-
Book review: Deepak Kumar, Science and Society in Modern India Studies in People's History Pub Date : 2024-03-08 Arnab Rai Choudhuri
Deepak Kumar, Science and Society in Modern India (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 2023, 220 pp. (Pb.).
-
Book review: Divya Cherian, Merchants of Virtue: Hindus, Muslims, and Untouchables in Eighteenth-century South Asia Studies in People's History Pub Date : 2024-03-08 Irfan Habib
Divya Cherian, Merchants of Virtue: Hindus, Muslims, and Untouchables in Eighteenth-century South Asia (USA: University of California Press), 2023, 284 pp., (Pb.).
-
Book review: Herman Tieken, The Asoka Inscriptions: Analysing a Corpus Studies in People's History Pub Date : 2024-03-06 Kesavan Veluthat
Herman Tieken, The Asoka Inscriptions: Analysing a Corpus (Delhi: Primus Books), 2023, xvi + 488 pp., ₹1,595 (Hb).
-
Book review: Tajen Dabi, Medicine and Integration of Frontier Tribes: The British and After in Arunachal Pradesh Studies in People's History Pub Date : 2024-03-06 Deepak Kumar
Tajen Dabi, Medicine and Integration of Frontier Tribes: The British and After in Arunachal Pradesh (Delhi: Primus Books), 2023, xvii + 219 pp., ₹1150.
-
Book review: Aloka Parasher Sen, Gender, Religion and Local History: The Early Deccan Studies in People's History Pub Date : 2024-03-06 Kumkum Roy
Aloka Parasher Sen, Gender, Religion and Local History: The Early Deccan (Delhi: Primus Books), 2023, xxv + 390 pp., ₹1,750 (Hb).
-
The Bazaar as a Public Domain of Cultural Contests at Colonial Cuttack, 1870–1940 Studies in People's History Pub Date : 2022-10-13 Pramod Kumar Mohanty
By choosing the bazaar at colonial Cuttack for a narrative of ‘recreation, social interaction, transport and economic activity’, the present article draws on Dipesh Chakrabarty and Anand Yang’s baz...
-
Representations of the Mughals in Present-Day India: From K. Asif’s Akbar to the Babur of Nikkhil Advani Studies in People's History Pub Date : 2022-10-13 Syed Ali Nadeem Rezavi
The Hindi film industry (Bollywood) has been fascinated since practically its beginnings with revisiting history and rewriting it. Over the years, we have had several historical period films, and o...
-
An Early Tombstone and the Office of Khalīfatu’l Khulafā under the Safavids Studies in People's History Pub Date : 2022-10-13 Samad Parvin, Behrouz Afkhami, Saeid Sattarnejad
At Unar, in Northwestern Iran, a tombstone inscription has been found by the authors. It names the buried one as Ismā‘il bin Sultān, Khalīfatu’l Khulafā, with the date 881 AH. This is the first rec...
-
Book review: A. Azfar Moin and Alan Strathern (ed.), Sacred Kingship in World History: Between Immanence and Transcendence Studies in People's History Pub Date : 2022-10-13 Shireen Moosvi
A. Azfar Moin and Alan Strathern (ed.), Sacred Kingship in World History: Between Immanence and Transcendence (New York: Columbia University Press), 2022, 390 pp., $40 (pb).
-
Journey to the Garden: History of Tea, Labour and Recruitment Policies in Colonial Assam Studies in People's History Pub Date : 2022-10-13 Geetashree Singh
Tea is one of the popular beverages in the world. It was the British government which took the initiative to propagate the use of tea as a beverage and its commercialisation. In this article, an at...
-
Book review: Saiyid Zaheer Husain Jafri, Agrarian Society in Awadh: Structure and Change under the Pre-Colonial Regimes, c. 1595–1856 Studies in People's History Pub Date : 2022-10-13 Irfan Habib
Saiyid Zaheer Husain Jafri, Agrarian Society in Awadh: Structure and Change under the Pre-Colonial Regimes, c. 1595–1856 (New Delhi: Gyan Publishing House), 2022, 262 pp., ₹950 (hb).
-
Book review: Bill Hughes, A Historical Sociology of Disability: Human Validity and Invalidity from Antiquity to Early Modernity Studies in People's History Pub Date : 2022-10-13 Ozancan Bozkurt
Bill Hughes, A Historical Sociology of Disability: Human Validity and Invalidity from Antiquity to Early Modernity (New York: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group), 2020, xiv + 355 pp., $35.31 (pb).
-
Secular Sciences in an Era of Cultural Change: India, 1206–1526—A Survey Studies in People's History Pub Date : 2022-10-13 Irfan Habib
The establishment of the Delhi Sultanate, 1206, marked the infusion of a new cultural stream to which the religiously neutral term ‘Persianate’ is now attached. Indeed, it added to Sanskrit another...
-
Book review: S.M. Katre, Early Buddhist Ballads: Their Relation to the Older Upanishadic Literature Studies in People's History Pub Date : 2022-10-13 Kumkum Roy
S.M. Katre, Early Buddhist Ballads: Their Relation to the Older Upanishadic Literature (New Delhi: Aryan Books International), 2021, pp. xxviii + 138, ₹695 (hb).
-
Colonialism and Race: Blocking Indian Immigration in New Zealand, Early Twentieth Century Studies in People's History Pub Date : 2022-10-13 Raj Sekhar Basu
The article essentially deals with the legal tangles which stood in the way of Indian immigration to New Zealand in the early years of the twentieth century. The fear of intrusion of ‘Hindoo coolie...
-
The Perception of European Geography in Mughal-Period Persian Texts: A Preliminary Exploration Studies in People's History Pub Date : 2022-05-15 Aditi Govil
Geography, as known to the Mughal court and the Persian-writing authors of Mughal India, should have expanded in respect of Europe once the Portuguese and then the Dutch, English and French merchants arrived in India. An exploration of Persian texts containing geographical information, including lists of places in the world with their coordinates, reveals that while both Indian and European geographers
-
Review Article: Audrey Truschke, The Language of History: Sanskrit Narratives of Muslim Pasts Studies in People's History Pub Date : 2022-05-15 R. Mahalakshmi
Audrey Truschke, The Language of History: Sanskrit Narratives of Muslim Pasts (New Delhi: Penguin Random House India), 2021, xlviii + 354 pp., ₹699.
-
Book review: Saiyid Zaheer Husain Jafri, Beyond the Chronicles: ‘Recovering’ Histories of the Institutions and Families (Persian Documents in India, 17th–19th C.) Studies in People's History Pub Date : 2022-05-15 Shireen Moosvi
Saiyid Zaheer Husain Jafri, Beyond the Chronicles: ‘Recovering’ Histories of the Institutions and Families (Persian Documents in India, 17th–19th C.) (New Delhi: Gyan Publishing House), 2021, 216 p...
-
Book review: Farhat Hasan, Paper, Performance, and State: Social Change and Political Culture in Mughal India Studies in People's History Pub Date : 2022-05-15 Basharat Hassan
Farhat Hasan, Paper, Performance, and State: Social Change and Political Culture in Mughal India (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 2021, 155 pp. ₹731.
-
Review Article: Irfan Habib and Tarapada Mukherjee (late), Braj Bhūm in Mughal Times: The State, Peasants and Gosā’ins Studies in People's History Pub Date : 2022-05-15 Krishna Mohan Shrimali
Irfan Habib and Tarapada Mukherjee (late), Braj Bhūm in Mughal Times: The State, Peasants and Gosā’ins (New Delhi: Primus Books, 2020), 286 pp., ₹1,095 (Hb).
-
Book review: Robert Eric Frykenberg, ed., Land Control and Social Structure in Indian History and Robert Eric Frykenberg, ed., Land Tenure and Peasant in South Asia Studies in People's History Pub Date : 2022-05-15 Irfan Habib
Robert Eric Frykenberg, ed., Land Control and Social Structure in Indian History (Delhi: Primus Books), 2020, 273 pp., ₹300 (Pb) [originally published in 1969].Robert Eric Frykenberg, ed., Land Ten...
-
Labourers and Artisans in Seventeenth-Century Ahmadabad Studies in People's History Pub Date : 2022-05-15 Rakesh Kumar
Among the inhabitants of medieval Indian cities, the largest group was naturally represented by its workforce. They were a crucial element in the urban dynamics of these cities. Ahmadabad, during t...
-
Book review: Amiya P. Sen, Vidyasagar: Reflections on a Notable Life Studies in People's History Pub Date : 2022-05-15 Arun Bandopadhyay
Amiya P. Sen, Vidyasagar: Reflections on a Notable Life (Hyderabad: Orient BlackSwan), 2021, 240 pp., ₹925.
-
Rebellion and Ethnogenesis in Colonial North-Eastern Bengal: The Garos as Pagul Panthis Studies in People's History Pub Date : 2022-05-15 Sanghamitra Misra
In the closing decades of the eighteenth and in the early decades of the nineteenth century, Peasant insurrection was endemic to the north-eastern borders of Bengal, including the submontane region of Gird Garrow, a characteristic shared with the contiguous Garo Hills. Locating these conditions of insurrection within changes in the order of the regional economy under the Company’s rule, the article
-
Book review: K. L. Tuteja, Religion, Community and Nation: Hindu Consciousness and Nationalism in Colonial Punjab Studies in People's History Pub Date : 2022-05-15 Irfan Habib
K. L. Tuteja, Religion, Community and Nation: Hindu Consciousness and Nationalism in Colonial Punjab (New Delhi: Primus Books), 2021, 372 pp., ₹1,250 (Hb).
-
Handloom Cloth Production in Colonial United Provinces: The Response to Industrial Competition Studies in People's History Pub Date : 2022-05-15 Santosh Kumar Rai
This article briefly traces some general trends defining the existence of handloom weaving industry in United Provinces in the late nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century. Handloom industry, in spite of the dislocation through large imports of British cloth, still remained the largest employing sector in this region, after agriculture. Use of machine-made yarn play a part in
-
Prejudice and Identity: Hindi High Caste Journals, United Provinces (1918–30) Studies in People's History Pub Date : 2022-05-15 Nishtha Srivastava
Nationalism is a fluid concept which needs contextual understanding. Construction of communal and caste identities played an important role in countering or qualifying nationalism in the United Provinces (UP) (1918–30). This article investigates the contents of some of the Brahman caste journals in order to study the evolution of identify consciousness, the construction of the ‘self’ vs. the ‘other’
-
Book review: S.K. Kumar, and S. Sarkar, eds., Contextualizing the body: An Indian Experience Studies in People's History Pub Date : 2022-05-15 Rajesh Kochhar
S.K. Kumar, and S. Sarkar, eds., Contextualizing the body: An Indian Experience (New Delhi: Manohar Publishers & Distributors), 2020, ₹1,650.
-
Book review: Suranjan Das and Achintya Kumar Dutta, Dreadful Diseases in Colonial Bengal: A Documentation Studies in People's History Pub Date : 2022-05-15 Deepak Kumar
Suranjan Das and Achintya Kumar Dutta, Dreadful Diseases in Colonial Bengal: A Documentation (Delhi: Primus Books), 2021, 397 pp., ₹1,250.
-
A Chapter in the History of Indian Social Thought: Irawati Karve’s Contributions as Public Intellectual Studies in People's History Pub Date : 2022-05-15 K. Paddayya
This article seeks to revisit the contributions of Professor Irawati Karve, one of the foremost anthropologists of twentieth-century India. In particular, it highlights her work as a public intelle...
-
Book review: Suranjan Das, Interrogating Politics and Society: Twentieth-Century Indian Subcontinent Studies in People's History Pub Date : 2022-05-15 Sucheta Mahajan
Suranjan Das, Interrogating Politics and Society: Twentieth-Century Indian Subcontinent (New Delhi: Primus), 2014, 228 pp., ₹950 (Hb).
-
Book review: Arunima Dutta, Fleeting Agencies: A Social History of Indian Coolie Women in British Malaya Studies in People's History Pub Date : 2022-05-15 Rajsekhar Basu
Arunima Dutta, Fleeting Agencies: A Social History of Indian Coolie Women in British Malaya (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), xviii + 240 pp., ₹1,195 (Hb).
-
Book review: Ravi K. Mishra and Narendra Shukla, ed., Selected Works of C. Rajagopalachari: Vol. VI, 1936–39 Studies in People's History Pub Date : 2022-05-15 Neerja Singh
Ravi K. Mishra and Narendra Shukla, ed., Selected Works of C. Rajagopalachari: Vol. VI, 1936–39 (New Delhi: Orient BlackSwan), 2021, 576 pp., ₹2,095 (Hb).
-
Book review: Geetanjali Srikantan, Identifying and Regulating Religion in India: Law, History and the Place of Worship Studies in People's History Pub Date : 2022-05-15 Faizan Mustafa
Geetanjali Srikantan, Identifying and Regulating Religion in India: Law, History and the Place of Worship (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 2020, viii + 251 pp., ₹647 (Hb).
-
Women in Nepal and India (Fourth to Eighth Century): Fragments of Information Gleaned from Inscriptions Studies in People's History Pub Date : 2022-05-15 Arpita Tripathy
During the period of fourth–eighth century ad, women begin to appear as not only as queens but also as donors, burnt widows (satī) and female servants in inscriptions of both India and Nepal. In a patriarchal set-up, men dominated over women. Yet there were exceptions. Although widows were now encouraged to immolate themselves in the funeral pyres of their husbands, Prabhāvatī (from India) and Rājyavatī
-
Book review: Bhairabi Prasad Sahu, The Making of Regions in Indian History: Society, State and Identity in Premodern Odisha Studies in People's History Pub Date : 2021-11-16 Kumkum Roy
Bhairabi Prasad Sahu, The Making of Regions in Indian History: Society, State and Identity in Premodern Odisha (New Delhi: Primus Books), 2020, xxvi + 274 pp., ₹931.00 (hb).
-
Book review: Ranabir Chakravarti, The Pull Towards the Coast, and Other Essays: The Indian Ocean History and the Subcontinent before 1500 ce Studies in People's History Pub Date : 2021-11-16 Bhairabi Prasad Sahu
Ranabir Chakravarti, The Pull Towards the Coast, and Other Essays: The Indian Ocean History and the Subcontinent before 1500 ce (Delhi: Primus Books), 2020, 326 pp., ₹1,395 (hb).
-
Book review: Manu V. Devadevan, The ‘Early Medieval’ Origins of India Studies in People's History Pub Date : 2021-11-16 Kesavan Veluthat
Manu V. Devadevan, The ‘Early Medieval’ Origins of India (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 2020, 516 + xii pp., ₹850 (pb).
-
Book review: Manan Ahmed Asif, The Loss of Hindustan: The Invention of India Studies in People's History Pub Date : 2021-11-16 Shireen Moosvi
Manan Ahmed Asif, The Loss of Hindustan: The Invention of India (Cambridge, U.S.: Harvard University Press), 2020, Indian ed., HarperCollins Publishers, 2020, 321 pp., ₹599 (hb).
-
Book review: Ruby Maloni, The Route to European Hegemony: India’s Intra-Asian Trade in the Early Modern Period Studies in People's History Pub Date : 2021-11-16 Ruquia K. Hussain
Ruby Maloni, The Route to European Hegemony: India’s Intra-Asian Trade in the Early Modern Period (Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries) (New Delhi: Manohar Publishers & Distributors), 2021, 301 pp., + 23 plates and 2 maps, ₹1,950 (hb).
-
Book review: Sameetah Agha, The Limits of Empire, Sub-Imperialism and Pukhtun Resistance in the North–West Frontier Studies in People's History Pub Date : 2021-11-16 K.L. Tuteja
Sameetah Agha, The Limits of Empire, Sub-Imperialism and Pukhtun Resistance in the North–West Frontier (New Delhi: Orient BlackSwan), 2020, pp. xiv + 231, ₹595.
-
Book review: Rakesh Batabyal, The Modern School (1920–2020): A Century of Schooling in India Studies in People's History Pub Date : 2021-11-16 Deepak Kumar
Rakesh Batabyal, The Modern School (1920–2020): A Century of Schooling in India (Chennai: Westland Publications), 2020, 411 pp., ₹594, (hb).
-
Book review: Syed Ejaz Hussain & Sanjay Garg (eds.), Alternative Arguments: Essays in Honour of Surendra Gopal Studies in People's History Pub Date : 2021-11-16 Ishrat Alam
Syed Ejaz Hussain & Sanjay Garg (eds.), Alternative Arguments: Essays in Honour of Surendra Gopal (Delhi: Primus Books), 2020, with index, 730 pp., ₹1,995, (hb).
-
Book review: Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks Studies in People's History Pub Date : 2021-11-16 Irfan Habib
Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, ed. & tr. Quintin Hoare and Geoffrey Nowell-Smith, Indian reprint of original English ed., London, 1971, now reprinted in India by Orient BlackSwan Private Ltd., Hyderabad, 2021, Paperback, 483 pp., ₹695.
-
Identifying Archaeological Cultures in India: A Critical Appraisal Studies in People's History Pub Date : 2021-11-16 Rajan Gurukkal
From a critical review of excavation reports and narratives on the Bronze Age sites, it turns out that archaeological cultures in Indian civilisation are mostly archaeologists’ constructions, resulting from the archaeologists’ subjective classification and typology. It notes inconsistencies of typologies, their ineffectiveness in comprehending the past and failure to establish the structure of the
-
The Huns (‘Hūṇas’) in India: A Review Studies in People's History Pub Date : 2021-11-16 Ashish Kumar
Limited attention seems to have been paid in Indian historical work to the Hūṇas (Huns) except for the general assumption that they played a very destructive role in Indian history. There is need for a fresh appraisal of the Hūṇa polity in the light of the Schūyen copper scroll, and further work on the numismatic evidence, while the details of their conflict with the Guptas need to be properly worked
-
Brāhmaṇ a Land Donees on Bengal’s Eastern Frontier, 600–1300 Studies in People's History Pub Date : 2021-11-16 Srabani Chakraborty
The role of Brāhmaṇa land-grantees in extending cultivation during the early medieval period has been noted by several historians. This study examines the evidence preserved in copper plates from sites in Bengal’s eastern ‘frontier’ formed by the present-day districts of Sylhet, Comilla, Neokhali and Chittagong in Bangladesh, issued between 600 and 1300 AD. The study aims at extracting from the evidence
-
Ṣulḥ-i Kul under Akbar: Reconstructing the Short Life of a Concept of Human Amity Studies in People's History Pub Date : 2021-11-16 Irfan Habib
Akbar’s policy of religious toleration from early in his reign (1556–1605) long remained in need of a theoretical justification, especially one from within the framework of Islamic tradition. At long last, the concept of Ṣulḥ-i Kul, derived from s[ūfic thought, was found to answer the need. Here we bring together evidence from contemporary texts to establish more precisely when the secular conversion
-
Depiction of Hindu Philosophical and Religious Notions in Dārā Shukoh’s Majma‘-ul-Baḥrain Studies in People's History Pub Date : 2021-11-16 Manisha S. Agnihotri
The article focuses on Dārā Shukoh’s Majma‘-ul-Baḥrain (written, 1654–55), which is basically a comparative and systematic study of modes of Hindu thought and belief from the view point of Islamic Sufism. There is thus the need to establish the degree of authenticity achieved in Dārā Shukoh’s exploration of the different Hindu philosophical and religious beliefs, especially keeping in view his own
-
Famine of 1943 in Bakarganj and British Colonial Policy Studies in People's History Pub Date : 2021-11-16 Muhammad Saiful Islam, Tasnuva Habib Zisan
In the vast literature of Bengal famine of 1943, it is hard to offer new insights about that vicious source of mass misery. Local history may mark a significant departure here, as it provides scope for an in-depth study of both the origin and course of the famine. Bakarganj was called the granary of Bengal, which used to supply rice to other regions even in the driest years due to its large production
-
In the Footsteps of ‘Lenin’: Peace, Struggle and the Progressive Intelligentsia in Colonial Bengal Studies in People's History Pub Date : 2021-11-16 Binayak Bhattacharya
The article begins with an obscure Bengali poem ‘Lenin’ published in 1924. Tracing the publication and its consequences, it explores the transmission of progressive ideas from Europe to Bengal, following the First World War and the Russian Revolution. Subsequently, the rise of fascism in Europe, and the Second World War marked a significant juncture in this trajectory, where the rhetoric of ‘peace’
-
Book review: Peggy Mohan, Wanderers, Kings, Merchants: The Story of India Through Its Languages Studies in People's History Pub Date : 2021-11-16 Irfan Habib
Peggy Mohan, Wanderers, Kings, Merchants: The Story of India Through Its Languages (Gurgaon: Penguin/Viking), 2021, 341 + xvii pp., ₹599 (hb).
-
Book review: Partha Chatterjee (ed.). After the Revolution: Essays in Memory of Anjan Ghosh Studies in People's History Pub Date : 2021-06-02 Shireen Moosvi
Partha Chatterjee (ed.). After the Revolution: Essays in Memory of Anjan Ghosh (Hyderabad, India: Orient BlackSwan), 2020, 346 pp., ₹925 (hb).
-
Book review: Yogesh Snehi. Spatialising Popular Sufi Shrines in Punjab: Dreams, Memories, Territoriality Studies in People's History Pub Date : 2021-06-02 Syed Ali Nadeem Rezavi
Yogesh Snehi. Spatialising Popular Sufi Shrines in Punjab: Dreams, Memories, Territoriality (Routledge, South Asian Edition), Shimla 2019, xx + 256 pp., ₹995 (hb).
-
Colonialism and knowledge transformation: A study of Victorian India Studies in People's History Pub Date : 2021-06-02 Deepak Kumar
When a civilisation with its own traditional systems of science and philosophy encounters modern knowledge emanating from Europe, a complex change in the former must result. In India, the situation was complicated by the fact that the flagbearers of modern science had also become the masters of the country, and their interests as rulers did not necessarily accord with the pursuit of a full-scale modernising
-
Errata Studies in People's History Pub Date : 2021-06-02
In this journal, Vol. 7, issue 2, the following corrections need to be made:
-
Migrants in the Creation of Cultures Studies in People's History Pub Date : 2021-06-02 Romila Thapar
Migrations have had a role in forming the economies and cultures of practically all countries. Their nature and effects must be studied objectively. In her lecture delivered in October 2020 in memory of Professor Satish Chandra, Professor Romila Thapar discusses the nature and effects of three migrations, distant from each other in time, viz. the Aryan, (second millennium BC), the Kuṣāṇa (early centuries
-
Megalithic Period in North Maidan, Karnataka Studies in People's History Pub Date : 2021-06-02 Hema Thakur
The megalithic period in Karnataka is significant as it witnessed technological developments like the beginning of use of iron and fast wheel for the making of pottery as well as socio-economic and institutional developments such as the emergence of an agrarian base, demographic expansion, rudimentary craft specialisation, a developing exchange network and a degree of social differentiation. Many features
-
Book review: Zak Cope, The Wealth of (Some) Nations—Imperialism and the Mechanics of Value Transfer Studies in People's History Pub Date : 2021-06-02 Irfan Habib
Zak Cope, The Wealth of (Some) Nations—Imperialism and the Mechanics of Value Transfer (London: Pluto Press), 2019, 260 pp., £19.99 (Pb).
-
Book review: D.N. Jha (ed.), Drink of Immortality: Essays on Distillation and Alcohol Use in Ancient India Studies in People's History Pub Date : 2021-06-02 R. Mahalakshmi
D.N. Jha (ed.), Drink of Immortality: Essays on Distillation and Alcohol Use in Ancient India (Delhi: Manohar), 2020, 278 pp., ₹1495.