Book Reviews : KATHLEEN TAYLOR, Sir John Woodroffe, Tantra and Bengal: 'An Indian Soul in a European Body', Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press, 2001, pp. 319

Abstract

sources indicate that they had some impact on the organisation of commercial manufacture in the period covered by the book. Textile artisans, especially those producing high-value fabrics, apparently settled often in palaiyams, that is, the fortified strongholds of palaiyakkarar. Elsewhere, we find that palaiyakkarar were also concerned with protecting property and were the agents of a regional penal regime. One would have to look closely at quotidian practices of domination not only of regional but also of local south Indian authorities in order to reconstruct ancien regime state attitudes towards labour. The results of such enquiries may well disappoint the seekers of ’pre-colonial innocence’. The good news is, however, that there is much scope for further research on the ’transition to a colonial