courts and jails. The author argues that the discourse of superior ‘bhadralok’ ethics and morals was juxtaposed against the ‘chhotolok’ — who were devoid of such ethical values. This enabled the bhadralok to claim for themselves the position of the ‘aware’ legal subject as a class — a ‘good’ subject obedient to the dictates of the new rule of law, unlike the recalcitrant and ethically ill-equipped chhotolok. The author underlines the development of a new cultural language of morality that delineated the parameters of bhadralok public behaviour. As the ‘rule of law’ of the British government slid unobtrusively into the public domain, the criminal courts and the jails turned into public theatres of infamy — spaces that the ethically bound bhadralok dreaded occupying. The volume, thus, documents how the colonial legal and penal institutions streamlined the identities of some sections of the lower castes into ‘criminal caste’. It also examines the nature of colonial bureaucracy and highlights the social silence on gender and women's criminality.
Rachel Fell McDermott
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195134353
- eISBN:
- 9780199834457
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195134354.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Hinduism
This book chronicles the rise and subsequent fortunes of Hindu goddess worship, or Śāktism, in the region of Bengal from the middle of the eighteenth century to the present. The primary documents are ...
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This book chronicles the rise and subsequent fortunes of Hindu goddess worship, or Śāktism, in the region of Bengal from the middle of the eighteenth century to the present. The primary documents are lyrics directed to the goddesses Kālī and Umā, beginning with those of the first of the Śākta lyricist devotees, Rāmprasād Sen (ca. 1718–1775) and Kamalākānta Bhaṭṭācārya (ca. 1769–1821), and continuing up through those of the gifted poet Kājī Najrul Islām (1899–1976). The author has used extensive research from primary historical texts as well as from secondary Bengali and English source materials. She places the advent of the Śākta lyric in its historical context and charts the vicissitudes over time of this form of goddess worship, including the nineteenth‐century resurgence of Śāktism in the cause of nationalist politics. The main theme of the book is the way in which the images of the two goddesses evolved over the centuries. Kālī is sweetened and democratized over time, and much of her fierce, wild, dangerous, and bloody character disappears as she is increasingly seen as a compassionate and loving divine mother to her children. Umā, for her part, is gradually transformed from the gentle and remote wife of Śhiva to the adored daughter of Bengali parents, increasingly humanized and colored with regional Bengali characteristics. The book is arranged in two main parts: I, The lives and contexts of Śākta poets; and II, The changing genre of Śākta poetry. The author's translations of the poems on which this book is based appear in Singing to the Goddess: Poems to Kālī and Umā from Bengal (OUP, 2000).Less
This book chronicles the rise and subsequent fortunes of Hindu goddess worship, or Śāktism, in the region of Bengal from the middle of the eighteenth century to the present. The primary documents are lyrics directed to the goddesses Kālī and Umā, beginning with those of the first of the Śākta lyricist devotees, Rāmprasād Sen (ca. 1718–1775) and Kamalākānta Bhaṭṭācārya (ca. 1769–1821), and continuing up through those of the gifted poet Kājī Najrul Islām (1899–1976). The author has used extensive research from primary historical texts as well as from secondary Bengali and English source materials. She places the advent of the Śākta lyric in its historical context and charts the vicissitudes over time of this form of goddess worship, including the nineteenth‐century resurgence of Śāktism in the cause of nationalist politics. The main theme of the book is the way in which the images of the two goddesses evolved over the centuries. Kālī is sweetened and democratized over time, and much of her fierce, wild, dangerous, and bloody character disappears as she is increasingly seen as a compassionate and loving divine mother to her children. Umā, for her part, is gradually transformed from the gentle and remote wife of Śhiva to the adored daughter of Bengali parents, increasingly humanized and colored with regional Bengali characteristics. The book is arranged in two main parts: I, The lives and contexts of Śākta poets; and II, The changing genre of Śākta poetry. The author's translations of the poems on which this book is based appear in Singing to the Goddess: Poems to Kālī and Umā from Bengal (OUP, 2000).
Prathama Banerjee
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- October 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195681567
- eISBN:
- 9780199081677
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195681567.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Indian History
This book is about the politics of time, the politics through which colonial modern societies attempt to make a time of their own. It is about the predicament of colonial modern practice caught ...
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This book is about the politics of time, the politics through which colonial modern societies attempt to make a time of their own. It is about the predicament of colonial modern practice caught between dreams of modernity and desire for difference. A significant part of the book is an analysis of the various ways, in which the colonized produce themselves as a modern historical nation, in negotiation with the ‘primitive’ within, just as at the same time ‘primitives’ are produced out of certain sections of the colonized population through various colonial modern technologies. The rest of the book analyses the implications of this. It is argued that modernity is determined by the dominance of the history. The mutual articulation of knowledge and monetary rationality in colonial Bengal is described. The book presents the argument that Santal rebellions and narrations are most beneficial when read as moments of practical temporalization. Moreover, it deals with the colonial experience of being penetrated by contradictory times. It illustrates how the colonial production of the ‘primitive’ was not only a concrete process of severing all unmediated relationships between peoples, but also a process of inserting money as the sole mediator between them.Less
This book is about the politics of time, the politics through which colonial modern societies attempt to make a time of their own. It is about the predicament of colonial modern practice caught between dreams of modernity and desire for difference. A significant part of the book is an analysis of the various ways, in which the colonized produce themselves as a modern historical nation, in negotiation with the ‘primitive’ within, just as at the same time ‘primitives’ are produced out of certain sections of the colonized population through various colonial modern technologies. The rest of the book analyses the implications of this. It is argued that modernity is determined by the dominance of the history. The mutual articulation of knowledge and monetary rationality in colonial Bengal is described. The book presents the argument that Santal rebellions and narrations are most beneficial when read as moments of practical temporalization. Moreover, it deals with the colonial experience of being penetrated by contradictory times. It illustrates how the colonial production of the ‘primitive’ was not only a concrete process of severing all unmediated relationships between peoples, but also a process of inserting money as the sole mediator between them.
Hugh B. Urban
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195139020
- eISBN:
- 9780199834778
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019513902X.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This is a study of the Bengali Kartābhajā sect and its place in the broader movement of Tantrism, which is an Indian religious movement, notorious for its alleged use of shocking sexual language and ...
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This is a study of the Bengali Kartābhajā sect and its place in the broader movement of Tantrism, which is an Indian religious movement, notorious for its alleged use of shocking sexual language and rituals. The author looks closely at the relationship between the rise of the Kartābhajās, who flourished at the turn of the nineteenth century, and the changing economic context of colonial Bengal. Made up of the poor lower classes labouring in the marketplaces and factories of Calcutta (India), the Kartābhajās represent “the underworld of the imperial city.” It is shown that their esoteric poetry and songs are saturated with the language of the marketplace and the bazaar, which becomes for them the key metaphor used to communicate secret knowledge and mystical teachings. Not only do they employ the imagery in the market of moneylending and brokering, but also name their sect after the British East India Company, giving themselves the ironic title of the “Poor Company.” The case of the Kartābhajās opens many new insights not merely into the specific case of one Bengali cult, but also into much larger cross‐cultural and theoretical issues, including the changing role of the lower class, marginalized groups under the changing conditions of colonialism, the changing role of Tantric traditions during the period of British rule, and the topic of secrecy as a cross‐cultural category in the study of religion. The book is arranged in three parts: I. The Secret Marketplace: Historical Origins and Socioeconomic Contexts; II. The Power of Secrecy: Esoteric Discourse and Practice; and III. The Liability of Secrecy: Secrecy as a Source of Scandal and Slander, Elitism, and Exploitation.Less
This is a study of the Bengali Kartābhajā sect and its place in the broader movement of Tantrism, which is an Indian religious movement, notorious for its alleged use of shocking sexual language and rituals. The author looks closely at the relationship between the rise of the Kartābhajās, who flourished at the turn of the nineteenth century, and the changing economic context of colonial Bengal. Made up of the poor lower classes labouring in the marketplaces and factories of Calcutta (India), the Kartābhajās represent “the underworld of the imperial city.” It is shown that their esoteric poetry and songs are saturated with the language of the marketplace and the bazaar, which becomes for them the key metaphor used to communicate secret knowledge and mystical teachings. Not only do they employ the imagery in the market of moneylending and brokering, but also name their sect after the British East India Company, giving themselves the ironic title of the “Poor Company.” The case of the Kartābhajās opens many new insights not merely into the specific case of one Bengali cult, but also into much larger cross‐cultural and theoretical issues, including the changing role of the lower class, marginalized groups under the changing conditions of colonialism, the changing role of Tantric traditions during the period of British rule, and the topic of secrecy as a cross‐cultural category in the study of religion. The book is arranged in three parts: I. The Secret Marketplace: Historical Origins and Socioeconomic Contexts; II. The Power of Secrecy: Esoteric Discourse and Practice; and III. The Liability of Secrecy: Secrecy as a Source of Scandal and Slander, Elitism, and Exploitation.
Rabindra Ray
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198077381
- eISBN:
- 9780199081011
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198077381.003.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
In attempting a sociological interpretation of the ideology and practice of the ‘Naxalites’ in West Bengal, this chapter seeks to distinguish their ‘existential ideology’ from their ‘literate ...
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In attempting a sociological interpretation of the ideology and practice of the ‘Naxalites’ in West Bengal, this chapter seeks to distinguish their ‘existential ideology’ from their ‘literate ideology’. The three concepts central to this study, namely, ideology, nihilism, and terrorism, are words that pose definitional problems. Whereas it is possible to subsume the literate ideology of the Naxalites under some such rubric as modernization, a consideration of their existential ideology leaves no doubt that one is concerned with modernism—and the modern itself.Less
In attempting a sociological interpretation of the ideology and practice of the ‘Naxalites’ in West Bengal, this chapter seeks to distinguish their ‘existential ideology’ from their ‘literate ideology’. The three concepts central to this study, namely, ideology, nihilism, and terrorism, are words that pose definitional problems. Whereas it is possible to subsume the literate ideology of the Naxalites under some such rubric as modernization, a consideration of their existential ideology leaves no doubt that one is concerned with modernism—and the modern itself.
Rabindra Ray
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198077381
- eISBN:
- 9780199081011
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198077381.003.0003
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
Though Naxalbari is situated in Bengal, Naxalism was not restricted here. Membership in the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) [CPI(M–L)] extended all over India, and the greatest successes ...
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Though Naxalbari is situated in Bengal, Naxalism was not restricted here. Membership in the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) [CPI(M–L)] extended all over India, and the greatest successes of the party were, in the eyes of its members, in Srikakulam in Andhra Pradesh. Bengalis, however, played a major role in the leadership of the party. The party turned to urban terrorism only in Bengal, particularly in Calcutta. There are peculiarities that permit one to consider it more than merely an Indian sub-culture, and allow one, if only tentatively, to call it a society. Chief among these is the evolution of a Bengali cultural identity based on the ideas, values and outlook of the so-called Bengali Renaissance. Not as easily demonstrable, but arguably the case, is a distinctiveness in the nature of Bengali social relationships, which this culture, so to say, expresses.Less
Though Naxalbari is situated in Bengal, Naxalism was not restricted here. Membership in the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) [CPI(M–L)] extended all over India, and the greatest successes of the party were, in the eyes of its members, in Srikakulam in Andhra Pradesh. Bengalis, however, played a major role in the leadership of the party. The party turned to urban terrorism only in Bengal, particularly in Calcutta. There are peculiarities that permit one to consider it more than merely an Indian sub-culture, and allow one, if only tentatively, to call it a society. Chief among these is the evolution of a Bengali cultural identity based on the ideas, values and outlook of the so-called Bengali Renaissance. Not as easily demonstrable, but arguably the case, is a distinctiveness in the nature of Bengali social relationships, which this culture, so to say, expresses.
Rabindra Ray
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198077381
- eISBN:
- 9780199081011
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198077381.003.0005
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
Both in Delhi and in Bengal, the political crises of the late 1960s encompassed issues of socialism. Whereas in Delhi these issues concerned the expropriation of erstwhile princes and banks, in ...
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Both in Delhi and in Bengal, the political crises of the late 1960s encompassed issues of socialism. Whereas in Delhi these issues concerned the expropriation of erstwhile princes and banks, in Bengal they concerned the viability and legitimacy of communist participation in coalition governments. In the case of the relationship between the CPI(M) and its partners in power, this issue came to revolve around the question of violence, posed on a wider scale by the adoption of gherao tactics by trade unions, and elevated to a point of principle by the CPI(M–L). In the case of the confrontation between the CPI(M) and the CPI(M–L), though posed as the question of participation in elections, this issue of violence was again central. The economic form of the appearance and resolution of the crisis has a different shape than that which appears in the rhetoric of the contenders when the crisis is posed.Less
Both in Delhi and in Bengal, the political crises of the late 1960s encompassed issues of socialism. Whereas in Delhi these issues concerned the expropriation of erstwhile princes and banks, in Bengal they concerned the viability and legitimacy of communist participation in coalition governments. In the case of the relationship between the CPI(M) and its partners in power, this issue came to revolve around the question of violence, posed on a wider scale by the adoption of gherao tactics by trade unions, and elevated to a point of principle by the CPI(M–L). In the case of the confrontation between the CPI(M) and the CPI(M–L), though posed as the question of participation in elections, this issue of violence was again central. The economic form of the appearance and resolution of the crisis has a different shape than that which appears in the rhetoric of the contenders when the crisis is posed.
Rachel Fell McDermott
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195134346
- eISBN:
- 9780199868056
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195134346.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Hinduism
This introduction to the book has five sections. These cover discussion of: the pathways to Bengali Hindu Śākta poetry (sources, precedents, and influences); the 164 compositions by 37 representative ...
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This introduction to the book has five sections. These cover discussion of: the pathways to Bengali Hindu Śākta poetry (sources, precedents, and influences); the 164 compositions by 37 representative poets for the goddesses Kālī and Umā that are included in the book; family resemblances — the Śākta Padavali (collected poems to the goddess — a genre of poetry focussed on Kālī and Umā) as bhakti (devotional attitude) poetry; the challenges and choices in designing an anthology; and notes on transliteration, translation, and word definition.Less
This introduction to the book has five sections. These cover discussion of: the pathways to Bengali Hindu Śākta poetry (sources, precedents, and influences); the 164 compositions by 37 representative poets for the goddesses Kālī and Umā that are included in the book; family resemblances — the Śākta Padavali (collected poems to the goddess — a genre of poetry focussed on Kālī and Umā) as bhakti (devotional attitude) poetry; the challenges and choices in designing an anthology; and notes on transliteration, translation, and word definition.
