Ravindran Gopinath
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780197265314
- eISBN:
- 9780191760402
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265314.003.0012
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History
This chapter is essentially a history of an absence — the absence of individual identity registration in pre-colonial and colonial India. The main question that it attempts to answer is the apparent ...
More
This chapter is essentially a history of an absence — the absence of individual identity registration in pre-colonial and colonial India. The main question that it attempts to answer is the apparent contradiction between the colonial Indian state's encyclopaedic attempts at statistical recording and the absence of individual identity registration. The colonial government, while counting and recording virtually everything from people to property to natural resources, somehow did not feel the need to register individual identity. For the Indian population, social aggregates such as caste, despite official misgivings, continued throughout the colonial period to be a proxy for individual identity. It was only with the establishment of a democratic state based on universal adult suffrage after Independence that individual identity registration developed slowly and partially.Less
This chapter is essentially a history of an absence — the absence of individual identity registration in pre-colonial and colonial India. The main question that it attempts to answer is the apparent contradiction between the colonial Indian state's encyclopaedic attempts at statistical recording and the absence of individual identity registration. The colonial government, while counting and recording virtually everything from people to property to natural resources, somehow did not feel the need to register individual identity. For the Indian population, social aggregates such as caste, despite official misgivings, continued throughout the colonial period to be a proxy for individual identity. It was only with the establishment of a democratic state based on universal adult suffrage after Independence that individual identity registration developed slowly and partially.
Antoinette Burton
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195144253
- eISBN:
- 9780199871919
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195144253.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Middle East History
This book uses the writing of three 20th century Indian women to interrogate the status of the traditional archive, reading their memoirs, fictions, and histories as counter-narratives of colonial ...
More
This book uses the writing of three 20th century Indian women to interrogate the status of the traditional archive, reading their memoirs, fictions, and histories as counter-narratives of colonial modernity. Janaki Majumdar was the daughter of the first president of the Indian National Congress. Her unpublished “Family History” (1935) stages the story of her parents' transnational marriage as a series of homes the family inhabited in Britain and India — thereby providing a heretofore unavailable narrative of the domestic face of 19th century Indian nationalism. Cornelia Sorabji was one of the first Indian women to qualify for the bar. Her memoirs (1934 and 1936) demonstrate her determination to rescue the zenana (women's quarters) and purdahnashin (secluded women) from the recesses of the orthodox home in order to counter the emancipationist claims of Gandhian nationalism. Last but not least, Attia Hosain's 1961 novel, Sunlight on Broken Column, represents the violence and trauma of partition through the biography of a young heroine called Laila and her family home. Taken together, their writings raise questions about what counts as an archive, offering insights into the relationship of women to memory and history, gender to fact and fiction, and feminism to nationalism and postcolonialism.Less
This book uses the writing of three 20th century Indian women to interrogate the status of the traditional archive, reading their memoirs, fictions, and histories as counter-narratives of colonial modernity. Janaki Majumdar was the daughter of the first president of the Indian National Congress. Her unpublished “Family History” (1935) stages the story of her parents' transnational marriage as a series of homes the family inhabited in Britain and India — thereby providing a heretofore unavailable narrative of the domestic face of 19th century Indian nationalism. Cornelia Sorabji was one of the first Indian women to qualify for the bar. Her memoirs (1934 and 1936) demonstrate her determination to rescue the zenana (women's quarters) and purdahnashin (secluded women) from the recesses of the orthodox home in order to counter the emancipationist claims of Gandhian nationalism. Last but not least, Attia Hosain's 1961 novel, Sunlight on Broken Column, represents the violence and trauma of partition through the biography of a young heroine called Laila and her family home. Taken together, their writings raise questions about what counts as an archive, offering insights into the relationship of women to memory and history, gender to fact and fiction, and feminism to nationalism and postcolonialism.
Walter D. Mignolo
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691156095
- eISBN:
- 9781400845064
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691156095.003.0005
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
This chapter discusses South Asian subaltern studies as well as their adaptation by Latin Americanist historian Florencia Mallon and by the Latin American Subaltern Studies Group. It is important to ...
More
This chapter discusses South Asian subaltern studies as well as their adaptation by Latin Americanist historian Florencia Mallon and by the Latin American Subaltern Studies Group. It is important to keep in mind the differences between the original projects of South Asian Subaltern Studies Group formulated in terms of querying the “historic failure of the nation to come to its own” and of making clear that, “it is the study of this failure which constitutes the central problematic of the historiography of colonial India.” Although one can say that it is this problematic that engages Mallon's and the Latin American Group's adaptation, in both cases, there is a lack of attention to the fact that Latin America is not a country—like postpartition India—and that the many countries of Latin America obtained their independence at the beginning of the nineteenth century and not in 1947.Less
This chapter discusses South Asian subaltern studies as well as their adaptation by Latin Americanist historian Florencia Mallon and by the Latin American Subaltern Studies Group. It is important to keep in mind the differences between the original projects of South Asian Subaltern Studies Group formulated in terms of querying the “historic failure of the nation to come to its own” and of making clear that, “it is the study of this failure which constitutes the central problematic of the historiography of colonial India.” Although one can say that it is this problematic that engages Mallon's and the Latin American Group's adaptation, in both cases, there is a lack of attention to the fact that Latin America is not a country—like postpartition India—and that the many countries of Latin America obtained their independence at the beginning of the nineteenth century and not in 1947.
Norbert Peabody
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199259885
- eISBN:
- 9780191744587
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199259885.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, Asian History
This chapter argues that it is no longer tenable to insist that the forms of knowledge through which colonial rule was established were fully European in origin and development but, rather, they were ...
More
This chapter argues that it is no longer tenable to insist that the forms of knowledge through which colonial rule was established were fully European in origin and development but, rather, they were created out of conditions that entailed considerable collaboration — intended and unintended, conscious and unconscious, wanted and unwanted — between the British and, at least, certain key indigenous groups. These Indian groups were often able to harness, redirect, and shape aspects of the emergent forms of knowledge that were being created during the colonial encounter in order to establish and/or deepen a privileged position in local society that itself was divided along various lines including class, status, party and gender. By working through and, in some cases, beyond conditions of possibility raised by the colonial encounter, Indian actors exercised substantial, but often unacknowledged, agency in the formation of colonial knowledge.Less
This chapter argues that it is no longer tenable to insist that the forms of knowledge through which colonial rule was established were fully European in origin and development but, rather, they were created out of conditions that entailed considerable collaboration — intended and unintended, conscious and unconscious, wanted and unwanted — between the British and, at least, certain key indigenous groups. These Indian groups were often able to harness, redirect, and shape aspects of the emergent forms of knowledge that were being created during the colonial encounter in order to establish and/or deepen a privileged position in local society that itself was divided along various lines including class, status, party and gender. By working through and, in some cases, beyond conditions of possibility raised by the colonial encounter, Indian actors exercised substantial, but often unacknowledged, agency in the formation of colonial knowledge.
Rochelle Pinto
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- October 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195690477
- eISBN:
- 9780199081899
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195690477.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Indian History
This book explores the contours of print production in Goa as an extension of the questions that had prompted the studies on print in colonial India. It looks into the nature of and principles ...
More
This book explores the contours of print production in Goa as an extension of the questions that had prompted the studies on print in colonial India. It looks into the nature of and principles guiding Portuguese colonialism in Goa. The discussion of print as the locus of the formation and contestation of polities rests on certain assumptions about the functioning of the colonial state, its relation with the colonial elite, relations within colonial society, dissemination and bilingualism. The book initially draws on the representations of the Catholic elite, who were historically situated by colonial policy to occupy that public realm in which representations from elite and the state circulated among a limited public. The basic determinants of the colonial print sphere, such as language, the price and availability of print, and the Portuguese colonial state’s stance towards indigenous culture and the colonial elite were manifest in this interaction. This book examines how publications such as newsprint, novels, and pamphlets were printed in Goa during the nineteenth century.Less
This book explores the contours of print production in Goa as an extension of the questions that had prompted the studies on print in colonial India. It looks into the nature of and principles guiding Portuguese colonialism in Goa. The discussion of print as the locus of the formation and contestation of polities rests on certain assumptions about the functioning of the colonial state, its relation with the colonial elite, relations within colonial society, dissemination and bilingualism. The book initially draws on the representations of the Catholic elite, who were historically situated by colonial policy to occupy that public realm in which representations from elite and the state circulated among a limited public. The basic determinants of the colonial print sphere, such as language, the price and availability of print, and the Portuguese colonial state’s stance towards indigenous culture and the colonial elite were manifest in this interaction. This book examines how publications such as newsprint, novels, and pamphlets were printed in Goa during the nineteenth century.
Brian A. Hatcher
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195326086
- eISBN:
- 9780199869282
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195326086.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Hinduism
In 1839, a group of Hindu elite gathered in Calcutta to share and propagate their faith in a non-idolatrous form of worship. The group, known as the Tattvabodhinī Sabhā, met weekly to worship and ...
More
In 1839, a group of Hindu elite gathered in Calcutta to share and propagate their faith in a non-idolatrous form of worship. The group, known as the Tattvabodhinī Sabhā, met weekly to worship and hear discourses from members on ways to promote a rational and morally responsible mode of worship. They called upon ancient sources of Hindu spirituality to guide them in developing a modern form of theism they referred to as “Vedanta”.This book situates the theology and moral vision set forth in these hitherto unknown discourses against the backdrop of religious and social change in early colonial Calcutta. In doing so, it demonstrates how the theology of the Tattvabodhinī Sabhā legitimated the worldly interests of Calcutta's emergent bourgeoisie. This “bourgeois Vedanta” sanctioned material prosperity while providing members with a means of spiritual fulfillment. The book includes the first ever complete, annotated translation of Sabhyadiger vaktṛtā, the earliest extant record of the Tattvabodhinī Sabhā. The translation is supplemented with an analysis of the text demonstrating that its twenty-one unsigned discourses were composed by such major figures in 19th-century Bengal as Debendranath Tagore, Inullvaracandra Vidyasagara, Inullvaracandra Gupta, and Aksayakumara Datta. The book explores a decisive moment in the construction of modern Vedanta, and comments on the concerns this Vedantic movement raised for contemporary Christian observers. It demonstrates the decisive role played by the Tattvabodhinī Sabhā in both reviving and reformulating the teachings of Rammohan Roy, the founder of Vedantic reform in colonial India. It also suggests that the earliest members of the Sabhā are best viewed as “Brhamos without Rammohan”. Only later would they look to Rammohan as their founding father.Less
In 1839, a group of Hindu elite gathered in Calcutta to share and propagate their faith in a non-idolatrous form of worship. The group, known as the Tattvabodhinī Sabhā, met weekly to worship and hear discourses from members on ways to promote a rational and morally responsible mode of worship. They called upon ancient sources of Hindu spirituality to guide them in developing a modern form of theism they referred to as “Vedanta”.This book situates the theology and moral vision set forth in these hitherto unknown discourses against the backdrop of religious and social change in early colonial Calcutta. In doing so, it demonstrates how the theology of the Tattvabodhinī Sabhā legitimated the worldly interests of Calcutta's emergent bourgeoisie. This “bourgeois Vedanta” sanctioned material prosperity while providing members with a means of spiritual fulfillment. The book includes the first ever complete, annotated translation of Sabhyadiger vaktṛtā, the earliest extant record of the Tattvabodhinī Sabhā. The translation is supplemented with an analysis of the text demonstrating that its twenty-one unsigned discourses were composed by such major figures in 19th-century Bengal as Debendranath Tagore, Inullvaracandra Vidyasagara, Inullvaracandra Gupta, and Aksayakumara Datta. The book explores a decisive moment in the construction of modern Vedanta, and comments on the concerns this Vedantic movement raised for contemporary Christian observers. It demonstrates the decisive role played by the Tattvabodhinī Sabhā in both reviving and reformulating the teachings of Rammohan Roy, the founder of Vedantic reform in colonial India. It also suggests that the earliest members of the Sabhā are best viewed as “Brhamos without Rammohan”. Only later would they look to Rammohan as their founding father.
Rohan D'Souza
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- October 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195682175
- eISBN:
- 9780199082094
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195682175.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Indian History
The volume deals with major debates in India’s environmental history. It critiques existing discourse by discussing colonial flood control strategies in eastern India, especially Orissa Delta. It ...
More
The volume deals with major debates in India’s environmental history. It critiques existing discourse by discussing colonial flood control strategies in eastern India, especially Orissa Delta. It explores the idea and practice of flood control and argues for a comprehensive reconsideration of the debate on the colonial environmental watershed, its hydraulic legacy and questions contemporary enthusiasm for flood control in post-independent India. The emphasis is on revealing how colonial flood control measures were implicated in attempts to consolidate capitalist relations in ownership, production, and towards commanding the deltaic rivers as a ’natural resource’ for capitalist accumulation. The idea and practice of flood control was not merely a technical intervention but principally a political project, deeply implicated in the social, economic, and political calculations of capitalism in general and colonialism in particular. Such an analytical perspective also provides a useful backdrop to understanding several aspects of the contemporary water crisis in postcolonial India. The book also intends to be a necessary corrective and a useful addition to the otherwise limited writings on the Indian subcontinent’s hydraulic histories.Less
The volume deals with major debates in India’s environmental history. It critiques existing discourse by discussing colonial flood control strategies in eastern India, especially Orissa Delta. It explores the idea and practice of flood control and argues for a comprehensive reconsideration of the debate on the colonial environmental watershed, its hydraulic legacy and questions contemporary enthusiasm for flood control in post-independent India. The emphasis is on revealing how colonial flood control measures were implicated in attempts to consolidate capitalist relations in ownership, production, and towards commanding the deltaic rivers as a ’natural resource’ for capitalist accumulation. The idea and practice of flood control was not merely a technical intervention but principally a political project, deeply implicated in the social, economic, and political calculations of capitalism in general and colonialism in particular. Such an analytical perspective also provides a useful backdrop to understanding several aspects of the contemporary water crisis in postcolonial India. The book also intends to be a necessary corrective and a useful addition to the otherwise limited writings on the Indian subcontinent’s hydraulic histories.
Carey Anthony Watt
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- October 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195668025
- eISBN:
- 9780199081905
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195668025.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Indian History
The Introduction outlines the background for social service and philanthropy in colonial India during the 1910s. It mentions the four main groups under scrutiny in the book: the Arya Samaj, the ...
More
The Introduction outlines the background for social service and philanthropy in colonial India during the 1910s. It mentions the four main groups under scrutiny in the book: the Arya Samaj, the Theosophical Society, the Seva Samiti, and the Servants of India. It also explores the broader social, political and cultural relevance of social service associations, including their implications for the nationalist movement as well as the shaping of India’s ‘civil society’. It also elaborates how traditional living traditions of dana, seva, karmayoga and brahmacharya combine with global developments in organized philanthropy meant for the larger public good. It describes the promotion of a vibrant ‘associational culture’ as linked to notions of active citizenship. It also points out that the emergence of an organized voluntary sector and vibrant public life occurred at the same time as developments in the field globally. An overview of the chapters included in this book ends the Introduction.Less
The Introduction outlines the background for social service and philanthropy in colonial India during the 1910s. It mentions the four main groups under scrutiny in the book: the Arya Samaj, the Theosophical Society, the Seva Samiti, and the Servants of India. It also explores the broader social, political and cultural relevance of social service associations, including their implications for the nationalist movement as well as the shaping of India’s ‘civil society’. It also elaborates how traditional living traditions of dana, seva, karmayoga and brahmacharya combine with global developments in organized philanthropy meant for the larger public good. It describes the promotion of a vibrant ‘associational culture’ as linked to notions of active citizenship. It also points out that the emergence of an organized voluntary sector and vibrant public life occurred at the same time as developments in the field globally. An overview of the chapters included in this book ends the Introduction.
Rochana Bajpai
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198067504
- eISBN:
- 9780199080410
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198067504.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, Indian Politics
This chapter offers a historical interpretation of the career of group preferential policies from the late nineteenth century through to close of the Constituent Assembly debates. It shows that while ...
More
This chapter offers a historical interpretation of the career of group preferential policies from the late nineteenth century through to close of the Constituent Assembly debates. It shows that while group rights in the first half of the twentieth century saw steady expansion, their colonial proportions came to be scaled back eventually. The chapter also argues that the dynamic of containment assumed different degrees and forms in different areas of group rights, with the most far-reaching changes occurring in political representation for religious minorities. While Partition is usually cited to account for attenuation in the rights of religious minorities during constitution-making, this chapter suggests that it does not constitute a sufficient explanation as is commonly believed. Instead, longer-term ideological features of Indian nationalism favoured the containment of differential treatment.Less
This chapter offers a historical interpretation of the career of group preferential policies from the late nineteenth century through to close of the Constituent Assembly debates. It shows that while group rights in the first half of the twentieth century saw steady expansion, their colonial proportions came to be scaled back eventually. The chapter also argues that the dynamic of containment assumed different degrees and forms in different areas of group rights, with the most far-reaching changes occurring in political representation for religious minorities. While Partition is usually cited to account for attenuation in the rights of religious minorities during constitution-making, this chapter suggests that it does not constitute a sufficient explanation as is commonly believed. Instead, longer-term ideological features of Indian nationalism favoured the containment of differential treatment.
Sumathi Ramaswamy
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520240322
- eISBN:
- 9780520931855
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520240322.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter examines devotees of Tamil in colonial and postcolonial India. It documents how and why Lemuria accumulated the density of commemorative meaning in the Tamil country by first considering ...
More
This chapter examines devotees of Tamil in colonial and postcolonial India. It documents how and why Lemuria accumulated the density of commemorative meaning in the Tamil country by first considering its transformation from the homogeneous paleo and occult place-worlds of Euro-America into an intimate Tamil home-place that is catastrophically lost to the ocean. Labors of loss accompany paleo-scientific and occult placemaking around Lemuria in Euro-America, but the loss experienced by its Tamil place-makers appears much more profound and personal precisely because it is not some remote paleo land or occult domain that vanishes, but the very birthplace of the Tamil language, literature, and culture.Less
This chapter examines devotees of Tamil in colonial and postcolonial India. It documents how and why Lemuria accumulated the density of commemorative meaning in the Tamil country by first considering its transformation from the homogeneous paleo and occult place-worlds of Euro-America into an intimate Tamil home-place that is catastrophically lost to the ocean. Labors of loss accompany paleo-scientific and occult placemaking around Lemuria in Euro-America, but the loss experienced by its Tamil place-makers appears much more profound and personal precisely because it is not some remote paleo land or occult domain that vanishes, but the very birthplace of the Tamil language, literature, and culture.
Carey Anthony Watt
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- October 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195668025
- eISBN:
- 9780199081905
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195668025.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, Indian History
This chapter tries to answer the question why new social service organizations came to be formed in the 1910s and 20s. It investigates the social context in which the evolution of ideas and practices ...
More
This chapter tries to answer the question why new social service organizations came to be formed in the 1910s and 20s. It investigates the social context in which the evolution of ideas and practices of service and philanthropy occurred. It covers influential world events from the 1890s to the 1910s: the globalization of philanthropy and social service; the transnational emergence of associational cultures and organizational societies; a worldwide interest in citizenship; and widespread anxieties about race and ‘national efficiency’. Besides becoming more aware of dynamic changes sweeping the world in the area of philanthropic activity, the increase in philanthropic associations coincided with the growing Indian understanding of the emptiness of British rhetoric about equality within the empire. New wealth among the Hindus and fears of a population decline among them (because of famine, plague and conversion) were other catalysts in the expansion of an associational culture. The latter was also supported by other ideologies prevalent in colonial north India in the 1910s.Less
This chapter tries to answer the question why new social service organizations came to be formed in the 1910s and 20s. It investigates the social context in which the evolution of ideas and practices of service and philanthropy occurred. It covers influential world events from the 1890s to the 1910s: the globalization of philanthropy and social service; the transnational emergence of associational cultures and organizational societies; a worldwide interest in citizenship; and widespread anxieties about race and ‘national efficiency’. Besides becoming more aware of dynamic changes sweeping the world in the area of philanthropic activity, the increase in philanthropic associations coincided with the growing Indian understanding of the emptiness of British rhetoric about equality within the empire. New wealth among the Hindus and fears of a population decline among them (because of famine, plague and conversion) were other catalysts in the expansion of an associational culture. The latter was also supported by other ideologies prevalent in colonial north India in the 1910s.
Sanjay Sharma
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- October 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195653861
- eISBN:
- 9780199081653
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195653861.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Indian History
This book examines the lesser known aspects of the colonial state through the lens of the many famines and famine induced crimes which affected north India as it emerged from the ‘chaotic’ eighteenth ...
More
This book examines the lesser known aspects of the colonial state through the lens of the many famines and famine induced crimes which affected north India as it emerged from the ‘chaotic’ eighteenth century. It situates the 1837-8 famine in the political, ideological and economic processes of the colonial state which, paradoxically, continued to advocate laissez faire even as it’s humanitarian and pragmatic concerns (including fears of disorder) resulted in a series of interventionist policies. In this it was aided by a growth in missionary activity, with institutions being created for ‘famine-orphans.’ The assumption of new responsibilities resulted in the expansion of the state’s infrastructure which helped it derive legitimacy by being perceived as the ultimate repository of philanthropy. By the 1880s, popular perception saw the responsibility for famine relief having shifted clearly to the colonial state. However, the author also argues that while the state was forced into actions mitigating the most disruptive aspects of famines, it did not feel obliged to address its real causes, i.e. the problems of structural mass poverty. By the end of the nineteenth century, this became a key element in the critique of colonialism by early Indian nationalists wanting freedom from colonial rule.Less
This book examines the lesser known aspects of the colonial state through the lens of the many famines and famine induced crimes which affected north India as it emerged from the ‘chaotic’ eighteenth century. It situates the 1837-8 famine in the political, ideological and economic processes of the colonial state which, paradoxically, continued to advocate laissez faire even as it’s humanitarian and pragmatic concerns (including fears of disorder) resulted in a series of interventionist policies. In this it was aided by a growth in missionary activity, with institutions being created for ‘famine-orphans.’ The assumption of new responsibilities resulted in the expansion of the state’s infrastructure which helped it derive legitimacy by being perceived as the ultimate repository of philanthropy. By the 1880s, popular perception saw the responsibility for famine relief having shifted clearly to the colonial state. However, the author also argues that while the state was forced into actions mitigating the most disruptive aspects of famines, it did not feel obliged to address its real causes, i.e. the problems of structural mass poverty. By the end of the nineteenth century, this became a key element in the critique of colonialism by early Indian nationalists wanting freedom from colonial rule.
Madhav Gadgil and Ramachandra Guha
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780198077442
- eISBN:
- 9780199082155
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198077442.003.0005
- Subject:
- Sociology, Science, Technology and Environment
This chapter explores some of the evidences on conflicts over forest and pasture in colonial India. It reviews the major dimensions of such conflicts by addressing the genesis, the geographical ...
More
This chapter explores some of the evidences on conflicts over forest and pasture in colonial India. It reviews the major dimensions of such conflicts by addressing the genesis, the geographical spread, and the different forms in which protest manifested itself. The new laws restricted small-scale hunting by tribals and they facilitated more organized shikar expeditions by the British. The disruption of the delicate balance between humans and forests has resulted to a sharp fall in the jhum (shifting) cycle. The most sustained opposition to state forest management was to be found in the Himalayan districts of present-day Uttar Pradesh. The experience of Jaunsar Bawar showed the struggle between villagers and colonial forest management. Contemporary movements asserting local claims over forest resources have repeated earlier movements in terms of their geographical spread, in the nature of their participation, and in the strategies and ideology of protest.Less
This chapter explores some of the evidences on conflicts over forest and pasture in colonial India. It reviews the major dimensions of such conflicts by addressing the genesis, the geographical spread, and the different forms in which protest manifested itself. The new laws restricted small-scale hunting by tribals and they facilitated more organized shikar expeditions by the British. The disruption of the delicate balance between humans and forests has resulted to a sharp fall in the jhum (shifting) cycle. The most sustained opposition to state forest management was to be found in the Himalayan districts of present-day Uttar Pradesh. The experience of Jaunsar Bawar showed the struggle between villagers and colonial forest management. Contemporary movements asserting local claims over forest resources have repeated earlier movements in terms of their geographical spread, in the nature of their participation, and in the strategies and ideology of protest.
Benjamin Zachariah
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- October 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195670585
- eISBN:
- 9780199081639
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195670585.003.0002
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History
This chapter examines the setting in which ‘development’ was discussed in India in the 1930s and 1940. It outlines the background debates regarding political economy in colonial India, and points to ...
More
This chapter examines the setting in which ‘development’ was discussed in India in the 1930s and 1940. It outlines the background debates regarding political economy in colonial India, and points to the dependence of these debates on the attribution of essentialized and stereotypical economic and social roles to particular groups of people by British imperial discourse. It raises the question of how far counter-arguments were able to break down these essentialisms, or how far they required the creation of counter-essentialisms. It examines the interplay between allegedly universal principles—‘economics’ or ‘political economy’—and particular exceptions, based, for instance, on the ‘nature’ of Indians. It is argued that many of the debates on development emerged from categories and concepts intrinsic to everyday situations of imperial administration, but threw up the need to formulate alternative arguments.Less
This chapter examines the setting in which ‘development’ was discussed in India in the 1930s and 1940. It outlines the background debates regarding political economy in colonial India, and points to the dependence of these debates on the attribution of essentialized and stereotypical economic and social roles to particular groups of people by British imperial discourse. It raises the question of how far counter-arguments were able to break down these essentialisms, or how far they required the creation of counter-essentialisms. It examines the interplay between allegedly universal principles—‘economics’ or ‘political economy’—and particular exceptions, based, for instance, on the ‘nature’ of Indians. It is argued that many of the debates on development emerged from categories and concepts intrinsic to everyday situations of imperial administration, but threw up the need to formulate alternative arguments.
Antoinette Burton
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195144253
- eISBN:
- 9780199871919
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195144253.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, Middle East History
This chapter begins by discussing that during an extended historical moment characterized by pronouncements about “the end of history” and the “death of history”, the traditional archive is being ...
More
This chapter begins by discussing that during an extended historical moment characterized by pronouncements about “the end of history” and the “death of history”, the traditional archive is being rehabilitated as the originary site of “real” history and the last bastion of real historical knowledge and authority. It explains that the presumptive boundaries of “the archive,” and especially its “concrete” location inside the nation, have been crucial to the security of the nation-state since the onset of modern processes of archive rationalization,. It discusses that the women in this book may have believed that rematerializing house and home would complete an otherwise unfinished history of late colonial India. It notes that the works of these women allow people to appreciate the radical possibilities that domesticity has to offer history, rather than succumb to the logic of archive fever and the partial truths of its diagnosticians.Less
This chapter begins by discussing that during an extended historical moment characterized by pronouncements about “the end of history” and the “death of history”, the traditional archive is being rehabilitated as the originary site of “real” history and the last bastion of real historical knowledge and authority. It explains that the presumptive boundaries of “the archive,” and especially its “concrete” location inside the nation, have been crucial to the security of the nation-state since the onset of modern processes of archive rationalization,. It discusses that the women in this book may have believed that rematerializing house and home would complete an otherwise unfinished history of late colonial India. It notes that the works of these women allow people to appreciate the radical possibilities that domesticity has to offer history, rather than succumb to the logic of archive fever and the partial truths of its diagnosticians.
Mithi Mukherjee
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- October 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198062509
- eISBN:
- 9780199080151
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198062509.003.0004
- Subject:
- Law, Legal History
Chapter 3 discusses how notions of justice, equity, and liberty that were introduced in India by the British Empire in the wake of the 1857 Revolt were mediated by the figure of the monarch. This ...
More
Chapter 3 discusses how notions of justice, equity, and liberty that were introduced in India by the British Empire in the wake of the 1857 Revolt were mediated by the figure of the monarch. This chapter focuses on how that historical mediation overdetermined the origin and nature of the Indian National Congress, the most powerful political party in colonial India that came to be founded in 1888. It argues that the discourse of the Indian National Congress was firmly lodged within an epistemologico-juridical paradigm determined by the telos and procedures of justice as equity and liberty. This juridical paradigm explains why the lawyer emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as the dominant enunciative persona for the articulation of political discourse. It also explains why the Indian National Congress, even as it opposed the colonial regime, continued to operate within an imperial juridical framework grounded in the figure of the monarch.Less
Chapter 3 discusses how notions of justice, equity, and liberty that were introduced in India by the British Empire in the wake of the 1857 Revolt were mediated by the figure of the monarch. This chapter focuses on how that historical mediation overdetermined the origin and nature of the Indian National Congress, the most powerful political party in colonial India that came to be founded in 1888. It argues that the discourse of the Indian National Congress was firmly lodged within an epistemologico-juridical paradigm determined by the telos and procedures of justice as equity and liberty. This juridical paradigm explains why the lawyer emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as the dominant enunciative persona for the articulation of political discourse. It also explains why the Indian National Congress, even as it opposed the colonial regime, continued to operate within an imperial juridical framework grounded in the figure of the monarch.
Itty Abraham
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- January 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780804791632
- eISBN:
- 9780804792684
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804791632.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
This chapter examines diaspora as a territorializing practice of foreign policy. It is concerned with understanding the changes in India's diaspora policy, from inclusion during the colonial period, ...
More
This chapter examines diaspora as a territorializing practice of foreign policy. It is concerned with understanding the changes in India's diaspora policy, from inclusion during the colonial period, to rejection from 1947–1999, followed by a selective reincorporation from the early 2000s. The chapter first offers a historical summary of the emergence of a globally dispersed Indian nation. It argues that India turned its back on its diaspora on gaining independence to assuage the concerns of its Asian neighbors. By the end of the century, however, India was concerned with bringing elements of its overseas population “home,” in particular, upper-caste and middle-class Hindus. This process of reterritorialization and deterritorialization was driven by contradictions in the definition of the Indian nation exacerbated by domestic social upsurge.Less
This chapter examines diaspora as a territorializing practice of foreign policy. It is concerned with understanding the changes in India's diaspora policy, from inclusion during the colonial period, to rejection from 1947–1999, followed by a selective reincorporation from the early 2000s. The chapter first offers a historical summary of the emergence of a globally dispersed Indian nation. It argues that India turned its back on its diaspora on gaining independence to assuage the concerns of its Asian neighbors. By the end of the century, however, India was concerned with bringing elements of its overseas population “home,” in particular, upper-caste and middle-class Hindus. This process of reterritorialization and deterritorialization was driven by contradictions in the definition of the Indian nation exacerbated by domestic social upsurge.
Sanjoy Chakravorty
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780198089544
- eISBN:
- 9780199082438
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198089544.003.0006
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Public and Welfare
This chapter summarizes two hundred years of history of land policies and their impacts on peasant life in pre-independence India. It begins with a synopsis of pre-colonial conditions, focusing on ...
More
This chapter summarizes two hundred years of history of land policies and their impacts on peasant life in pre-independence India. It begins with a synopsis of pre-colonial conditions, focusing on the land policies of the Mughals and the Marathas. The colonial period is broken into the Company Raj (1765–1857) and Crown Raj (1857–1947) phases and the focus is on how and why these regimes created different types of land markets, especially the zamindari system in the east and north and the raiyatwari system in the south and west. The material includes evidence on taxation rates on agricultural output, the commodification of land and its changing value, increasing fragmentation, and the relative insignificance of acquisition. The chapter ends with a discussion of the very long-term effects of pre-colonial and colonial land policies on the different regions of contemporary India.Less
This chapter summarizes two hundred years of history of land policies and their impacts on peasant life in pre-independence India. It begins with a synopsis of pre-colonial conditions, focusing on the land policies of the Mughals and the Marathas. The colonial period is broken into the Company Raj (1765–1857) and Crown Raj (1857–1947) phases and the focus is on how and why these regimes created different types of land markets, especially the zamindari system in the east and north and the raiyatwari system in the south and west. The material includes evidence on taxation rates on agricultural output, the commodification of land and its changing value, increasing fragmentation, and the relative insignificance of acquisition. The chapter ends with a discussion of the very long-term effects of pre-colonial and colonial land policies on the different regions of contemporary India.
Henri Lauzière
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780231175500
- eISBN:
- 9780231540179
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231175500.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, Middle East History
Chapter 3 shows that the gradual and at times hesitant conceptualization of Salafism mirrored the dilemmas that reformers faced between the 1930s and 1950s. It thus traces the rise of purist Salafism ...
More
Chapter 3 shows that the gradual and at times hesitant conceptualization of Salafism mirrored the dilemmas that reformers faced between the 1930s and 1950s. It thus traces the rise of purist Salafism in conjunction with the rise of Islamic nationalism.Less
Chapter 3 shows that the gradual and at times hesitant conceptualization of Salafism mirrored the dilemmas that reformers faced between the 1930s and 1950s. It thus traces the rise of purist Salafism in conjunction with the rise of Islamic nationalism.
Gyanendra Pandey
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- October 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198077305
- eISBN:
- 9780199081097
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198077305.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Indian History
This introductory chapter first sets out the purpose of the book, which is to examine the conditions, the character, and the consequences of what has been called ‘communal’ conflict in nineteenth and ...
More
This introductory chapter first sets out the purpose of the book, which is to examine the conditions, the character, and the consequences of what has been called ‘communal’ conflict in nineteenth and early-twentieth-century India. At the same time, it seeks to analyse a particular construction of knowledge about Indian society — the construction of a sociology and a history that is fairly well summed up in the term ‘communalism’. The chapter then examines what happens when the term ‘communalism’ is applied to the history of Hindu–Muslim (or Hindu–Sikh/Muslim–Sikh) relations in colonial north India, what remains hidden behind the term and what, if anything, it illuminates.Less
This introductory chapter first sets out the purpose of the book, which is to examine the conditions, the character, and the consequences of what has been called ‘communal’ conflict in nineteenth and early-twentieth-century India. At the same time, it seeks to analyse a particular construction of knowledge about Indian society — the construction of a sociology and a history that is fairly well summed up in the term ‘communalism’. The chapter then examines what happens when the term ‘communalism’ is applied to the history of Hindu–Muslim (or Hindu–Sikh/Muslim–Sikh) relations in colonial north India, what remains hidden behind the term and what, if anything, it illuminates.
