New Aspects on Indian History


Book Description

Biography of Prafulla Chandra Ray, 1861-1944, chemist from Bengal, India.




Aspects of Political Ideas and Institutions in Ancient India


Book Description

The present work Aspects of Political Ideas and Institutions in Ancient Indian discusses different views on the origin and nature of the state in ancient India. It also deals with stages and processes of state formation and examines the relevance of caste and kin-based collectivities to the construction of polity. The Vedic assemblies are studied in some detail, and developments in political organisation are presented in relation to their changing social and economic background. The book also shows how religion and rituals were brought in the service of the ruling class.




India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy


Book Description

Ramachandra Guha’s India after Gandhi is a magisterial account of the pains, struggles, humiliations and glories of the world’s largest and least likely democracy. A riveting chronicle of the often brutal conflicts that have rocked a giant nation, and of the extraordinary individuals and institutions who held it together, it established itself as a classic when it was first published in 2007. In the last decade, India has witnessed, among other things, two general elections; the fall of the Congress and the rise of Narendra Modi; a major anti-corruption movement; more violence against women, Dalits, and religious minorities; a wave of prosperity for some but the persistence of poverty for others; comparative peace in Nagaland but greater discontent in Kashmir than ever before. This tenth anniversary edition, updated and expanded, brings the narrative up to the present. Published to coincide with seventy years of the country’s independence, this definitive history of modern India is the work of one of the world’s finest scholars at the height of his powers.




The Culture and Civilisation of Ancient India in HIstorical Outline


Book Description

First published in 1965, The Culture and Civilisation of Ancient India in Historical Outline is a strikingly original work, the first real cultural history of India. The main features of the Indian character are traced back into remote antiquity as the natural outgrowth of historical process. Did the change from food gathering and the pastoral life to agriculture make new religions necessary? Why did the Indian cities vanish with hardly a trace and leave no memory? Who were the Aryans – if any? Why should Buddhism, Jainism, and so many other sects of the same type come into being at one time and in the same region? How could Buddhism spread over so large a part of Asia while dying out completely in the land of its origin? What caused the rise and collapse of the Magadhan empire; was the Gupta empire fundamentally different from its great predecessor, or just one more ‘oriental despotism’? These are some of the many questions handled with great insight, yet in the simplest terms, in this stimulating work. This book will be of interest to students of history, sociology, archaeology, anthropology, cultural studies, South Asian studies and ethnic studies.




Art for a Modern India, 1947-1980


Book Description

Following India’s independence in 1947, Indian artists creating modern works of art sought to maintain a local idiom, an “Indianness” representative of their newly independent nation, while connecting to modernism, an aesthetic then understood as both universal and presumptively Western. These artists depicted India’s precolonial past while embracing aspects of modernism’s pursuit of the new, and they challenged the West’s dismissal of non-Western places and cultures as sources of primitivist imagery but not of modernist artworks. In Art for a Modern India, Rebecca M. Brown explores the emergence of a self-conscious Indian modernism—in painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, film, and photography—in the years between independence and 1980, by which time the Indian art scene had changed significantly and postcolonial discourse had begun to complicate mid-century ideas of nationalism. Through close analyses of specific objects of art and design, Brown describes how Indian artists engaged with questions of authenticity, iconicity, narrative, urbanization, and science and technology. She explains how the filmmaker Satyajit Ray presented the rural Indian village as a socially complex space rather than as the idealized site of “authentic India” in his acclaimed Apu Trilogy, how the painter Bhupen Khakhar reworked Indian folk idioms and borrowed iconic images from calendar prints in his paintings of urban dwellers, and how Indian architects developed a revivalist style of bold architectural gestures anchored in India’s past as they planned the Ashok Hotel and the Vigyan Bhavan Conference Center, both in New Delhi. Discussing these and other works of art and design, Brown chronicles the mid-twentieth-century trajectory of India’s modern visual culture.




A Concise History of Modern India


Book Description

In a second edition of their successful Concise History of Modern India, Barbara Metcalf and Thomas Metcalf explore India's modern history afresh and update the events of the last decade. These include the takeover of Congress from the seemingly entrenched Hindu nationalist party in 2004, India's huge advances in technology and the country's new role as a major player in world affairs. From the days of the Mughals, through the British Empire, and into Independence, the country has been transformed by its institutional structures. It is these institutions which have helped bring about the social, cultural and economic changes that have taken place over the last half century and paved the way for the modern success story. Despite these advances, poverty, social inequality and religious division still fester. In response to these dilemmas, the book grapples with questions of caste and religious identity, and the nature of the Indian nation.







Narratives from the Margins


Book Description

Adivasis have principally been studied in the context of rebellion, environmental history and the politics of identity. However, preoccupations with definitions and notions of identity, while important in themselves, tend to shift attention away from the inner lives of these communities. This book deals with different aspects of the histories of adivasi communities -- from Rajasthan in the west to Bengal and Orissa in the east. The essays in this book discuss a range of issues affecting the socio-economic and cultural life of adivasis and explore the long term continuities and discontinuities between different political regimes. They also reflect some of the new concerns that have come up relating to methodology and sources, historiography and colonial concerns, the impact of missionaries, gender issues, the agrarian situation, famines and migration. Some of the issues addressed in this volume are the genesis and development of 'tribal' studies in India during the colonial period; the peasantization of adivasi groups and their assimilation within the Hindu caste fold as reflected in Tulsidas' Ramcharitmanas; the work of the Protestant missions among the Santals of Chotanagpur; the social and ritual relations between the Bhils and the Rajput ruling dynasties of Dungarpur in southern Rajasthan; the aspect of agrarian change among the Hos of Singhbhum; the factors behind the migration from Chotanagpur, its nature and organization and its impact upon the adivasi village community; the question of women's agency in colonial Chotanagpur; and an exploration of land rights, witchcraft, employment patterns and how women challenged patriarchy in their everyday lives; and the impact of globalisation and liberalization upon adivasis in contemporary India. The book will be of use to students and scholars of history, anthropology and sociology and also to policy-planners.




Aspects of Indian History and Historiography


Book Description

Contains 29 Research Papers Contributed By Eminent Scholars Felicitating Prof. Kalyan Kumar Dasgupta, A Familiar Name In The Domain Of Indology. These Papers Represent Various Aspects Of Indian History And Historiography Covering A Wide Range Of Subjects Viz., Popular Movements, Tribal History, System Of Education, Role Of Temples, Traditions And Social Customs, Trade And India S Foreign Policy. Contents Section I; Chapter 1: Petty Peasant Production And Agrarian Capitalism: A Recent View On Their Relationship In Colonial India By B B Chaudhuri; Chapter 2: The Congress Ministry In The Central Provinces And Berar, 1937-39: The Communal Problem By K Mojumdar; Chapter 3: Civil Disobedience Movement And Women In Midnapore District By Niranjan Ghosh; Chapter 4: Nature Of Agrarian Discontent And The Origin Of Peasant Movements In India During The Pre-Nationalist Era (1757-1857) By Debabandya Kabi; Chapter 5: Protest Movement In Manbhum Against Its Merger With Bihar, 1912 By S C Mukhopadhyay; Chapter 6: The Indian Reform And Awakening Of The 19Th Century: A Study Of Its Impact On Bihar By Sumanta Niyogi; Chapter 7: The Quit India Movement And The Tamralipta Jatiya Sarkar By P K Maity; Chapter 8: Western Poligars In Madras Presidency By Anies George; Section Ii; Chapter 9: A Living Tradition Of Tripura: An Ethno-Cultural Probe By Sumangal Sen; Chapter 10: Endowments To Temples In Northern India (Early Medieval Period) By Pushpa Niyogi; Chapter 11: Modern And Secular Trends In Muslim Social Thought In Nineteenth Century Bengal By A F Salahuddin Ahmed; Chapter 12: Tribal History Of Ancient Bengal By Bhaskar Chatterjee; Chapter 13: The Cola Army And The Royal Temple Of Rajarajesvaram By Geeta Vasudevan; Chapter 14: The System Of Education In Ancient Orissa (6Th Century A D To 13Th Century A D) By Sanghamitra Dasgupta; Chapter 15: Widow Burning And The Madri Episode: An Analysis By Ashvini Agrawal; Chapter 16: Glimpses Of Social Condition Of India In The Anguttara-Nikaya By Gayatri Sen Majumdar; Chapter 17: Medical Science As Known To The Chinese Pilgrims By Sukumar Sengupta; Chapter 18: Medicine In Ancient India: A Review By Rakhal Chandra Nath; Chapter 19: Orissan Chronology: An Epigraphical Study By P K Nayak; Section Iii; Chapter 20: Jagannath Cult Of Orissa And The Rajas Of Nepal By P K Mishra; Chapter 21: Indians Around The Pamir Plateau In The First Decade Of The Nineteenth Century: A View Of Contemporary Russians By Surendra Gopal; Chapter 22: India S Foreign Policy In The Post Cold War Era: Can It Be Reconstructed To Build A South Asian Community? By Jayanta Kumar Ray; Chapter 23: Origin And Development Of Arakanese Settlements In Bangladesh: A Study Of Arakan-Bangladesh Relations (1760-1825) By Abdul Mabud Khan; Section Iv; Chapter 24: Craft Of History Writing: An Early Indian Perspective By Sukla Das; Chapter 25: A Lost Book On Politics In Ancient India By Pratap Chandra Chunder; Chapter 26: Perspectives Of Pali And Buddhistic Studies And Bimala Churn Law By Dipak Kumar Barua; Chapter 27: Some Illusionistic Thoughts In History Writing By Rasesh Jamindar; Chapter 28: Swamikannu Pillai S Indian Ephemeris: A Reconsideration By Mahesh Sharma; Chapter 29: Voices Of Protest And Dissent In The Works Of Bana By Shankar Goyal.




Elementary Aspects of Peasant Insurgency in Colonial India


Book Description

This classic work in subaltern studies portrays the peasant insurgency in British India from the peasant's viewpoint.