Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) represented an ideational universe in which universal humanism was one of the most significant pillars. In conventional terms, Tagore is conceived as a poet which is, in reality, a partial description of the role he discharged in favour of his distinct politico-ideological priorities. He was a visionary who always privileged humanity above all. 'That Treasured Port': Rabindranath Tagore's Ideational Challenges demonstrates how a perusal of his enormous oeuvre reveals that while expressing his preference for a poetic voice, he also articulated his particular mode of thinking which was attuned not only to the contemporary context but much beyond. His views were thus transcendental since he dealt with issues which are useful to safeguard humanity, regardless of class, colour and creed. What deserves attention is his ability to understand the prevailing socio-economic and politico-cultural reality from the point of a distinct perception which was based on both-Western as well as indigenous discourses. Tagore evolved his conceptual parameters not merely on the basis of India's intellectual wisdom but also on the basis of the ideas he derived from the Enlightenment values; this reinforces the argument that the bard was open to multiple politico-ideological influences which, he found, were pivotal to the process of conceptualizing a collective well-being. One must not however forget that Tagore was not alone in his pursuit; it was complemented by his equally sensitive colleagues such as Gandhi, Ambedkar, among others.
The Constitution of India provides that it shall be the duty of the Union to protect the states against internal disturbance and external aggression, and the states shall be responsible for maintaining police forces and securing public order. A large country, with nearly 23,000 km. of land and sea borders, India faces a host of internal, external and varied other serious security challenges. The contributors to this volume, almost all of whom are respected veterans of our three Defence Services have, on the basis of their long experiences, highlighted their concerns and pointed to the way forward.A crucial issue emerges from the writings in this book: there is an urgent need for the enunciation of a holistic National Security Policy which will provide the doctrinal basis for determining the nature, scale, and management architecture of the civil and military armed forces, intelligence services, and the growing number of agencies which are engaged in strengthening and safeguarding India's security.
The Lost Hero of Banaras: Babu Jagat Singh examines the life and legacy of Babu Jagat Singh, a scion of the royal family of Banaras and an instrumental figure in Indian history during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in India. Most historiographies of the period tend to think of 1857 as a watershed moment in India's struggle for independence. However, the present book-set during a period when the sovereignty of zamindars in north India was rapidly dwindling due to increasing colonial intervention-focuses on an armed anti-British struggle in Banaras in 1799, pioneered under the auspices of Jagat Singh. As a result, Jagat Singh was penalized with deportation to St. Helena.Contesting existing knowledge on the basis of primary evidence, this work shows that Babu Jagat Singh was also responsible for discovering the ancient site of the Dharmarajjika stupa at Sarnath, although the credit has been erroneously ascribed to Alexander Cunningham in colonial historiography.
"... revised version of his 1975 dissertation from Osmania University ..."--Page xii.
"...Wandering Women presents sixteen travelogues that were originally published in Bengali periodicals (Samayik patrikas) like Bamabodhini Patrika, Antahpur, and Mahila, among others..."--front flap.
...Professor Moinuddin Aqeel. He edited the work in Urdu itself and it was published as Tareekh-o Asar-e Delhi or The history and relics of Delhi..."--Introduction.
The natural world is a web of elaborate, delicately balanced connections; even the smallest intervention can affect an entire ecosystem, leading to irreversible changes in the environment. For humankind to have an ontological understanding of how we are an intricate part of this equilibrium, it is important for us to realize that the disappearance of even a microscopic species in a remote corner of the earth can have catastrophic consequences. Biological Apocalypse: Species Extinction in the Anthropocene highlights our planet's ingress to the Sixth Mass Extinction-a period conceptualized as the Anthropocene. Bringing together seventeen of the most susceptible non-human species falling into the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) categories of Critically Endangered, Endangered, Vulnerable, and Near Threatened, this volume inspires appreciation about the natural world, highlights the concept of species extinction caused by humankind, and examines how in the march towards 'progress', we have overlooked the rights of other species to flourish alongside us.
Early North Bengal: From Puṇḍravardhana to Varendra, c.400 BCE‒1150 CE reconstructs the history of a land named Puṇḍravardhana, an eponym of Puṇḍra, a group of people who resided in the northern part of Bengal. Situated to the east of the Ganga and directly connected with the Tista on the north, the Puṇḍras could communicate with their western, northern and eastern neighbours through the riverine routes. The book covers a long time period connecting several turns in the temporal and cultural history of the region with varying outcomes. The advancing stages of archaeological excavations and material remains reveal of adaptive processes between the local bodies and organized administrative machinery of varied denominations, synthesis of ideas and concepts, rise of local deities, local aspirations, social formations and monetization. The early medieval period marked a phase of excellence in cultural life and heralded some significant changes in society. It remained eventful and interspersed with some struggles to capture political power.
Meaningful Rituals: Persian, Arabic and Bengali in the Nūrnāma Tradition of Eastern Bengal explores a corpus of texts that centre around the creation of the world by God through his prophet Muḥammad in his primordial form as a luminous entity. These short accounts, which bear the title Nūrnāma (The Book of Light), played two roles: as conveyers of knowledge regarding basic Islamic beliefs and cosmology, and as ritual texts meant to protect and bring prosperity to those who read and preserved the physical artefact of the book that contained that knowledge.
This volume focuses on the complex relationship between Adivasis and Nature in Manbhum. It analyses the nature of colonial intervention in 'indigenous' societies and the politics of identity formation of Adivasis in relation to the transformation of their community system. It provides an empirically detailed and region-specific study of the ethnic version of 'ecological nationalism' and seeks to locate the concept of indigeneity in terms of values, identities and knowledge systems. This volume also studies Adivasi survival strategies and resource utilization. From the late-nineteenth century, the recurrent famines that plagued this area as a result of the changes brought by colonial policies, deprived Adivasis of nutrient supplements, and their health declined. Adivasi medicine men took to exorcism, ascribing the causes of diseases to individuals, especially women. It also traces the history of the Kurmis who wanted to become 'Adivasis' so that they could be included amongst 'tribes'.
Along with translation of 100 selected verses.
Widows of Colonial Bengal: Gender, Morality, and Cultural Representation seeks to explore the unique vulnerability and precarity of widowhood in Bengal during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A major purpose of this study is to re-examine the official and indigenous discourses surrounding the widely debated Widow Remarriage Act of 1856; another is to situate the 'widow problem'-rooted in the historical context of a heightened preoccupation with marriage, remarriage, sexuality and survival-within contemporary cultural representations.The focus of this volume is the tussle between the colonial state, reformist demands, and nationalist pressures, mapping out the shifting diagnosis of the moral and material ills associated with widowhood. While exploring the dynamic interplay between devotion and deviance, this book also offers glimpses into some widows' acts of resistance.
Jawaharlal Nehru: A Communicator and Democratic Leader explores multiple facets of Nehru's experiments in communication as a speaker, writer and formulator of policy as a part of the Congress. In all this, we find, he is affectionately influenced by Gandhi; but, he remains himself, in his style, his attitude to socialism and secularism, his excitement about science and his urge to communicate his own anguish at the tragic divisions of the modern era as well as his hopes of a better world to the younger generation in his country. Simultaneously he discovers within himself a remarkable capacity to convey all this and much more through the written word-articles, dispatches, addresses and, most of all, books.With a Foreword by Rudrangshu Mukherjee for this reissue, this book addresses a dimension of the personality of the first prime minister of India which still does not receive adequate attention. How a shy, if not inarticulate, public speaker became the destiny of the millions is an exciting story. In studying Nehru as an effective communicator, other facets of his interaction with people-his peers, his critics and his friends all over the world necessarily come into the ambit of this work; most important of all is relationship with Gandhi. This book therefore, ventures beyond communication to narrate the whole story of his evolution as a political activist, later to be crowned with success as a major statesman of the twentieth century.
West Asia and the World explores West Asia's changing political and socio-economic architecture post the 2011 Arab Uprisings. The chapters presented here investigate the influence exerted by regional and extra-regional actors and explore their power dynamics.West Asia has been witnessing a directional change in recent years; once spectators to geopolitical developments, systemic changes in recent times within the states themselves indicate a restructuring of the region that has shifted the status quo in both the regional and the global contexts.
Early Indian Religion and Society examines the gradual disappearance of sacrificial liturgy in South Asia in the first millennium BCE, prompting priestly brahmaṇas to look towards subaltern rituals and clients, particularly sudras. The growth of urbanization intensified social tensions as well as dissent against sectarian authorities, ultimately leading to the break-up of all major religious sects. As a result, the ideology of total devotion (Bhakti) to a supreme personal lord-lauded in the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and the Bhagavad Gita-spread across the subcontinent. The Bhakti movement and the increasingly restrictive caste system prompted lower castes to aspire to a higher social status.The volume then moves into exploring how temple-centric cults became the norm in the first millennium CE. During this period, the overarching influence of tantric cults engulfed most major religious sects, encouraging the proliferation of black magic and superstition.
Gender, Religion and Local History: The Early Deccan straddles two areas of research, namely the study of women in a socio-religious context and images of the feminine that emerged as objects of worship. Based on a study of inscriptions, sculptural representations and archaeological and literary sources, the research in this volume is located in different local contexts that focus on gender and ideology in order to discern the dynamics of social change.The seven chapters of the volume address diverse religious spaces-from the folk of the Lajjā Gaurīs to the temple-based Hinduism of the nityasumaṅgali and Chenchu Lakṣmī, from the evolution of orthodox Jaina attitudes to women's access to sallekhanā and to the expanding Buddhist religious milieu in the midst of vibrant mithuna couples. This work demonstrates that ideology in local contexts was always open to adjustments and negotiation, while concomitantly being linked to pan-Indian conceptual foundations.
Rethinking Buddhism: Text, Context, Contestation deals with textual traditions, contextualization, and contestation in Indian Buddhism. The essays in this volume envision, explore, and challenge some of the well-established views to investigate Buddhist sources and contemplate alternative theories on origin, development of early Schools, and other fundamentals. On the one hand, there are reassessments and reinterpretations of the established hypotheses; on the other, new voices are raised to re-examine the traditional opinions on narratives of understanding the philosophical and literary approaches.
Medicine and Integration of Frontier Tribes: The British and After in Arunachal Pradesh traces the use of medicine as an instrument of diplomacy in British frontier policy and as a medium of integration in the post-Independence era in the state of Arunachal Pradesh. A new domain of knowledge within the sphere of British-tribal studies is presented here for the first time: the peculiar absence of medical missions; the 'political' role of doctors; the European-Indian divide over patronage to the tribes; and the post-Independence government policy on the integration of tribes and the development of modern healthcare infrastructure. Aside from a summary of indigenous healing traditions, the volume also explores the origins of colonial epidemiology and dispensaries in the Brahmaputra valley during the nineteenth century through the necessities of the tea economy, a theme about around which limited literature is available.
This book attempts to critically examine Dalit women's literature to analyse how Dalit women perceive and depict caste, class, and gender in their autobiographies and fiction. It endeavours to locate the beginning of Dalit women's socio-political and cultural movements and peruse their nature, scope and significance. Literature of Protest: Reading Dalit Women's Autobiographies and Fiction explores how traditionally suppressed, marginalized and muted Dalit women forayed into writing to express their distress, uncover dominant power structures, voice their indignation, and register their protest against them in order to abrogate disparities and restore their autonomy.
Modern(ist) Drama: Essays in Criticism is a casebook of ideas and arguments about Western modern as well as avant-garde drama. In this volume, the author gathers together a uniquely wide ranging selection of original essays whose subjects span the late nineteenth and most of the twentieth century and reach forward into the twenty-first. He thereby provides access to the thinking behind much of the most stimulating playwriting (and performance) the modernists had to offer, in addition to supplying guidelines to understanding current drama's most adventurous developments.
The Aśoka Inscriptions: Analysing a Corpus attempts a textual and literary analysis of the inscriptions of Aśoka-the oldest in India-and their relationship as a corpus. Unique in both content and format, the inscriptions primarily engage with ideas of good kingship and dhamma rather than with donations made or the celebration of territorial conquests, the usual topics of later inscriptions. They are also characterized by a division that determined their distribution across the realm: the Rock Edict Series (consisting of fourteen edicts) was intended for people living near the borders of Aśoka's realm while the Pillar Edict Series (six in number) was meant for people living at the empire's centre. Meant to be part of a project to commemorate Aśoka, the inscriptions also testify to the existence of an epistolary tradition in the subcontinent, as the texts themselves were selected by later Maurya kings from the letters sent by Aśoka to his representatives across the empire.
This book investigates the interface of science and society especially in the context of the colonisation of India. It begins with discussing the strengths and weaknesses of inheritance of scientific traditions, and gradually moves to exploring the changes brought about by colonisation before going on to analyse the way society grappled with these changes. Divided into four parts and based on extensive use of primary data, 'Culture' of Science and the Making of Modern India takes into account the contestations, adaptations, compromises and hybridity without ignoring the overarching framework of colonialism.
The Rāmcaritmānas of Tulsidas, begun in 1574 CE, is the most widely known and best loved devotional text in the whole of the north Indian vernacular tradition. Still widely read today-typically with the help of modern commentaries-it is also the subject of public performance styles that have brought it to the widest possible audiences. A source of inspiration and comfort to countless millions over the centuries, the Mānas stands as the classic exemplar of the Ramayana tradition for speakers of Hindi and its dialects. The book in your hand introduces Tulsi's Awadhi masterpiece to readers who are already at home in modern standard Hindi.
Traditions, Personalities and Memories: Aspects of Sikh History, 1469-1914, Essays in Honour of Sardar Saran Singh highlights the traditions of self-sacrifice associated with the Sikh Gurus and their renowned followers. Ironically, these great traditions ended up being undermined during the most glorious phase of Sikh history-the rule of Maharajah Ranjit Singh-so much so that both the British sympathizers, Chief Khalsa Diwan and the Singh Sabhas, as well as the anti-British Namdharis, tried to revive these noble traditions. Persecuted by the British rulers, the Namdharis sustained their anti-colonial activities through the Ghadar movement in the twentieth century.
Emperors, Saints and People: Revisiting Deccan History tells the story of the region from the earliest remains of hominins in and around the Bhīma and Krishna rivers of prehistoric times to the paintings of gender-based marginalized sections in the Nizam's Dominion of the twentieth century. The contributions explore archaeological and historical remains and examine rulers and their administrative reforms, art and architectural influences, Sufi saints and their contributions to the flowering of Indo-Persianate traditions. The volume also investigates the lives of common people-an aspect that has consistently been considered peripheral to the historical reconstruction of the region. This volume highlights the interwoven fabric of the Deccan through all these facets, delineating continuities and transformation through the ages.
City of Façades: Archaeology, History, and Urbanism in Velha Goa revisits early modern colonial urbanisms through an archaeological project conducted in 2012 at the Portuguese colonial site of Velha Goa, India. Histories written about the city's growth and decline from 1510 to the current day are unavoidably structured by elite, top-down understandings of social processes, owing principally to the limits of the colonial archives themselves. As a result, quotidian material transformations, essential to urban processes, remain largely unconsidered. The archaeological data explored in this volume allows us to reflect on these transformations and how they shaped colonial life, both during and after Portuguese rule.
The expansionist policy of the colonial power necessitated official involvement with medical education in Bengal from the early nineteenth century. By the mid-nineteenth century, Western medicine permeated various levels of society, thereby making medicine a remunerative profession. A handful of women receiving higher education aspired for a professional career and medicine became their obvious choice, as women patients refused to consult male doctors during pregnancy or childbirth, or for diseases specific to women. In this context, both indigenous and white women doctors working in Bengal emerged as dedicated caregivers for women patients specifically. The Dufferin Fund set up in 1885 further reinforced gender segregation through its objective of treating women patients by women doctors only. As a result, other skilled and complicated branches of medicine became the domain of male doctors. Interestingly, this legacy of separation between 'masculine' and 'feminine' branches of medicine continues even today. Women and Medical Profession in Colonial Bengal, 1883-1947 studies the origin of women's entry into medicine in colonial Bengal and thereby unfurls the layers within these thought-provoking questions about its legacy, providing some answers and leading to new questions, the effects of which abound and govern our present.
'Lower-caste' thinkers made a crucial intervention in the conceptualization of modern India by claiming that there could hardly be any discussion of colonial India without a critical interrogation of the caste system. Dalit Intellectuals: Ideas, Struggles and the Vision is an exploration of a range of interpretations of Dalit intellectual traditions through contributions which emerged from a special panel on Dalit History and Politics. Dedicated to Professor K.N. Panikkar, who introduced the study of intellectual history of modern India, these essays explore Dalit intellectual thought-beginning with Ambedkar's re-envisioning of modern India to the Adi-Dravida movement in colonial Tamil Nadu, the emergence of Kanshi Ram from obscurity to prominence as a public intellectual, autobiographies that led to the making of Dalit intellectuals, and lastly, the late emergence of Dalit intellectual traditions in Bengal.This volume brings to the fore a new intellectual journey, revolutionizing social categories which had hitherto remained outside the domain of respectability and scholarship, and steering the wheel towards newer methods of history writing
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