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My Life Struggle : A Translation of Swami Sahajanand Saraswati's Mera Jivan Sangharsh /
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India's twentieth-century struggle for political freedom was and remains an epic achievement in the human experience. Quite apart from its global influence, this is perhaps as familiar a story as it is remarkable, given the legacy of Gandhi, among others of that small generation of founders, whose unique leadership roles are rightly considered to have been transformational in the achievement of freedom in 1947 and in the promulgation of the Constitution of January 1950. But it must then also be said that the roles of the founding leadership were balanced and in many ways defined by the people of India themselves, primarily its peasants, whether the generic masses of Gandhi's definition and direction, or the independent and self- aware peasants of the field. It is this broader peasant story, and particularly that of the deeply engaged peasants of the kisan andolan, the peasant movement of the late 1920s and the 1930s, that appears here in the words of Swami Sahajanand Saraswati. It was their shared experience, or as Sahajanand put it more pointedly and more accurately, their common struggle. In fact, Sahajanand and the peasants had lived this history, and the Swami recorded it for posterity in his 1952 Hindi memoir Mera Jivan Sangharsh (My Life Struggle), translated here by Walter Hauser and Kailash Jha. Given Sahajanand's direct involvement in this history, his representation of the peasant story from the perspective of the peasants amounts to a paradigm shift in how the lives of the peas¬ants of India have been understood and represented overtime, either in politics or in scholarship. The intimacy, detail, and ethnographic richness of peasant activism as conveyed by Sahajanand is simply unique. This is true for many reasons, not least because the peasants understood fully what their struggles and movement meant, not only in social, cultural, and economic terms, but equally so in political, conceptual, and ultimately in human terms. It was their voice, loud and clear, and hence their history.
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1 online resource (464 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004753914
Eighteenth-Century Indian Muraqqaʿs : Audiences - Artists - Patrons and Collectors /
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Fourteen essays and one appendix discuss numerous eighteenth-century Indo-Persianate albums ( muraqqaʿs ) consisting of folios with paintings, calligraphic pieces, and elaborate decorative margins. These albums - now in Berlin, Baroda, London, Paris, and Manchester - were assembled for or collected by the Mughal nawabs of Awadh (Uttar Pradesh), local elites in Bengal and Bihar, as well as Europeans. The book not only presents hitherto rarely investigated material, but also provides general information and many new discoveries based on first-hand codicological study and historical research. It will significantly expand our knowledge of the production, collecting practices, and audiences of muraqqaʿs in eighteenth-century India.
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1 online resource (390 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004715837
Absent in Politics and Power : Political Exclusion of Indian Muslims /
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Muslims face acute political deprivation at all levels in spite of their immense contribution towards the survival of democracy in India. The volume attempts to gauge and analyze the political underrepresentation of Muslims in the Parliament and state assemblies as well as their nomination by the mainstream national and regional parties. The book analyzes the reasons responsible for their absence in politics and power, including their under-nomination in secular parties, denial of SC status to them, Muslim-majority seats being reserved for SCs, etc. The book also discusses the rise of the BJP and, its exclusionary attitude, communalization of political space and its fall out on the attitude of the secular parties, which thrive on Muslim votes. It also focuses on the internal factors within Muslims, such as presence of many Muslim candidates in Muslim-dominated seats, division of secular votes, lack of leadership, and their inability to forge a viable political alliance with other deprived groups. The volume also attempts to analyze the rise of upper caste Hindus in politics, political deprivation of Hindu OBCs, and necessity of due share of Pasmanda Muslims in politics for secularization of political space. The author delves closely into what strategies Muslims must adopt to have at least proportional share and introspection on how to create an effective political space. The volume advocates a forceful change of attitude, thinking and action on the part of various factors involved: government, political parties, media, academic circles, the community itself and other deprived sections. Finally, the book advocates for inclusive democracy and social democracy, as advocated by Dr. Ambedkar to eradicate inequality in politics and to have an all-representative government.
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1 online resource (360 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004753297
Alha Udal Ballad Rendition of Western Uttar Pradesh : A War Rendition of India /
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Alha Udal ballad is a military folk rendition traditionally sung in large parts of northern and central India. It carries traditions, terms and idioms of nearly nine hundred years of collective memory of residents of Haryana in the north-west to Bihar in the east, and is sung in several dialects that stretch through this vast landscape. The present book is dedicated to the Khari Boli variant of the rendition which was sung in Western Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Haryana, with some overlap over the adjoining Brajbhasha cultural zone. Throughout our historical past, citizen soldiers were the backbone of all the armed forces of the sub-continent, working as farmers and herders during peacetime and as soldiers of the empire, the king or military generals when called out during times of war. It was folk renditions like Alha Udal that instilled in these citizens the requisite martial traits, transforming them into tough and seasoned soldiers with a will to fight and bear all adversities which they encountered with bravery and fortitude. This military rendition that prepared the residents of these lands to become soldiers from an early age, was thus instrumental in evolving a strong martial culture in India, the impact of which can be felt even today. The rendition is therefore an integral part of Project Udbhav that seeks to study and document the long history of Indian military and strategic thought and traditions.
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1 online resource (300 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004753334
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
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
Religion in Society : Social Dimensions of Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism in India /
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Through an analysis of archaeological and literary data, this book explores two interrelated themes: the socio-economic and cultic processes that resulted in the decline of Indian Buddhism in its last strongholds - Bihar and Bengal - towards the end of the early medieval period, and the patterns of revival of Buddhism in the neighbouring province of Uttar Pradesh, c. 2005-2011 ce. These themes have been explored by undertaking an analysis of the developments in the social histories of other competing religions: Hinduism, Jainism and Ājīvika-dharma. By placing emphasis on the religious praxis and behaviour of the non-elite segment of population, this book offers some significant 'from below' perspectives on the social histories of Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism and Ājīvika-dharma in eastern and northern India.
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1 online resource (228 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004753303
Nalanda Mahavihara : A Critical Analysis of the Archaeology of an Indian Buddhist Site /
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From the 1860s, substantial ruins in the Indian state of Bihar identified as Nālandā Māhavihāra, were of scholarly interest because the monastery was mentioned in the travel accounts of seventh century Chinese monks. From 1916 until 1938, the Archaeological Survey of India systematically excavated, documented, illustrated, and gave continuity to the site. However, ASI 'historic' procedures were severely criticized in the 1940s. The ASI was reorganized and reoriented to 'modern scientific' methods. No new excavation took place at the site until 1973. Between 1973 and 1983, the Sarai Mound was exposed, but whereas in the earlier ASI accounts, photographs, diagrams, and considerable supportive material were part of the report, the 'modern scientific' approach did not include this information. Nor was there any effort to correlate this find with earlier archaeology. This critical analysis is concerned with the consequences of such a radical change in the way archaeology was conducted in India. It attempts to look at the history of the archaeology in the relevant historical and intellectual context in order to show that valuable lessons were lost through failure to update and evaluate previous reports in the years following the shift in orientation. The work looks more closely at the Chinese texts with reference to what they say about other Buddhist sites. And it attempts to bridge the gap between the two archaeological approaches by placing the site (and by extension, other Indian sites) in a different perspective, thereby opening doors to a variety of related disciplines and studies.
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1 online resource (292 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004752948