Pub Date : 2023-11-01DOI: 10.1177/00194646231200331
Purbasha Das
The article explores the changes in behaviours and norms that followed the arrival of modern transport: trams, motor cars, buses and motor lorries. The article examines how new forms of behaviours such as the regulation of speed of motor cars, use of traffic lights, or newer methods of using streets such as walking on footpaths impacted the interaction between the authorities and people living within cities. The article shows that ideas of modern behaviour, centred on maintaining discipline and order on the streets were endorsed by the government but were contested and reluctantly adapted by the people. It also highlights the existence of social biases in administrative decisions connected to street use. This is evident in the analysis of accidents when the Indian driver and his lack of physical strength is equated with his incapability to drive a tram. This essentialisation takes place at both ends. Such debates occurred on the lines of race and class. For instance, the industrial workforce which migrated from rural areas had to learn new skills to navigate different spaces in the city. Apart from the factory, their activities on the streets were also scrutinised, such as when their inability to understand traffic rules was attributed to their rural background. Thus, in certain cases, transport mobility is incompatible with social mobility.
{"title":"‘Horn Please’: The evolution and regulation of traffic in twentieth-century India","authors":"Purbasha Das","doi":"10.1177/00194646231200331","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00194646231200331","url":null,"abstract":"The article explores the changes in behaviours and norms that followed the arrival of modern transport: trams, motor cars, buses and motor lorries. The article examines how new forms of behaviours such as the regulation of speed of motor cars, use of traffic lights, or newer methods of using streets such as walking on footpaths impacted the interaction between the authorities and people living within cities. The article shows that ideas of modern behaviour, centred on maintaining discipline and order on the streets were endorsed by the government but were contested and reluctantly adapted by the people. It also highlights the existence of social biases in administrative decisions connected to street use. This is evident in the analysis of accidents when the Indian driver and his lack of physical strength is equated with his incapability to drive a tram. This essentialisation takes place at both ends. Such debates occurred on the lines of race and class. For instance, the industrial workforce which migrated from rural areas had to learn new skills to navigate different spaces in the city. Apart from the factory, their activities on the streets were also scrutinised, such as when their inability to understand traffic rules was attributed to their rural background. Thus, in certain cases, transport mobility is incompatible with social mobility.","PeriodicalId":45806,"journal":{"name":"Indian Economic and Social History Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135272347","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-11-01DOI: 10.1177/00194646231200358
Claude Markovits
This article looks afresh at the notion of the British–Indian colonial state as an ‘ethnographic state’, as formulated by Nicholas Dirks. It does so through a case study of gangs of ‘foreign Asiatic vagrants’ whose forays into British India during the last decades of the nineteenth century created panic among colonial officials and further argues that such panic was due to the difficulty of identifying the members of these gangs. Ethnography proved of little help in the process, as the people involved did not easily fit into the disciplinary grid of colonial ethnography, with its preference for settled communities neatly divided into discrete castes over semi-nomadic groups with shifting habits and habitats. The resulting uncertainties translated themselves into a kind of bureaucratic anarchy, as various officials took different views of the nature and composition of these groups. Eventually, their mobilities were controlled through police measures, with no significant contribution from ethnographic knowledge.
{"title":"The limits of the ethnographic state in British India: The case of ‘foreign Asiatic vagrants’, c. 1860–1900","authors":"Claude Markovits","doi":"10.1177/00194646231200358","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00194646231200358","url":null,"abstract":"This article looks afresh at the notion of the British–Indian colonial state as an ‘ethnographic state’, as formulated by Nicholas Dirks. It does so through a case study of gangs of ‘foreign Asiatic vagrants’ whose forays into British India during the last decades of the nineteenth century created panic among colonial officials and further argues that such panic was due to the difficulty of identifying the members of these gangs. Ethnography proved of little help in the process, as the people involved did not easily fit into the disciplinary grid of colonial ethnography, with its preference for settled communities neatly divided into discrete castes over semi-nomadic groups with shifting habits and habitats. The resulting uncertainties translated themselves into a kind of bureaucratic anarchy, as various officials took different views of the nature and composition of these groups. Eventually, their mobilities were controlled through police measures, with no significant contribution from ethnographic knowledge.","PeriodicalId":45806,"journal":{"name":"Indian Economic and Social History Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135320877","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-11-01DOI: 10.1177/00194646231200327
Kate Boehme
The centrality of salt within the political and economic history of India is well established in recent scholarship. Its significance was particularly profound in the western region of Gujarat; long before the arrival of the British, the princely state of Baroda had a tradition of salt manufacturing. With both government-owned pans and widespread ‘home manufacturing’ operating within the state, salt was undeniably critical to the local economy. It also held a cultural significance. In the mid-1800s, with the introduction of the British salt monopoly, these industries were officially subsumed by the colonial state. However, in their efforts to enforce the monopoly and suppress ‘illicit’ production, the British continued to face considerable resistance from all levels of the Baroda administration into the twentieth century. This article examines the contestations that occurred between the colonial and princely authorities over the issue of salt, particularly on the frontiers where jurisdiction was uncertain. It asserts that, through these processes, salt came to represent a crucial battleground for debates concerning legal sovereignty, subjecthood and economic autonomy.
{"title":"Salt, smuggling and citizenship: Redefining princely sovereignty through salt in Baroda, 1870–1920","authors":"Kate Boehme","doi":"10.1177/00194646231200327","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00194646231200327","url":null,"abstract":"The centrality of salt within the political and economic history of India is well established in recent scholarship. Its significance was particularly profound in the western region of Gujarat; long before the arrival of the British, the princely state of Baroda had a tradition of salt manufacturing. With both government-owned pans and widespread ‘home manufacturing’ operating within the state, salt was undeniably critical to the local economy. It also held a cultural significance. In the mid-1800s, with the introduction of the British salt monopoly, these industries were officially subsumed by the colonial state. However, in their efforts to enforce the monopoly and suppress ‘illicit’ production, the British continued to face considerable resistance from all levels of the Baroda administration into the twentieth century. This article examines the contestations that occurred between the colonial and princely authorities over the issue of salt, particularly on the frontiers where jurisdiction was uncertain. It asserts that, through these processes, salt came to represent a crucial battleground for debates concerning legal sovereignty, subjecthood and economic autonomy.","PeriodicalId":45806,"journal":{"name":"Indian Economic and Social History Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135327896","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-22DOI: 10.1177/00194646231201112
Sadia Mahmood
Soon after partition, Pakistan proposed separate electorates for religious minorities, including the Scheduled Castes (SC), with hopes of establishing an Islamic democracy. This article analyses the Pakistani state’s efforts to give distinct electorates to SC, which resulted in the retention of caste as a constitutional category, primarily among ‘Hindus’. It also looks on East Pakistani politicians' unwillingness to bridge political divides in the early years of Pakistan's history. By drawing on fresh archival sources, this exploration sheds insight on the shift/transformation in East Pakistan’s conceptualisation of the nation immediately following the partition. It argues that the colonial classifications of majority, minority, caste and SC were maintained by the post-colonial state for nation-building programmes and power politics. East Pakistani leaders, on the other hand, repudiated this continuity as they sought to oppose West Pakistan's political dominance. This article also demonstrates that there is a historical discontinuity between the post-partition and the contemporary politics of the Scheduled Castes in Pakistan.
{"title":"Untouchability, caste, and the electorate: Revisiting legacies of the Poona Pact in Pakistan","authors":"Sadia Mahmood","doi":"10.1177/00194646231201112","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00194646231201112","url":null,"abstract":"Soon after partition, Pakistan proposed separate electorates for religious minorities, including the Scheduled Castes (SC), with hopes of establishing an Islamic democracy. This article analyses the Pakistani state’s efforts to give distinct electorates to SC, which resulted in the retention of caste as a constitutional category, primarily among ‘Hindus’. It also looks on East Pakistani politicians' unwillingness to bridge political divides in the early years of Pakistan's history. By drawing on fresh archival sources, this exploration sheds insight on the shift/transformation in East Pakistan’s conceptualisation of the nation immediately following the partition. It argues that the colonial classifications of majority, minority, caste and SC were maintained by the post-colonial state for nation-building programmes and power politics. East Pakistani leaders, on the other hand, repudiated this continuity as they sought to oppose West Pakistan's political dominance. This article also demonstrates that there is a historical discontinuity between the post-partition and the contemporary politics of the Scheduled Castes in Pakistan.","PeriodicalId":45806,"journal":{"name":"Indian Economic and Social History Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135462049","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Book review: Santosh Kumar Rai, Weaving Hierarchies: Handloom Weavers in Early Twentieth Century United Provinces","authors":"Tirthankar Roy","doi":"10.1177/00194646231186020","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00194646231186020","url":null,"abstract":"Santosh Kumar Rai, Weaving Hierarchies: Handloom Weavers in Early Twentieth Century United Provinces. Primus Books, 2021, 540 pp.","PeriodicalId":45806,"journal":{"name":"Indian Economic and Social History Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135806082","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Book review: Muzaffar Alam, The Mughals and the Sufis: Islam and Political Imagination in India, 1500–1750","authors":"Alexandre Papas","doi":"10.1177/00194646231186017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00194646231186017","url":null,"abstract":"Muzaffar Alam, The Mughals and the Sufis: Islam and Political Imagination in India, 1500–1750. SUNY Press, 2021, 468 pp.","PeriodicalId":45806,"journal":{"name":"Indian Economic and Social History Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135805906","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Book review: Aditya Pratap Deo, Kings, Spirits and Memory in Central India: Enchanting the State","authors":"Budhaditya Das","doi":"10.1177/00194646231185997","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00194646231185997","url":null,"abstract":"Aditya Pratap Deo, Kings, Spirits and Memory in Central India: Enchanting the State. Routledge, 2022, 197 pp.","PeriodicalId":45806,"journal":{"name":"Indian Economic and Social History Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135805580","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Book review: Blain Auer, In the Mirror of Persian Kings: The Origins of Perso-Islamic Courts and Empires in India","authors":"Corinne Lefèvre","doi":"10.1177/00194646231186047","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00194646231186047","url":null,"abstract":"Blain Auer, In the Mirror of Persian Kings: The Origins of Perso-Islamic Courts and Empires in India. Cambridge University Press, 2021, 232 pp.","PeriodicalId":45806,"journal":{"name":"Indian Economic and Social History Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135805589","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2017-07-01DOI: 10.1177/0019464617710744
Corinne Lefèvre
Relying on the Majalis-i Jahangiri (1608–11) by ʿAbd al-Sattar b. Qasim Lahauri, this essay explores some of the discussions the Mughal Emperor Jahangir (r. 1605–27) conducted with a wide range of scholars, from Brahmans and ʿulama to Jesuit padres and Jewish savants. By far the most numerous, the debates bearing on Islam and involving Muslim intellectuals are especially significant on several accounts. First, because they illuminate how, following in the steps of his father Akbar (r. 1556–605), Jahangir was able to conciliate his messianic claims with a strong engagement with reason and to turn this combination into a formidable instrument for confession and state building. These conversations also provide promising avenues to think afresh the socio-intellectual history of the Mughal ʿulama inasmuch as they capture the challenges and adjustments attendant on imperial patronage, depict the jockeying for influence and positions among intellectuals (particularly between Indo-Muslim and Iranian lettrés), and shed light on relatively little known figures or on unexplored facets of more prominent individuals. In addition, the specific role played by scholars hailing from Iran—and, to a lesser extent, from Central Asia—in the juridical-religious disputes of the Indian court shows how crucial inter-Asian connections and networks were in the fashioning of Mughal ideology but also the ways in which the ongoing flow of émigré ʿulama was disciplined before being incorporated into the empire.
{"title":"Messianism, rationalism and inter-Asian connections: The Majalis-i Jahangiri (1608–11) and the socio-intellectual history of the Mughal ‘ulama","authors":"Corinne Lefèvre","doi":"10.1177/0019464617710744","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0019464617710744","url":null,"abstract":"Relying on the Majalis-i Jahangiri (1608–11) by ʿAbd al-Sattar b. Qasim Lahauri, this essay explores some of the discussions the Mughal Emperor Jahangir (r. 1605–27) conducted with a wide range of scholars, from Brahmans and ʿulama to Jesuit padres and Jewish savants. By far the most numerous, the debates bearing on Islam and involving Muslim intellectuals are especially significant on several accounts. First, because they illuminate how, following in the steps of his father Akbar (r. 1556–605), Jahangir was able to conciliate his messianic claims with a strong engagement with reason and to turn this combination into a formidable instrument for confession and state building. These conversations also provide promising avenues to think afresh the socio-intellectual history of the Mughal ʿulama inasmuch as they capture the challenges and adjustments attendant on imperial patronage, depict the jockeying for influence and positions among intellectuals (particularly between Indo-Muslim and Iranian lettrés), and shed light on relatively little known figures or on unexplored facets of more prominent individuals. In addition, the specific role played by scholars hailing from Iran—and, to a lesser extent, from Central Asia—in the juridical-religious disputes of the Indian court shows how crucial inter-Asian connections and networks were in the fashioning of Mughal ideology but also the ways in which the ongoing flow of émigré ʿulama was disciplined before being incorporated into the empire.","PeriodicalId":45806,"journal":{"name":"Indian Economic and Social History Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2017-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/0019464617710744","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"64787034","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2012-12-01DOI: 10.1177/0019464612463830
Anjana Singh
{"title":"Book Review: Toby E. Huff, Intellectual Curiosity and the Scientific Revolution: A Global Perspective","authors":"Anjana Singh","doi":"10.1177/0019464612463830","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0019464612463830","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45806,"journal":{"name":"Indian Economic and Social History Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2012-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/0019464612463830","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"64786984","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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