JUDITH M. BROWN
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198205647
- eISBN:
- 9780191676727
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198205647.003.0018
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History, British and Irish Modern History
This chapter primarily focuses on the political dimensions of India's experience, though these, of course, reflected the changing realities of social and economic power. After a brief ‘scene-setting’ ...
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This chapter primarily focuses on the political dimensions of India's experience, though these, of course, reflected the changing realities of social and economic power. After a brief ‘scene-setting’ description, it investigates four themes that were central to the Imperial relationship between Britain and the subcontinent in its closing stages. These are: the longer-term erosion of Britain's interests in India as the context in which the Imperial power made key decisions about constitutional arrangements for India's government, which in turn affected Britain's ability to control India in the interest of a worldwide British Empire; the emergence of a nationalist movement and, opposed to its broad claims and attempted international image under Gandhi's guidance, the realities and limitations of its support, its political ideology, and strategic effectiveness; the changing nature and increasing vulnerability of the Imperial state; and the ways in which there are continuities between the colonial order and that established by independent states. The Indian experience suggests that the British Raj was clearly changing in the 20th century and proved capable of fairly profound adaptation in response to changing conditions.Less
This chapter primarily focuses on the political dimensions of India's experience, though these, of course, reflected the changing realities of social and economic power. After a brief ‘scene-setting’ description, it investigates four themes that were central to the Imperial relationship between Britain and the subcontinent in its closing stages. These are: the longer-term erosion of Britain's interests in India as the context in which the Imperial power made key decisions about constitutional arrangements for India's government, which in turn affected Britain's ability to control India in the interest of a worldwide British Empire; the emergence of a nationalist movement and, opposed to its broad claims and attempted international image under Gandhi's guidance, the realities and limitations of its support, its political ideology, and strategic effectiveness; the changing nature and increasing vulnerability of the Imperial state; and the ways in which there are continuities between the colonial order and that established by independent states. The Indian experience suggests that the British Raj was clearly changing in the 20th century and proved capable of fairly profound adaptation in response to changing conditions.
Maria Misra
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198207115
- eISBN:
- 9780191677502
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198207115.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This book is a study of the political and economic activities of an important group of British businessmen in India between 1850 and 1960. Though denounced by Indian ...
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This book is a study of the political and economic activities of an important group of British businessmen in India between 1850 and 1960. Though denounced by Indian nationalists as the economic arm of the British Raj, the firms of these ‘Managing Agents’ seemed unassailable before the First World War. However, during the inter-war period they rapidly lost their commanding position to both Indian and other foreign competitors. The author argues that the failure of these firms was, in part, the consequence of their particular (and ultimately self-defeating) attitudes towards business, politics, and race. She casts new light on British colonial society in India, and makes an important contribution to current debates on the nature of the British Empire and the causes of Britain’s relative economic decline.Less
This book is a study of the political and economic activities of an important group of British businessmen in India between 1850 and 1960. Though denounced by Indian nationalists as the economic arm of the British Raj, the firms of these ‘Managing Agents’ seemed unassailable before the First World War. However, during the inter-war period they rapidly lost their commanding position to both Indian and other foreign competitors. The author argues that the failure of these firms was, in part, the consequence of their particular (and ultimately self-defeating) attitudes towards business, politics, and race. She casts new light on British colonial society in India, and makes an important contribution to current debates on the nature of the British Empire and the causes of Britain’s relative economic decline.
Nathan Katz
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520213234
- eISBN:
- 9780520920729
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520213234.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
Of all the Diaspora communities, the Jews of India are among the least known and most interesting. This study, full of vivid details of everyday life, looks in depth at the religious life of the ...
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Of all the Diaspora communities, the Jews of India are among the least known and most interesting. This study, full of vivid details of everyday life, looks in depth at the religious life of the Jewish community in Cochin, the Bene Israel from the remote Konkan coast near Bombay, and the Baghdadi Jews, who migrated to Indian port cities and flourished under the British Raj. This book provides a comprehensive work on three of India's Jewish communities. Using an interdisciplinary approach, this book brings together methods and insights from religious studies, ritual studies, anthropology, history, linguistics, and folklore, as it discusses the strategies each community developed to maintain its Jewish identity. Based on extensive fieldwork throughout India, as well as close reading of historical documents, the study provides a striking new understanding of the Jewish Diaspora and of Hindu civilization as a whole.Less
Of all the Diaspora communities, the Jews of India are among the least known and most interesting. This study, full of vivid details of everyday life, looks in depth at the religious life of the Jewish community in Cochin, the Bene Israel from the remote Konkan coast near Bombay, and the Baghdadi Jews, who migrated to Indian port cities and flourished under the British Raj. This book provides a comprehensive work on three of India's Jewish communities. Using an interdisciplinary approach, this book brings together methods and insights from religious studies, ritual studies, anthropology, history, linguistics, and folklore, as it discusses the strategies each community developed to maintain its Jewish identity. Based on extensive fieldwork throughout India, as well as close reading of historical documents, the study provides a striking new understanding of the Jewish Diaspora and of Hindu civilization as a whole.
B. R. Nanda
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- October 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195658279
- eISBN:
- 9780199081394
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195658279.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, Indian History
This chapter discusses the ever-widening gap between the Hindus and Muslims and the Hindus and the British. It studies Khan’s policy of protecting the Muslim community from nationalist politics as ...
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This chapter discusses the ever-widening gap between the Hindus and Muslims and the Hindus and the British. It studies Khan’s policy of protecting the Muslim community from nationalist politics as well as strengthening its ties with the British Raj. It discusses the Muslim consciousness in India, which included a combination of self-pity and self-praise. It then emphasizes the isolation of the Indian Muslims from politics and society, which effectively drew them even closer to the government. It also discusses the establishment of the Indian National Congress and the protests against the Partition of Bengal. It shows that the partnership between proportional representation and joint electorates was meant to harmonize relations between the Hindu and Muslim communities and secure unbiased Muslim representation.Less
This chapter discusses the ever-widening gap between the Hindus and Muslims and the Hindus and the British. It studies Khan’s policy of protecting the Muslim community from nationalist politics as well as strengthening its ties with the British Raj. It discusses the Muslim consciousness in India, which included a combination of self-pity and self-praise. It then emphasizes the isolation of the Indian Muslims from politics and society, which effectively drew them even closer to the government. It also discusses the establishment of the Indian National Congress and the protests against the Partition of Bengal. It shows that the partnership between proportional representation and joint electorates was meant to harmonize relations between the Hindu and Muslim communities and secure unbiased Muslim representation.
Annamaria Motrescu-Mayes and Heather Norris Nicholson
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781474420730
- eISBN:
- 9781474453530
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474420730.003.0003
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter examines how colonial women amateur filmmakers often documented in detail their early and mid-twentieth century overseas travel and settlement experiences, jobs, sports and private and ...
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This chapter examines how colonial women amateur filmmakers often documented in detail their early and mid-twentieth century overseas travel and settlement experiences, jobs, sports and private and official events. Relying on cross-archival primary sources, it discusses the filmmakers’ simultaneous roles as vectors of colonising credos and commodified subalterns of imperial paternalism. It explores the historical discourse present across several colonial amateur films made by British women in South Asia, Africa, Papua New Guinea, and the Middle East between 1920s and 1940s. It also considers gender and racial hierarchies as shaped by imperial rule while confirmed or challenged by the filmmakers' prevailing perceptions of cinematic vocabulary and practice. Although traditionally seen as a predominantly male hobby, amateur filmmaking across the British Empire has been a pastime preferred by women too, almost on par with their male counterparts. It thus becomes possible to speak of a gender-based visual narrative identifiable across British colonial amateur filmmaking, one validated by the thematic choices made by women amateur filmmakers and their shared visual literacy. Finally, the chapter explores the differences and similarities in visual literacy between several amateur films made by British colonial women during the final years of the British rule in India.Less
This chapter examines how colonial women amateur filmmakers often documented in detail their early and mid-twentieth century overseas travel and settlement experiences, jobs, sports and private and official events. Relying on cross-archival primary sources, it discusses the filmmakers’ simultaneous roles as vectors of colonising credos and commodified subalterns of imperial paternalism. It explores the historical discourse present across several colonial amateur films made by British women in South Asia, Africa, Papua New Guinea, and the Middle East between 1920s and 1940s. It also considers gender and racial hierarchies as shaped by imperial rule while confirmed or challenged by the filmmakers' prevailing perceptions of cinematic vocabulary and practice. Although traditionally seen as a predominantly male hobby, amateur filmmaking across the British Empire has been a pastime preferred by women too, almost on par with their male counterparts. It thus becomes possible to speak of a gender-based visual narrative identifiable across British colonial amateur filmmaking, one validated by the thematic choices made by women amateur filmmakers and their shared visual literacy. Finally, the chapter explores the differences and similarities in visual literacy between several amateur films made by British colonial women during the final years of the British rule in India.
Dayne E. Nix
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780748695416
- eISBN:
- 9781474416078
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748695416.003.0009
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam
This concluding chapter details how Muhammad Iqbal aimed to re-establish Muslim dignity under the British Raj. Iqbal diagnosed a wound within the modern Muslim soul, caused by two injuries — first, a ...
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This concluding chapter details how Muhammad Iqbal aimed to re-establish Muslim dignity under the British Raj. Iqbal diagnosed a wound within the modern Muslim soul, caused by two injuries — first, a paternalistic colonialism justified through particular socio-political, philosophical, and religious doctrines and, second, the intellectual laziness and lack of courage on the part of the Muslims themselves. The medicine that Iqbal prescribes is the empowerment of the self (khudi). These newly empowered Muslims will be able to revitalise the community and confidently assert themselves against oppressive rule. However, in order to see a khudi-empowered community realised, Indian-Muslims need to be committed to instilling the necessary character traits within themselves.Less
This concluding chapter details how Muhammad Iqbal aimed to re-establish Muslim dignity under the British Raj. Iqbal diagnosed a wound within the modern Muslim soul, caused by two injuries — first, a paternalistic colonialism justified through particular socio-political, philosophical, and religious doctrines and, second, the intellectual laziness and lack of courage on the part of the Muslims themselves. The medicine that Iqbal prescribes is the empowerment of the self (khudi). These newly empowered Muslims will be able to revitalise the community and confidently assert themselves against oppressive rule. However, in order to see a khudi-empowered community realised, Indian-Muslims need to be committed to instilling the necessary character traits within themselves.
Vijaya Ramadas Mandala
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- February 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780199489381
- eISBN:
- 9780199096619
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780199489381.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, Indian History
The final chapter locates the careers of two prominent hunters-turned-conservationists—Jim Corbett and Richard Burton—within the essential paradox of hunting and conservation in colonial India. In ...
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The final chapter locates the careers of two prominent hunters-turned-conservationists—Jim Corbett and Richard Burton—within the essential paradox of hunting and conservation in colonial India. In the case of both, as this chapter demonstrates, any simple binary of the colonizer–colonized model is inadequate to explain their prolific hunting in the first half of their lives as well as their passionate commitment to the cause of conservation in the second half. The chapter examines how, in their dual roles as hunter and conservationist, killer and protector, ruler and saviour, both men encompassed the quintessential split image of the British Raj. Particularly in their role as slayers of man-eating predators, Corbett and Burton offer an extremely nuanced and complex image that revises any straightforward impression of colonial hunters in India dominating their natural environment in imitation of the imperial domination of India’s politics. Despite such caveats, this chapter argues that Corbett and Burton remained staunch loyalists to the British Raj, and cautions that the wider history of conservation thinking should pay due attention to the critical and historical analysis of individuals like Corbett and Burton, whose individual approaches to conservation issues were drawn from lived experience, just as much as from broader colonial attitudes.Less
The final chapter locates the careers of two prominent hunters-turned-conservationists—Jim Corbett and Richard Burton—within the essential paradox of hunting and conservation in colonial India. In the case of both, as this chapter demonstrates, any simple binary of the colonizer–colonized model is inadequate to explain their prolific hunting in the first half of their lives as well as their passionate commitment to the cause of conservation in the second half. The chapter examines how, in their dual roles as hunter and conservationist, killer and protector, ruler and saviour, both men encompassed the quintessential split image of the British Raj. Particularly in their role as slayers of man-eating predators, Corbett and Burton offer an extremely nuanced and complex image that revises any straightforward impression of colonial hunters in India dominating their natural environment in imitation of the imperial domination of India’s politics. Despite such caveats, this chapter argues that Corbett and Burton remained staunch loyalists to the British Raj, and cautions that the wider history of conservation thinking should pay due attention to the critical and historical analysis of individuals like Corbett and Burton, whose individual approaches to conservation issues were drawn from lived experience, just as much as from broader colonial attitudes.
Ralph Crane and Radhika Mohanram
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781846318962
- eISBN:
- 9781781380970
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781846318962.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature
Within postcolonial studies, Britain’s long contact with India has been read generally only within the context of imperialism to inform our understanding of race, gender, identity, and power within ...
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Within postcolonial studies, Britain’s long contact with India has been read generally only within the context of imperialism to inform our understanding of race, gender, identity, and power within colonialism. Yet postcolonial interpretations that focus on such single dimensions of identity risk disregarding the sense of displacement, discontinuities, and discomforts that compromised everyday life for the British in India—the Anglo-Indians—during the Raj. Imperialism as Diaspora reconsiders the urgencies, governing principles, and modes of being of the Anglo-Indians by approaching Britain’s imperial relationship with India from new, interdisciplinary directions. Moving freely between the disciplines of literature, history, and art this new work offers readers a more nuanced and comprehensive understanding of the lives of Anglo-Indians. Focusing on the years between the Indian Mutiny of 1857 and Independence in1947—the period of the British Raj in India—Imperialism as Diaspora at once sets in motion the multidisciplinary fields of cultural and social history, art and iconography, and literary productions while carefully maintaining the tension between imperialism and diaspora in a ground-breaking reassessment of Anglo-India. The authors examine the seamless continuum between cultural history, the semiotics of art, and Anglo-Indian literary works. Specifically, they focus on the influence of the Sepoy Mutiny on Anglo-Indian identity; the trope of duty and the white man’s burden on the racialization of Anglo-India; the role of the missionary and the status of Christianity in India; and gender, love and contamination within mixed marriages. Less
Within postcolonial studies, Britain’s long contact with India has been read generally only within the context of imperialism to inform our understanding of race, gender, identity, and power within colonialism. Yet postcolonial interpretations that focus on such single dimensions of identity risk disregarding the sense of displacement, discontinuities, and discomforts that compromised everyday life for the British in India—the Anglo-Indians—during the Raj. Imperialism as Diaspora reconsiders the urgencies, governing principles, and modes of being of the Anglo-Indians by approaching Britain’s imperial relationship with India from new, interdisciplinary directions. Moving freely between the disciplines of literature, history, and art this new work offers readers a more nuanced and comprehensive understanding of the lives of Anglo-Indians. Focusing on the years between the Indian Mutiny of 1857 and Independence in1947—the period of the British Raj in India—Imperialism as Diaspora at once sets in motion the multidisciplinary fields of cultural and social history, art and iconography, and literary productions while carefully maintaining the tension between imperialism and diaspora in a ground-breaking reassessment of Anglo-India. The authors examine the seamless continuum between cultural history, the semiotics of art, and Anglo-Indian literary works. Specifically, they focus on the influence of the Sepoy Mutiny on Anglo-Indian identity; the trope of duty and the white man’s burden on the racialization of Anglo-India; the role of the missionary and the status of Christianity in India; and gender, love and contamination within mixed marriages.
Devika Chawla
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780823256433
- eISBN:
- 9780823268894
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823256433.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Asian Cultural Anthropology
The Indian Independence Act of 1947 granted India freedom from British rule, signaling the formal end of the British Raj in the subcontinent. This freedom, though, came at a price: Partition, the ...
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The Indian Independence Act of 1947 granted India freedom from British rule, signaling the formal end of the British Raj in the subcontinent. This freedom, though, came at a price: Partition, the division of the country into India and Pakistan, and the communal riots that followed. These riots resulted in the deaths of an estimated 1 million Hindus and Muslims and the displacement of about 20 million persons on both sides of the border. This watershed socioeconomic-geopolitical moment cast an enduring shadow on India’s relationship with neighboring Pakistan. Presenting a perspective of the middle-class refugees who were forced from their homes, jobs, and lives with the withdrawal of British rule in India, this book delves into the lives of forty-five Partition refugees and their descendants to show how this event continues to shape their lives. The book melds oral histories with current literature to unravel the emergent conceptual nexus of home, travel, and identity in the stories of the participants. The author argues that the ways in which the participants imagine, recollect, memorialize, or “abandon” home in their everyday narratives give us unique insights into how refugee identities are constituted. These stories reveal how migrations are enacted and what home can mean for displaced populations. Blending biography, autobiography, essay, and performative writing, the book includes field narratives with the author’s own family history. This compilation of stories offers an iteration of how diasporic migrations might be enacted and what “home” means to displaced populations.Less
The Indian Independence Act of 1947 granted India freedom from British rule, signaling the formal end of the British Raj in the subcontinent. This freedom, though, came at a price: Partition, the division of the country into India and Pakistan, and the communal riots that followed. These riots resulted in the deaths of an estimated 1 million Hindus and Muslims and the displacement of about 20 million persons on both sides of the border. This watershed socioeconomic-geopolitical moment cast an enduring shadow on India’s relationship with neighboring Pakistan. Presenting a perspective of the middle-class refugees who were forced from their homes, jobs, and lives with the withdrawal of British rule in India, this book delves into the lives of forty-five Partition refugees and their descendants to show how this event continues to shape their lives. The book melds oral histories with current literature to unravel the emergent conceptual nexus of home, travel, and identity in the stories of the participants. The author argues that the ways in which the participants imagine, recollect, memorialize, or “abandon” home in their everyday narratives give us unique insights into how refugee identities are constituted. These stories reveal how migrations are enacted and what home can mean for displaced populations. Blending biography, autobiography, essay, and performative writing, the book includes field narratives with the author’s own family history. This compilation of stories offers an iteration of how diasporic migrations might be enacted and what “home” means to displaced populations.
B. R. Nanda
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- October 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195645866
- eISBN:
- 9780199081363
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195645866.003.0013
- Subject:
- Political Science, Indian Politics
Winston Churchill described Jawaharlal Nehru in 1937 as a ‘Communist, revolutionary, most capable and most implacable of the enemies of the British connection with India’. Ironically, what the ...
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Winston Churchill described Jawaharlal Nehru in 1937 as a ‘Communist, revolutionary, most capable and most implacable of the enemies of the British connection with India’. Ironically, what the British Raj considered an enemy belonged to one of the most anglicized families in India at the turn of the century. His father, Motilal Nehru, had built up a profitable practice at the bar of the Allahabad High Court, disputed with Hindu orthodoxy, and defied the caste taboo on foreign travel. He dressed, lived, and even looked an Englishman. His son Jawaharlal was attracted by Fabian socialism and other radical ideas of pre-1914 England. Mahatma Gandhi’s emergence on the Indian scene early in 1919 radically altered the course of Jawaharlal’s life. Jawaharlal’s visit to Europe in 1926–7 imparted a sharp political and economic edge to his policies which he used on his return to India to organize students and industrial workers. Jawaharlal Nehru became the champion of a passionate and defiant nationalism and an influential figure in Indian politics.Less
Winston Churchill described Jawaharlal Nehru in 1937 as a ‘Communist, revolutionary, most capable and most implacable of the enemies of the British connection with India’. Ironically, what the British Raj considered an enemy belonged to one of the most anglicized families in India at the turn of the century. His father, Motilal Nehru, had built up a profitable practice at the bar of the Allahabad High Court, disputed with Hindu orthodoxy, and defied the caste taboo on foreign travel. He dressed, lived, and even looked an Englishman. His son Jawaharlal was attracted by Fabian socialism and other radical ideas of pre-1914 England. Mahatma Gandhi’s emergence on the Indian scene early in 1919 radically altered the course of Jawaharlal’s life. Jawaharlal’s visit to Europe in 1926–7 imparted a sharp political and economic edge to his policies which he used on his return to India to organize students and industrial workers. Jawaharlal Nehru became the champion of a passionate and defiant nationalism and an influential figure in Indian politics.
Burak Akçapar
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- January 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780198099574
- eISBN:
- 9780199084609
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198099574.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
Chapter 3 makes the point that neither ethnic linkages nor geostrategicinterests were sufficient for strong cooperation in the history of the long relationship between the Ottoman and Mughal ...
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Chapter 3 makes the point that neither ethnic linkages nor geostrategicinterests were sufficient for strong cooperation in the history of the long relationship between the Ottoman and Mughal dynasties. The chapter, thus, discusses the ethnic commonalities including the Turkic roots of the two ruling families and makes the point that kinship ties militated against comity and instead provoked competition. The chapter then charts the evolution of political and geostrategic relations since sixteenth century between Ottomans and India and the introduction of the triangular relationship with the advent of the British Raj in India. The chapter concludes by the dynamics of this triangular relationship and the dilemmas it has created for the Indian Muslims in view of the increasingly hostile British attitude against the Ottoman Empire against the will of the Indians.Less
Chapter 3 makes the point that neither ethnic linkages nor geostrategicinterests were sufficient for strong cooperation in the history of the long relationship between the Ottoman and Mughal dynasties. The chapter, thus, discusses the ethnic commonalities including the Turkic roots of the two ruling families and makes the point that kinship ties militated against comity and instead provoked competition. The chapter then charts the evolution of political and geostrategic relations since sixteenth century between Ottomans and India and the introduction of the triangular relationship with the advent of the British Raj in India. The chapter concludes by the dynamics of this triangular relationship and the dilemmas it has created for the Indian Muslims in view of the increasingly hostile British attitude against the Ottoman Empire against the will of the Indians.
Edwin Hirschmann
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- October 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195696226
- eISBN:
- 9780199080557
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195696226.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
This chapter describes Anglo-Indian newspapers' reactions to Knight's death, the fate of his family, and that of the Statesman. In concludes that, as Robert Knight had foreseen, it was the ...
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This chapter describes Anglo-Indian newspapers' reactions to Knight's death, the fate of his family, and that of the Statesman. In concludes that, as Robert Knight had foreseen, it was the Indian-language newspapers which were able to reach the masses of Indians and stir them into political action during the twentieth century. However, it was the newspapers of the educated elite, usually in English, which created a national political consciousness and implanted the role of the press in the evolving modern state and society of India. It is here that Knight, severe and outspoken critic of the British Raj and creator of great newspapers, contributed greatly.Less
This chapter describes Anglo-Indian newspapers' reactions to Knight's death, the fate of his family, and that of the Statesman. In concludes that, as Robert Knight had foreseen, it was the Indian-language newspapers which were able to reach the masses of Indians and stir them into political action during the twentieth century. However, it was the newspapers of the educated elite, usually in English, which created a national political consciousness and implanted the role of the press in the evolving modern state and society of India. It is here that Knight, severe and outspoken critic of the British Raj and creator of great newspapers, contributed greatly.
Judith M. Brown
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- January 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780197265666
- eISBN:
- 9780191771927
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265666.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History
Recent events in the Arab world have sharpened and widened public interest in the way states can be broken and made. Since the end of the Second World War the world has seen three great waves of ...
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Recent events in the Arab world have sharpened and widened public interest in the way states can be broken and made. Since the end of the Second World War the world has seen three great waves of state-breaking and state-making: the end of European empires; the collapse of the Soviet Union; and the contemporary ‘Arab Spring’. By revisiting an example from the first of these great waves, perhaps the greatest ‘imperial ending’—the end of British imperial rule in India in 1947, this lecture investigates issues which may prove instructive in probing the dynamics of other phases of turbulence in the structures and nature of states. It addresses four major questions which are relevant across the many different episodes of state breaking and making, with the help of evidence from the case of the South Asian subcontinent. What is the relationship between state and society and the patterns of relationship which help to determine the nature and vulnerability of the state? What makes a viable and destabilising opposition to the imperial state? What is the nature of the breaking or collapse of that state? How are states refashioned out of the inheritance of the previous regime and the breaking process?Less
Recent events in the Arab world have sharpened and widened public interest in the way states can be broken and made. Since the end of the Second World War the world has seen three great waves of state-breaking and state-making: the end of European empires; the collapse of the Soviet Union; and the contemporary ‘Arab Spring’. By revisiting an example from the first of these great waves, perhaps the greatest ‘imperial ending’—the end of British imperial rule in India in 1947, this lecture investigates issues which may prove instructive in probing the dynamics of other phases of turbulence in the structures and nature of states. It addresses four major questions which are relevant across the many different episodes of state breaking and making, with the help of evidence from the case of the South Asian subcontinent. What is the relationship between state and society and the patterns of relationship which help to determine the nature and vulnerability of the state? What makes a viable and destabilising opposition to the imperial state? What is the nature of the breaking or collapse of that state? How are states refashioned out of the inheritance of the previous regime and the breaking process?
David Edwards
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520200630
- eISBN:
- 9780520916319
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520200630.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Middle Eastern Cultural Anthropology
Much of the political turmoil that has occurred in Afghanistan since the Marxist revolution of 1978 has been attributed to the dispute between Soviet-aligned Marxists and the religious extremists ...
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Much of the political turmoil that has occurred in Afghanistan since the Marxist revolution of 1978 has been attributed to the dispute between Soviet-aligned Marxists and the religious extremists inspired by Egyptian and Pakistani brands of “fundamentalist” Islam. In a significant departure from this view, this book contends that—though Marxism and radical Islam have undoubtedly played a significant role in the conflict—Afghanistan's troubles derive less from foreign forces and the ideological divisions between groups than they do from the moral incoherence of Afghanistan itself. Seeking the historical and cultural roots of the conflict, it examines the lives of three significant figures of the late nineteenth century—a tribal khan, a Muslim saint, and a prince who became king of the newly created state. The book explores the ambiguities and contradictions of these lives and the stories that surround them, arguing that conflicting values within an artificially created state are at the root of Afghanistan's current instability. Building on this foundation, the book examines conflicting narratives of a tribal uprising against the British Raj that broke out in the summer of 1897. Through an analysis of both colonial and native accounts, it investigates the saint's role in this conflict, his relationship to the Afghan state and the tribal groups that followed him, and the larger issue of how Islam traditionally functions as an encompassing framework of political association in frontier society.Less
Much of the political turmoil that has occurred in Afghanistan since the Marxist revolution of 1978 has been attributed to the dispute between Soviet-aligned Marxists and the religious extremists inspired by Egyptian and Pakistani brands of “fundamentalist” Islam. In a significant departure from this view, this book contends that—though Marxism and radical Islam have undoubtedly played a significant role in the conflict—Afghanistan's troubles derive less from foreign forces and the ideological divisions between groups than they do from the moral incoherence of Afghanistan itself. Seeking the historical and cultural roots of the conflict, it examines the lives of three significant figures of the late nineteenth century—a tribal khan, a Muslim saint, and a prince who became king of the newly created state. The book explores the ambiguities and contradictions of these lives and the stories that surround them, arguing that conflicting values within an artificially created state are at the root of Afghanistan's current instability. Building on this foundation, the book examines conflicting narratives of a tribal uprising against the British Raj that broke out in the summer of 1897. Through an analysis of both colonial and native accounts, it investigates the saint's role in this conflict, his relationship to the Afghan state and the tribal groups that followed him, and the larger issue of how Islam traditionally functions as an encompassing framework of political association in frontier society.
A.G. Noorani
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198070689
- eISBN:
- 9780199081202
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198070689.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Indian History
Boundary issues have always occupied a central focus in the relations between India and China. Highlighting the role of history, policy, and diplomacy, this book traces the origins and development of ...
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Boundary issues have always occupied a central focus in the relations between India and China. Highlighting the role of history, policy, and diplomacy, this book traces the origins and development of the India–China boundary problem during the British Raj. It shows how British efforts to secure a defined boundary in the western sector began immediately after the creation of Jammu & Kashmir in 1846. However, in the eastern sector, such an exercise began only sixty-five years later, when a Chinese threat was perceived. Examining the role of the bureaucracy and diplomatic negotiations, the author presents a nuanced analysis of the treaties and conventions, as well as internal debates between British officials on conflicting policies. Breaking new ground, this book evaluates the relevance of the Indian Independence Act, 1947, and explains how the diplomatic history in the last hundred years shaped the boundary problem between India and China. What was a problem aggravated into a dispute that erupted in 1959. The central thesis is that history had direct relevance to the shaping of a sound policy.Less
Boundary issues have always occupied a central focus in the relations between India and China. Highlighting the role of history, policy, and diplomacy, this book traces the origins and development of the India–China boundary problem during the British Raj. It shows how British efforts to secure a defined boundary in the western sector began immediately after the creation of Jammu & Kashmir in 1846. However, in the eastern sector, such an exercise began only sixty-five years later, when a Chinese threat was perceived. Examining the role of the bureaucracy and diplomatic negotiations, the author presents a nuanced analysis of the treaties and conventions, as well as internal debates between British officials on conflicting policies. Breaking new ground, this book evaluates the relevance of the Indian Independence Act, 1947, and explains how the diplomatic history in the last hundred years shaped the boundary problem between India and China. What was a problem aggravated into a dispute that erupted in 1959. The central thesis is that history had direct relevance to the shaping of a sound policy.
Nandini Bhattacharya
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9781846318290
- eISBN:
- 9781846317835
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/UPO9781846317835
- Subject:
- History, Imperialism and Colonialism
Colonialism created exclusive economic and segregatory social spaces for the exploitation and management of natural and human resources, in the form of plantations, ports, mining towns, hill ...
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Colonialism created exclusive economic and segregatory social spaces for the exploitation and management of natural and human resources, in the form of plantations, ports, mining towns, hill stations, civil lines, and new urban centres for Europeans. This book studies the social history of medicine within two intersecting enclaves in colonial India: the hill-station of Darjeeling, which incorporated the sanitarian and racial norms of the British Raj; and in the adjacent tea plantations of North Bengal, which produced tea for the global market. It explores the demographic and environmental transformation of the region; the racialisation of urban spaces and its contestations; the establishment of hill sanatoria; the expansion of tea cultivation; labour emigration; and the paternalistic modes of healthcare in the plantation. The book also examines how the threat of epidemics and riots informed the conflictual relationship between the plantations and the adjacent agricultural villages and district towns. It reveals how tropical medicine was practised in its ‘field’; researches in malaria; how hookworm, dysentery, cholera, and leprosy were informed by investigations here; and how the exigencies of the colonial state, private entrepreneurship, and municipal governance subverted their implementation. The book establishes the vital link between medicine, the political economy, and the social history of colonialism, demonstrating that while enclaves were essential and distinctive sites of the articulation of colonial power and economy, they were not isolated sites. It shows that the critical aspect of the colonial enclaves was in their interconnectedness; with other enclaves, with the global economy, and with international medical research.Less
Colonialism created exclusive economic and segregatory social spaces for the exploitation and management of natural and human resources, in the form of plantations, ports, mining towns, hill stations, civil lines, and new urban centres for Europeans. This book studies the social history of medicine within two intersecting enclaves in colonial India: the hill-station of Darjeeling, which incorporated the sanitarian and racial norms of the British Raj; and in the adjacent tea plantations of North Bengal, which produced tea for the global market. It explores the demographic and environmental transformation of the region; the racialisation of urban spaces and its contestations; the establishment of hill sanatoria; the expansion of tea cultivation; labour emigration; and the paternalistic modes of healthcare in the plantation. The book also examines how the threat of epidemics and riots informed the conflictual relationship between the plantations and the adjacent agricultural villages and district towns. It reveals how tropical medicine was practised in its ‘field’; researches in malaria; how hookworm, dysentery, cholera, and leprosy were informed by investigations here; and how the exigencies of the colonial state, private entrepreneurship, and municipal governance subverted their implementation. The book establishes the vital link between medicine, the political economy, and the social history of colonialism, demonstrating that while enclaves were essential and distinctive sites of the articulation of colonial power and economy, they were not isolated sites. It shows that the critical aspect of the colonial enclaves was in their interconnectedness; with other enclaves, with the global economy, and with international medical research.
Doris R. Jakobsh
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- October 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195679199
- eISBN:
- 9780199081950
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195679199.003.0009
- Subject:
- Religion, Sikhism
This chapter presents an examination of women's agency, both from within and outside the Sikh reform movement. The author notes that her book has been conceived upon the notion that gender is a fluid ...
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This chapter presents an examination of women's agency, both from within and outside the Sikh reform movement. The author notes that her book has been conceived upon the notion that gender is a fluid construct, which is evolutionary, and emerges and develops within the shifting needs of a community. Victorian assumptions about race, religion, gender, as well as economic and political designs, were vital in the process of Sikh gender construction. The author feels that even while being part of a repressive patriarchal order, Sikh women held their own in ‘hidden, subversive ways’. Many Sikh women were able to negotiate the strictures of the Tat Khalsa, and be women in their own right. The early 1920s signaled the end of the Singh Sabha Movement. The Shiromani Gurdwara Prabndak Committee and the Akali Dal dedicated themselves to Nationalism and Mahatama Gandhi's call for non-cooperation. Sikh women—well versed in the Tat Khalsa ideals of self-denial, duty, honour—redirected their energies from the religious to the national front, thus proving that Sikh women were well versed in the art of mobilization. The participation of female and male Sikhs in India's nationalist struggle against the Raj had formally begun.Less
This chapter presents an examination of women's agency, both from within and outside the Sikh reform movement. The author notes that her book has been conceived upon the notion that gender is a fluid construct, which is evolutionary, and emerges and develops within the shifting needs of a community. Victorian assumptions about race, religion, gender, as well as economic and political designs, were vital in the process of Sikh gender construction. The author feels that even while being part of a repressive patriarchal order, Sikh women held their own in ‘hidden, subversive ways’. Many Sikh women were able to negotiate the strictures of the Tat Khalsa, and be women in their own right. The early 1920s signaled the end of the Singh Sabha Movement. The Shiromani Gurdwara Prabndak Committee and the Akali Dal dedicated themselves to Nationalism and Mahatama Gandhi's call for non-cooperation. Sikh women—well versed in the Tat Khalsa ideals of self-denial, duty, honour—redirected their energies from the religious to the national front, thus proving that Sikh women were well versed in the art of mobilization. The participation of female and male Sikhs in India's nationalist struggle against the Raj had formally begun.
M. Raisur Rahman
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199455225
- eISBN:
- 9780199085422
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199455225.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, Indian History
Even if we disregard the excessive figure of 2,737 recorded by the sixteenth-century Mughal historian Abul Fazal, numerous qasbahs proliferated from the twelfth century to the late colonial period in ...
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Even if we disregard the excessive figure of 2,737 recorded by the sixteenth-century Mughal historian Abul Fazal, numerous qasbahs proliferated from the twelfth century to the late colonial period in different parts of India. What is a qasbah? This chapter looks far beyond colonial archival interpretations of administrative aspects to self-definitions from a range of local historical articulations in Urdu. This chapter shows that since their inception in the twelfth century to the late colonial period, qasbahs evolved to become intellectually active and multifaceted. Tracing their genealogy, it also explores how qasbahs acquired certain characteristics over time and that they need to be differentiated from towns and villages and other administrative divisions such as tahsils, paraganas, and mofussils. Following the new definition, the chapter thus presents a brief history of the regions of Awadh and Rohilkhand, home to the four major qasbahs under study.Less
Even if we disregard the excessive figure of 2,737 recorded by the sixteenth-century Mughal historian Abul Fazal, numerous qasbahs proliferated from the twelfth century to the late colonial period in different parts of India. What is a qasbah? This chapter looks far beyond colonial archival interpretations of administrative aspects to self-definitions from a range of local historical articulations in Urdu. This chapter shows that since their inception in the twelfth century to the late colonial period, qasbahs evolved to become intellectually active and multifaceted. Tracing their genealogy, it also explores how qasbahs acquired certain characteristics over time and that they need to be differentiated from towns and villages and other administrative divisions such as tahsils, paraganas, and mofussils. Following the new definition, the chapter thus presents a brief history of the regions of Awadh and Rohilkhand, home to the four major qasbahs under study.
Nalini Bhushan and Jay L. Garfield
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199769261
- eISBN:
- 9780190267605
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199769261.003.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This chapter examines the contribution of Indian philosophy to the so-called “gift of the secular” in India under the British Raj. More specifically, it looks at a set of strategies adopted by Indian ...
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This chapter examines the contribution of Indian philosophy to the so-called “gift of the secular” in India under the British Raj. More specifically, it looks at a set of strategies adopted by Indian intellectuals in a range of disciplines—including the social sciences, visual arts, poetics, philosophy, politics, and religion—that gave rise to a rich and enduring form of secular modernity in India. The chapter first considers the context within which philosophy was pursued during the colonial period before turning to a discussion of methodological pluralism and pluralistic secularism that characterized Indian philosophy under British rule. It then explores Rabindranath Tagore's poetics, along with Indian visual arts and art criticism. After highlighting the diverse strands of the progressive secularization of classical Indian culture in the context of Indian engagement with modernity during the colonial period, the chapter explains how professional Indian philosophers brought the philosophical ideas that emerge from ancient Indian religious traditions into a secular space in the university.Less
This chapter examines the contribution of Indian philosophy to the so-called “gift of the secular” in India under the British Raj. More specifically, it looks at a set of strategies adopted by Indian intellectuals in a range of disciplines—including the social sciences, visual arts, poetics, philosophy, politics, and religion—that gave rise to a rich and enduring form of secular modernity in India. The chapter first considers the context within which philosophy was pursued during the colonial period before turning to a discussion of methodological pluralism and pluralistic secularism that characterized Indian philosophy under British rule. It then explores Rabindranath Tagore's poetics, along with Indian visual arts and art criticism. After highlighting the diverse strands of the progressive secularization of classical Indian culture in the context of Indian engagement with modernity during the colonial period, the chapter explains how professional Indian philosophers brought the philosophical ideas that emerge from ancient Indian religious traditions into a secular space in the university.
Deepti Misri
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252038853
- eISBN:
- 9780252096815
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252038853.003.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Gender Studies
This introductory chapter describes a cultural history of violence associated with widely divergent ideas of India after 1947—an India post-British Raj, post-Partition, post-Independence, and ...
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This introductory chapter describes a cultural history of violence associated with widely divergent ideas of India after 1947—an India post-British Raj, post-Partition, post-Independence, and postcolonial. Communal violence, ethnonationalist insurgencies, terrorism, and counterinsurgent state violence have marked the postcolonial Indian nation-state since its very inception, often intersecting with prevailing forms of gendered violence within communities. These forms of violence have frequently indexed a serious disjoint between communally and regionally specific ideas of nationhood on the one hand, and the politically bounded, militarily enforced entity known as “India” on the other. In addition, the book is part of a wider feminist undertaking to critically examine how violence is conceptualized in the many discourses that shape public consciousness in the Indian subcontinent and its diasporic extensions.Less
This introductory chapter describes a cultural history of violence associated with widely divergent ideas of India after 1947—an India post-British Raj, post-Partition, post-Independence, and postcolonial. Communal violence, ethnonationalist insurgencies, terrorism, and counterinsurgent state violence have marked the postcolonial Indian nation-state since its very inception, often intersecting with prevailing forms of gendered violence within communities. These forms of violence have frequently indexed a serious disjoint between communally and regionally specific ideas of nationhood on the one hand, and the politically bounded, militarily enforced entity known as “India” on the other. In addition, the book is part of a wider feminist undertaking to critically examine how violence is conceptualized in the many discourses that shape public consciousness in the Indian subcontinent and its diasporic extensions.
