موضوعات ذات صلة
The Great Tragedy of India's Partition /
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The Partition of India in 1947 was a horrendous human tragedy on a gargantuan scale not seen before or since. The communal violence of serious magnitude was rearing its ugly head and creating havoc in various parts of the country like in Calcutta, Noakhali, Tippera and Bihar at least a year before the departure of the British. Unprecedented communal riots in Rawalpindi, Multan, Lahore, Amritsar and Gurgaon in the undivided Punjab, or Haripur in NWFP caused deep wounds on the collective psyche of both Hindus and Muslims and led to an all-out bloodletting following their departure. What should have been a moment of crowning triumph was marred by unimaginable violence, bloodshed and the largest migration and dislocation in human history. This book is an outcome of the author's six years of research and describes this inhuman fratricidal war whose severe aftershocks are felt even to this day. It also attempts to clear many of the misconceptions about this period and covers broadly what happened not only in the Punjab, but also in NWFP, Sind, Baluchistan and, importantly, Bengal, which cumulatively suffered as much, perhaps more, albeit over a long period.
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1 online resource (556 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004753051
Caste, Feudalism and Peasantry : The Social Formation of Shekhawati /
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The present book provides an interdisciplinary understanding of a given social formation in terms of interconnections between caste, feudalism and peasantry on the one hand, and contemporary social transformation on the other. The study explains how feudalism functioned as an over-riding politico-administrative, social, and economic formation undermining even the institution of caste. The feudal mode of social relations as a dominant force guided everyday life of the people of Shekhawati region in Rajasthan. Such a view is substantiated by innumerable accounts, events, incidences and locally written documents and books. One could trace some continuity of the past social formation in eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Bengal in the form of 'semi-feudalism' as characterised by some scholars, but such a situation is not traceable in the present-day Rajasthan which was a prominent stronghold of feudalism prior to Independence. Today a remarkable discontinuity in distributive processes and social relations, simultaneous occurence of the processes of upward and downward social mobility, and a self-perpetuating process of social transformation could be witnessed in the Shekhawati region. However, despite such a desireable path of social transformation leading towards social equality, some unevenness is transparent in the present situation mainly due to the persistance of some social and economic inequalities. Land reforms and other measures have remained ineffective in neutralising the continuity of these forms of inequality in modern Rajasthan. Jajmani system, untouchability, and intra- and inter-caste relations have become dormant. Their ineffectivity, land reforms, adult franchise, etc., have paved a way for the emergence of a new caste-class-power nexus, and patterns of social mobility considerably relegating to the traditionally entrenched sections in the background. Definitely a new raj and a new social formation today characterise the Shekhawati region. The possibility of concentration of assets and resources in a few hands remains there despite the facade of the processes of democratization and decentralization relating to power and authority. The million dollar question is 'What next?'
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1 online resource (244 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004753068
A Comprehensive History of India : (Vol. IV, Part 2) /
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The Fourth Volume of A Comprehensive History of India covers the period from c. 985 CE to 1206 CE. A clear and connected source-based account of the political organization of this period has been provided by competent contributors in the first part of the volume published a few years ago. The second part of the volume being presented here, treats social, economic, religious, literary and cultural developments together with coinage, science and technology and India's contacts with the outside world during the period. All contributions are marked by their varied perspectives taking cognisance of not only regional specificities, but also of the macro-view of such developments. Notwithstanding the multiplication of political power centres during the period under survey, the dynamism of socio-economic and cultural lives of people never faded away. The volume locates this dynamism within the broad pan-India vision. It also includes more than a hundred illustrations, is provided with an exhaustive and up to date bibliographic survey and multi-faceted index to facilitate location of reader's curiosities.
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1 online resource (976 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004753044
Affect, emotion, and subjectivity in early modern Muslim Empires : new studies in Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal art and culture /
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Affect, Emotion and Subjectivity in Early Modern Muslim Empires presents new approaches to Ottoman Safavid and Mughal art and culture. Taking artistic agency as a starting point, the authors consider the rise in status of architects, the self-fashioning of artists, the development of public spaces, as well as new literary genres that focus on the individual subject and his or her place in the world. They consider the issue of affect as performative and responsive to certain emotions and actions, thus allowing insights into the motivations behind the making and, in some cases, the destruction of works of art. The interconnected histories of Iran,Turkey and India thus highlight the urban and intellectual changes that defined the early modern period. Contributors are: Sussan Babaie, Chanchal Dadlani, Jamal Elias, Emine Fetvaci, Christiane Gruber, Sylvia Hougteling, Kishwar Rizvi, Sunil Sharma, and Marianna Shreve Simpson.
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1 online resource (xii, 222 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004352841 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Metaphor and imagery in Persian poetry /
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This volume is a collection of essays on classical Persian literature, focusing on Persian rhetorical devices, especially imagery and metaphors. The various contributions discuss the origin and the development of debate poetry, the transmission of Persian and Arabic tales to the works of Europeans medieval authors such as Boccaccio and Chaucer, but also the development of Aristotelian poetics and epistemology in Persian philosophical tradition. Furthermore, the baroque style of the Shiʿite author Ḥusayn Vāʾiẓ Kāshifī, the use of wine metaphors by mystics such as Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī, Ḥāfiẓ's original use of candle metaphors, the translation of Khayyām's metaphors into English, and the importance of a single metaphor in the epic Barzū-nāma are discussed. Contributors include: F. Abdullaeva, G.R. van den Berg, J. Landau, F.D. Lewis, N. Pourjavady, Ch. van Ruymbeke, A. Sedighi and S. Sharma
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1 online resource (viii, 281 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004217645 :
1569-7401 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
New Perspectives on Advaita Vedānta, Essays in Commemoration of Professor Richard De Smet, S.J..
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This volume is a collection of essays by leading scholars who treat various aspects of the Hindu thinker Śaṃkara (ca. 700 CE) and his system of Advaita Vedānta. Topics include the contemporary relevance of Śaṃkara for inter-religious dialogue and human rights as well as revised assessments of Śaṃkara's understanding of divine grace, the role of the gods, Buddhism, Śaṃkara's relation to later Advaita, and the unity of the Self. The introductory essay of this commemoration volume assesses the place and value of Richard De Smet's work in the context of twentieth century Śaṃkara scholarship. The contributors break new scholarly ground and offer fresh perspectives on Śaṃkara and Advaita Vedānta and help reassess traditional understandings of this great master of non-duality.
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1 online resource. :
9789004379114
Polyphonic Thinking and the Divine.
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Philosophy of religion is a highly diversified field. An apt description of it is "zoo." It conjures imagery of a species-wide cacophony of sights and sounds. While some bemoan what this description implies, contributors to this volume appreciate it. There is no reason why a zoo should intimate a den of confusion rather than an important condition of emergence and novelty. "Polyphonic" is the catchall term to capture this sentiment. It signals a way of thinking that resists the desire to siphon insight into manageable packets of information in the name of historicality and finitude. A polyphonic, then, is a variegated and discontinuous study that breaks with a tradition that desires continuity and unification, without being erratic. This volume is an exercise in polyphonic thinking. Each contributing scholar develops ideas in connection with his or her research interests. Despite the fluctuation of themes, symmetry exists as each piece sounds off a core melody of religion and the divine. The book contributes to the advancement of current research in contemporary Continental philosophy of religion. By juxtaposing articles by cultural theorists and philosophers of religion, religionists and theologians, the book emphasizes the importance of interdisciplinary and polyphonic conversation to the development of matters of topical interest and issues related to method and ethics in religious studies, and theology.
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1 online resource (193 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789401208925 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The value of the particular : lessons from Judaism and the modern Jewish experience : festschrift for Steven T. Katz on the occasion of his seventieth birthday /
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In this tribute to Steven T. Katz on the occasion of his seventieth birthday, Michael Zank and Ingrid Anderson present sixteen original essays written by senior and junior scholars in comparative religion, philosophy of religion, modern Judaism, and theology after the Holocaust, fields of inquiry where Steven Katz made major contributions over the course of his distinguished scholarly career. The authors of this volume, specialists in Jewish history, especially the modern experience, and Jewish thought from the Bible to Buber, offer theoretical and practical observations on the value of the particular. Contributions range from Tim Knepper's reevaluation of the ineffability discourse to the particulars of the Settlement Cookbook, examined by Nora Rubel as an American classic.
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1 online resource (xii, 379 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9789004292697 :
1873-9008 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Religion and Reductionism, Essays on Eliade, Segal, and the Challenge of the Social Sciences for the Study of Religion.
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This volume on Religion and Reductionism grew out of a conference convened in November, 1990, where the participants were asked to respond to the conceptual and methodological problem of reductionism in the academic study of religion. The conference focused on the writings of Robert A. Segal and his defence of reductionism and criticism of Mircea Eliade's non-reductive interpretation of religion. At the Miami conference some of the most important and enduring questions were raised: (1) What is religion? (2) What is religion and/or religious meaning? (3) How should religion be studied and taught? (4) What are the possibilities and limits of social scientific analyses of religious phenomena? (5) What is reductionism? (6) What is anti-reductionism? These and other questions on religion and reductionism are widespread and invite serious consideration; they help to illuminate the basic issues that are at the core of any study of the world's major religions.
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1 online resource. :
9789004378841
Jāmī in regional contexts : the reception of ʻAbd al-Raḥmān Jāmī's works in the Islamicate world, circa 9th/15th-14th/20th century /
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Jāmī in Regional Contexts: The Reception of ʿAbd Al-Raḥmān Jāmī's Works in the Islamicate World is the first attempt to present in a comprehensive manner how ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Jāmī (d. 898/1492), a most influential figure in the Persian-speaking world, reshaped the canons of Islamic mysticism, literature and poetry and how, in turn, this new canon prompted the formation of regional traditions. As a result, a renewed geography of intellectual practices emerges as well as questions surrounding authorship and authority in the making of vernacular cultures. Specialists of Persian, Arabic, Chinese, Georgian, Malay, Pashto, Sanskrit, Urdu, Turkish, and Bengali thus provide a unique connected account of the conception and reception of Jāmī's works throughout the Eurasian continent and maritime Southeast Asia.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004386600
Annual review of the sociology of religion.
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Prayer is a phenomenon which seems to be characteristic not only of participants in every religion, but also men and women who do not identify with traditional religions. It can be practised even by those who do not believe either in a God or transcendent force. In this sense, therefore, we may assert that the prayer is a typically human activity that has accompanied the development of different civilizations over the course of the centuries. Both the material issues of concrete daily life as well as more symbolic elements expressed through words, gestures, body positions, and community celebration are brought together in the act of praying.
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1 online resource (307 pages) :
9789004260498 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Interrogating Political Systems : Integrative Processes and States in Pre-modern India /
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This work more than fulfills the requirement of a comprehensive volume on political processes and the structure of polities in pre-colonial India. It cuts across time and space, and provides the reader with an anthology of seminal contributions on the varied regions and different stages of Indian history. The Introduction incorporates the recent concerns of historians in the field, and engages with the related themes and debates; including their overall implications. It argues that pre-modern states were dynamic insofar as they were continuously changing, adapting and incorporating ideas, spaces and peoples. To understand the dynamics of state systems, the volume focuses on several strands: from conceiving processes and structures to situating early historical states; from the making of translocal early kingdoms to the structure of later regional polities; and the constitution of authority across varying states. This book will interest students and scholars of ancient and medieval India, those interested in the study of the regions, as well as informed general readers.
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1 online resource (556 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004753112
The Legacy of Nehru : Appraisal and Analysis /
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Even after 127 years, Jawaharlal Nehru remains a beacon for India. He was a titan who provided the architecture of contemporary India. The credit for much of India's progress in myriad fields goes to him. This volume, however, is not a eulogy to that great visionary. It provides rather a critical examination of his legacy in various fields, such as his promotion of India as the Union of federating states, building up of the structure of democratic institutions, enunciation of viable foreign policy, laying the path of economic development on the foundations of equality and cultivating secular ethos. The primary objective of the book is to assess the imprint that Nehru has left behind, and the impact that his thoughts and actions produced on the people of the present and succeeding generations. The volume deliberates on the question whether Nehru had a well-defined economic ideology or foreign policy which could be given a recognized label. It also focuses on how Nehru handled the various sectors and institutions of society. While this volume praises Nehru for providing a durable basis for India's democratic institutions and for endowing them with much legitimacy, it also evaluates many of his negative legacies, such as license raj, the border problems with China and Pakistan, divisive domestic electoral politics, politicization of minorities as vote banks, the Kashmir problem, and corruption in public life.
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1 online resource (212 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004753570
A Comprehensive History of India : Prehistory of India (Vol. I, Part 1) /
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The prehistoric phase forms the longest period in human history covering a few millennia whereas the knowledge of writing which could be used for the reconstruction of history, was acquired by man only five thousand years ago. The development of human culture can be properly understood only by studying the prehistoric past. The antiquity of man now goes back to 3.6 million years, and since then man has been progressing in the face of all odds. Man the hunted became man the hunter, later acquired the technique of food production which further led to sedentary existence, fashioned artefacts to cope with environment, learnt the use of metals and established trading contacts, finally leading to urbanization. In India the first Stone Age tools were discovered in Tamil Nadu which have recently been dated to 1.5 million years (but could not be included in the present volume as it was too late). The proper study of prehistory received a boost in the post-Independence period. Hundreds of prehistoric sites have since been discovered almost all over the country, even in the north-east which was archaeologically a terra incognita till now. Systematic excavations have been carried out and the data scientifically analysed, stages of evolution of culture from food gathering to food producing have been traced and the further development into the glorious Indus - Harappan - civilization has also been critically reviewed. The volume includes contributions from acknowledged experts in the field. Greater emphasis has been laid on scientific evidence which brings out the role of environment in the evolution of cultures. The study ends with the advent of Aryans which is one of the knottiest of issues in human history.
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1 online resource (560 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004752511
History, Archaeology and Ideology : Essays on Intellectual and Social History of Early India /
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In a country as vast and varied as India and that too with an extraordinary long and continuous history spanning over several millennia, historical processes of its development just cannot be unilinear. Since such diversi-fied processes are being presented in this monograph in a broad material background, it becomes imperative that the simultaneous presence of varied production processes in different parts of the subcontinent is recognised and underlined. In fact, modes of production and productive forces as factors behind historical transformations through the centuries have been stressed in most of the contributions here. Be it the issue of social formations and their dynamism, or of the analysis of the so-called 'feminist' writings; comprehending the ground realities of the lowest orders of the social fabric, or of providing fresh insights for delineating the developmental stages of Indian arts; construction of the apparatus of knowledge systems in early India, or of establishing the true identity of common Indian human being; the central focus has always been on the ordinary toiling people of the country. Even archaeologists have been exhorted to make them the real subjects of enquiry and data retrieval in their diggings and excavation reports. Long tradition of questioning going back to the Ṛgveda, social bases of knowledge systems, construction of 'heritage' and its sustenance in the face of challenges of 'development', ideological confrontations with neo-colonialist strains and incessant concern about communalisation of writings on Indian history and archaeology are other themes that have been highlighted here. Sixteen essays of this anthology cover almost the whole gamut of five millennia of Indian history.
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1 online resource (564 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004753037