Studies in History current issue

Editors' Note

2009-07-28

Archaeology and the Construction of Identities in Medieval North India

Varma, S., Menon, J. — 2009-07-28

Archaeologists have at times perceived the early medieval to medieval period as marked by a break at the end of the twelfth century, thus separating the period 700–1200 CE—often described as the ‘Rajput’ period—from the period 1200–1500 CE—commonly designated as the ‘Sultanate’ period. It is frequently believed that this break is manifested in the entire range of archaeological materials with clear changes perceived between the two periods. Moreover, there has been a tendency to ascribe particular religious identities to the artefacts of the ‘Rajput’ and ‘Sultanate’ periods. Implicit in such a reading of the material culture are certain assumptions that have been made by archaeologists. One is that a change in political elites will bring about a change in daily practices and, concomitantly, in the artefacts. Another assumption is that certain artefacts indicate a specific religious/ethnic identity and that their use can be attributed only to a particular period. However, while excavating the cuttings at Indor Khera, which we dated from the tenth/eleventh to thirteenth/fourteenth centuries CE, we realized that not only was such a neat demarcation not evident in the material culture, but that the problem was far more complex and had not quite received the attention it deserved from archaeologists. This article discusses the issue of ascribing religious and ethnic identities to artefacts.

Religious Disputations and Imperial Ideology: The Purpose and Location of Akbar's Ibadatkhana

Rezavi, S. A. N. — 2009-07-28

The concept of religious debate is encountered even in the pre-Mughal period in India: we hear of special assemblies (mahzar) that held religious discussions but were confined to controversial themes within predominantly the Hanafi school of thought. But such debates were the instruments of the orthodoxy to consolidate their sway over the dissenters. The evidence of these religious assemblies (majlis) under the reign of Akbar is as early as 1570.

However, from the testimonies of a critique of Akbar (Badauni), a theologian (Shaikh Nurul Haq) and a known sycophant and courtier (Abul Fazl), it appears that the constitution of the Ibadatkhana and the discussions being held therein were not an extension of the type of religious debates that were held or organized before. It is the argument of this essay that the Ibadatkhana was an instrument of ‘tolerance’ for the imposition of ‘Reason’. Throughout his reign there was a stress on reason (‘aql’), which was to be given precedence over traditionalism (taqlid).

This article, on the basis of contemporary sources, further goes on to fix the location of the Ibadatkhana at Fathpur Sikri. The author proposes that the so-called daftarkhana was in fact the place where this important edifice was located.

Situating the Environment: Settlement, Irrigation and Agriculture in Pre-colonial Rajasthan

Kumar, M. — 2009-07-28

The complexities associated with interactions of various components of environment have not been examined in historical narratives of pre-colonial India. An important consideration for any agrarian society has been the availability of water for irrigation, and in arid and semi-arid regions—with unequal annual distribution of rains and low water table—often saline water is used even for the potable purposes. This article elucidates various systems of water management developed and maintained by the local/individual initiatives as well as those developed by the state at a larger scale for irrigation and potable purposes. It is argued here that the pre-colonial states in Rajasthan had to ensure continuity of habitation by offering concessions and support to protect the revenue base. It was a difficult act of balance in a society where political and social orders were integrated into a single complex web. The article argues that the same complex web endowed the state with an all-pervasive administrative apparatus. It questions the dominant assumption(s) centring on the relative apathy of the state towards agricultural production and resultant immunity enjoyed by the local magnates of socio-political power and even cultivators. The article also examines the nature of intricate interventions of the above-mentioned socio-political web to underline the prominent considerations enjoyed by the environment-related uncertainties.

Orwellian Rectification: Popular Churchill Biographies and the 1943 Bengal Famine

Hickman, J. — 2009-07-28

What Churchill's biographers have written about his life matter because he continues to be deployed by ideological conservatives in the Anglo-Saxon countries as the ideal leader exemplifying decisiveness and moral courage. This content analysis of seventeen popular biographies of Britain's emblematic prime minister show that they consistently ignore material about a decision taken by his government during the Second World War that had disastrous consequences for the Indians. While nearly all of the biographies treat the controversial area bombing of Germany by the Royal Air Force, which resulted in approximately 900,000 deaths of non-combatants, none treat the failure to respond to the 1943 Bengal Famine, which resulted in more deaths than the number of non-combatant deaths. This discrepancy may be explained by unconscious or conscious racist Eurocentrism that places greater value on the lives of Europeans than those of Asians. That was certainly true of their subject, and their choice of subject may reflect shared identity of values.

P.C. Joshi and the National Politics

Chandra, B. — 2009-07-28

This is a short political profile of P.C. Joshi underlying his relationship with the Communist Party of India (CPI). This article seeks to engage with Joshi and the CPI (in Joshi years) as a political organization, and to understand the reasons for its limited outreach. It also seeks to address the issue of CPI's and Joshi's, in particular, opinion on Gandhian and Nehruvian ideas to attain independence. Chandra argues that Joshi did not accept the notion that in colonial countries nationalism was a bourgeois concept and that this concept clashed with internationalism. Instead he put forth the notion of multiple loyalties to party, people and India. He did not see any clash among these three loyalties either.

P.C. Joshi started out with the Workers and Peasants Party holding the position of the General Secretary in 1928 until he joined the CPI formally in 1929. In late 1935 Joshi became the General Secretary of CPI, holding the position for twelve years. Joshi also had a long standing with students and young intellectuals, guiding them through various moments in their lives and advising them on their education.

In 1936–37 Joshi toured various provinces forming provincial party committees. He successfully continued to build the Party during 1939–41 until the resignation of the Congress ministry and a spate of repressions was imposed upon the CPI once again. During these years a large number of party leaders and activists were arrested. During Joshi's period, there was a resurgence of peasants, workers, writers and the students. The Party also organized several massive mass struggles of the people around their demands during this period. Kayyur, Punnapra-Vayalar, Tebhaga, Worli and Telengana are some of these names. The Party also played an important role in the Naval Revolt of 1946 and in the campaign to get the Indian National Army officers and soldiers released. The party members and leaders also did commendable work during the 1947 communal holocaust both in Bengal and Punjab.

This article is a lecture given by Professor Bipan Chandra on 17 August 2007, on the occasion of P.C. Joshi Birth Centenary Memorial Lecture organized by the Archives on Contemporary History, Jawaharlal Nehru University.

'Rights over Wastelands' and New Narratives of the Paraiyan Past (1860-1900)

Basu, R. S. — 2009-07-28

The rural world of nineteenth-century Tamil Nadu was highly diversified in terms of land control and ownership. Academic efforts have largely focused on the various claims to ‘privileged’ land-ownership. This overemphasis on the authority, rights, claims and protests of the ‘privileged’ too often negated the prospects of a serious introspection into the twin issues of agrestic servitude and landlessness. The present article is concerned with one group of rural labourers, who in nineteenth-century Tamil Nadu were essentially regarded as ‘agrestic serfs’. The Paraiyans were mostly landless labourers and depended for their livelihood on the dominant rural groups. Their existence as a depressed social category, denied of all privileges including landownership, provokes a serious investigation into the operation and mechanism of the institution of mirasi in the Tamil country. The definition of ‘waste’ was mired in terms of complexities emanating from the classification of lands, which were essentially referred to as anadu karambu or gramanattams. These complexities in course of the nineteenth century had fashioned differing sets of opinions within the conservative and reformist sections of the colonial bureaucracy. Such contradictions alongside discussions on the hidden ‘Paraiyan history’ have been explored to understand the broader issues centring around the ‘Sedentary Paraiyan’ as well as the ‘Slave Paraiyan’.

Book Reviews

2009-07-28