scholarly journals Akbar or Aurangzeb? Ethics, Empire, and Print Publics in Colonial India

Itinerario ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 260-286
Author(s):  
Leigh Denault
Keyword(s):  
South Asian ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
Personal Responsibility ◽  
Body Politic ◽  
North India ◽  
Colonial India ◽  
Current State ◽  
The Press ◽  
Civic Institutions ◽  
Healthy Body

AbstractIn the 1870s, Indian news editors warned their readers of a series of crises threatening India. They saw the famines, wars, and poverty that they were describing as symptoms of the same illness: Colonial governors had failed to implement an ethical system of governance, and had therefore failed to create a healthy body politic, choosing to expend energy in punishing or censoring dissent when they should have been constructing more durable civic institutions. In North India, earlier Mughal traditions of political philosophy and governance offered a template to critique the current state. In drawing on these traditions, editors linked multiple registers of dissent, from simple ‘fables’ about emperors to more sophisticated arguments drawn from newly reinterpreted akhlaq texts, creating a print record of the multilingual, multivalent literary and oral worlds of Indian political thought. The figures of the Mughal emperors Akbar and Aurangzeb, representing the zenith and nadir of Mughal sovereignty, in turn linked popular and learned discussions on statecraft, good governance, and personal responsibility in an age of crisis. The press itself became a meeting point for multivalent discourses connecting South Asian publics, oral and literate, in their exploration of the nature of just rule in the context of empire, calling, in the process, new ‘publics’ into being.

scholarly journals Sayyids and Social Stratification of Muslims in Colonial India: Genealogy and Narration of the Past in Amroha

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 467-487
Author(s):  
SOHEB NIAZI
Keyword(s):  
South Asian ◽  
Social Stratification ◽  
North India ◽  
Colonial India ◽  
Historical Texts ◽  
The Past ◽  
Early Islam ◽  
History Of ◽  
Race Ethnicity ◽  
Asian Context

AbstractWhile Islamic scriptures like the Quran and Hadith are often quoted to negate the existence of social stratification among Muslims, authors of genealogical texts rely on the very same scriptures to foreground and legitimise discussions on descent and lineage. In the South Asian context, several conceptions of hierarchy as practised by Muslims in north India evolved over the course of colonial rule and were deployed interchangeably by Sayyids. These were based on notions of race, ethnicity, respectability and nobility, and occupational distinctions as well as narratives that referred to the history of early Islam. This article contributes to the study of social stratification among South Asian Muslims by exploring the evolution of Urdu tarikh (historical texts) produced by Sayyid men in the qasbah of Amroha in the Rohilkhand region of the United Provinces during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Sayyid authors narrated the past through the medium of nasab (genealogy). While their texts place emphasis on lineage and descent to legitimise a superior social status for Sayyids, they also shed light on the changing social and material context of the local qasbah politics with the discourse on genealogy evolving into a form that engaged with social contestations.

Reinventing Ramanand: Caste and History in Gangetic India

1996 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 549-571 ◽  
Author(s):  
William R. Pinch
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
English Language ◽  
Ninth Century ◽  
Religious History ◽  
North India ◽  
Colonial India ◽  
Indian History ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
Literature And Religion ◽  
History Of

According to Sir George Grierson, one of the pre-eminent Indologists of the early twentieth century, Ramanand led ‘one of the most momentous revolutions that have occurred in the religious history of North India.’Yet Ramanand, the fourteenth-century teacher of Banaras, has been conspicuous by his relative absence in the pages of English-language scholarship on recent Indian history, literature, and religion. The aims of this essay are to reflect on why this is so, and to urge historians to pay attention to Ramanand, more particularly to the reinvention of Ramanand by his early twentieth-century followers, because the contested traditions thereof bear on the vexed issue of caste and hierarchy in colonial India. The little that is known about Ramanand is doubly curious considering that Ramanandis, those who look to Ramanand for spiritual and community inspiration, are thought to comprise the largest and most important Vaishnava monastic order in north India. Ramanandis are to be found in temples and monasteries throughout and beyond the Hindi-speaking north, and they are largely responsible for the upsurge in Ram-centered devotion in the last two centuries. A fairly recent anthropological examination of Ayodhya, currently the most important Ramanand pilgrimage center in India, has revealed that Ramanandi sadhus, or monks, can be grouped under three basic headings: tyagi (ascetic), naga (fighting ascetic), and rasik (devotional aesthete).4 The increased popularity of the order in recent centuries is such that Ramanandis may today outnumber Dasnamis, the better-known Shaiva monks who look to the ninth-century teacher, Shankaracharya, for their organizational and philosophical moorings.

On Common Speech

2021 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 485-498
Author(s):  
Sravanthi Kollu
Keyword(s):  
South Asia ◽  
South Asian ◽  
Linguistically Diverse ◽  
Colonial India ◽  
South Indian ◽  
Indian Identity ◽  
Recent Emergence ◽  
Contemporary Work ◽  
The Common

Abstract The multilingual turn in literary studies emphasizes the fairly recent emergence of a monolingual attachment to language. While this rightly calls into question the academic focus on monolingual competencies and offers a substantial area of inquiry for scholars working with the linguistically diverse regions of South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, this essay posits that the persistence of multilinguality among historical actors from these regions does not merit a shift away from monolingualism in contemporary scholarship. This argument derives from the claims analyzed in this essay, made by South Asian writers in colonial India, about the singularity of one's own language (swabhasha) and the writers' anxieties to protect this language from vulgar speech (gramyam). Building on contemporary work on the vernacular, the essay seeks to draw renewed attention to the role of speech in language debates in Telugu, a language whose particularity has not become a metonym either for the nation (like Hindi) or for a pan–South Indian identity (like Tamil). In tracing the movement from vulgar speech to proper language in this archive, this essay reframes vernacularity as an ethical compulsion premised on the common.

scholarly journals When the Subaltern Took the Postcolonial Turn

2007 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 130-147
Author(s):  
John Roosa
Keyword(s):  
Social Theory ◽  
South Asian ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
Original Research ◽  
Subaltern Studies ◽  
Colonial India ◽  
Series Editor ◽  
South Asian History ◽  
Research Agendas ◽  
Asian History

Abstract This essay evaluates the changing research agendas of Subaltern Studies, an influential series of books on South Asian history that began in 1982. The essay criticizes the original research agenda as articulated by the series editor, Ranajit Guha, and the subsequent agenda proposed by several members of the Subaltern Studies collective. Guha initially proposed that studies of colonial India understand power in terms of unmediated relationships between “the elite” and “the subaltern” and endeavour to answer a counterfactual question on why the “Indian elite” did not come to represent the nation. The subsequent agenda first formulated in the late 1980s, while jettisoning Guha’s strict binaries and crude populism, has not led to any new insights into South Asian history. The turn towards the issues of modernity and postcolonialism has resulted in much commentary on what is already known. Some members of the collective, in the name of uncovering a distinctly “Indian modernity” and moving beyond Western categories, have reified the concept of modernity and restaged tired old debates within Western social theory.

scholarly journals Trends and Prospects of Development of the Legal Deposit System in Russia: Problems and Practice of Acquisition

2012 ◽  
pp. 32-39
Author(s):  
Tatyana V. Petrusenko ◽  
Irina A. Kiryanova ◽  
Irina V. Eudemiller
Keyword(s):  
Actual State ◽  
National Library ◽  
Technical Problems ◽  
Library Collection ◽  
Current State ◽  
The Press ◽  
National Archives ◽  
A Current

The problems connected with a current state and prospects of development of the legal deposit system are considered: completeness of legal deposit arrivals; growth of lacunas of the national library collection; technological and technical problems of relationship with national archives of the press and electronic editions; actual state and preservation of legal deposit collection of electronic editions on local carriers; need of improvement of the legal deposit legislation.

scholarly journals How Does the Tibetan Plateau Affect the Transition of Indian Monsoon Rainfall?

2007 ◽  
Vol 135 (5) ◽  
pp. 2006-2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomonori Sato ◽  
Fujio Kimura
Keyword(s):  
South Asian ◽  
Summer Monsoon ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Monsoon Rainfall ◽  
Regional Climate ◽  
Reanalysis Data ◽  
North India ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
The South ◽  
Northern India

Abstract The roles of the Tibetan Plateau (TP) upon the transition of precipitation in the south Asian summer monsoon are investigated using a simplified regional climate model. Before the onset of the south Asian monsoon, descending flow in the midtroposphere, which can be considered as a suppressor against precipitation, prevails over northern India as revealed by the NCEP–NCAR reanalysis data. The descending motion gradually weakens and retreats from this region before July, consistent with the northwestward migration of the monsoon rainfall. To examine a hypothesis that the dynamical and thermal effects of TP cause the midtropospheric subsidence and its seasonal variation, a series of numerical experiments are conducted using a simplified regional climate model. The mechanical effect of the TP generates robust descending flow over northern India during winter and spring when the zonal westerly flow is relatively strong, but the effect becomes weaker after April as the westerly flow tends to be weaker. The thermal effect of the TP, contrastingly, enhances the descending flow over north India in the premonsoonal season. The descending flow enhanced by the thermal effect of the TP has a seasonal cycle because the global-scale upper-level westerly changes the energy propagation of the thermal forcing response. The subsidence formed by the mechanical and thermal effects of the TP disappears over northern India after the subtropical westerly shifts north of the plateau, the seasonal change of which is in good agreement with that in the reanalysis data. The retreat of the descending flow can be regarded as the withdrawal of the premonsoon season and the commencement of the south Asian monsoon. After that, the deep convection, indicating the onset of the Indian summer monsoon, is able to develop over north India in relation to the ocean–atmosphere and land–atmosphere interaction processes. Northwest India is known to be the latest region of summer monsoon onset in south Asia. Thus, the thermal and mechanical forcing of the TP has great impact on the transition of the Indian monsoon rainfall by changing the midtropospheric circulation.

Calling on Male Allies to Promote Gender Equity in I-O Psychology

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 389-398 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shannon Cheng ◽  
Linnea Ng ◽  
Rachel C. E. Trump-Steele ◽  
Abby Corrington ◽  
Mikki Hebl
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Gender Equity ◽  
Personal Responsibility ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Gender Disparities ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Gender Inequity ◽  
Potential Barriers ◽  
Current State ◽  
The World

As Gardner, Ryan, and Snoeyink (2018) state, their findings on gender representation in industrial and organizational (I-O) psychology indicate that “the profession as a whole falls into the category of ‘not walking the talk’” (p. 385). We agree that it is imperative to understand the current state of gender inequity in our field while also actively working toward achieving gender equity. This article attempts to inspire each and every individual in I-O psychology to feel a personal responsibility to engage in behaviors that reduce gender disparities in our field. Although women are normatively the focus in fights for gender equity, men should be equal partners in these efforts. In this commentary, we focus on the contributions that male allies in I-O psychology can make in fostering gender equity. To be clear, we are not claiming that women need to be rescued by men; however, we do believe that I-O psychology can achieve the greatest progress toward gender equity when both women and men engage in supportive efforts. As Emma Watson said in her 2014 United Nations speech, “How can we affect change in the world when only half of it is invited or feel welcome to participate in the conversation?” (UN Women, 2014). In times when political leaders and national laws may fail women, it is crucial that local communities—like the I-O community—adopt a clear stance in promoting gender equity. In this commentary, we define allyship, discuss the importance of male allies, suggest ways in which male allies can help promote gender equity in I-O psychology, and consider potential barriers to male allyship and ways to overcome them. The strategies that we propose are by no means exhaustive; rather, they are suggestions for how to initiate a larger movement.

Exploring the Channels and Impact of Debt on Economic Growth

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-191
Author(s):  
Kashif Munir ◽  
Nisma Riffat Mehmood
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
South Asian ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
Public Investment ◽  
Fixed Effect Model ◽  
Asian Countries ◽  
Conditional Convergence ◽  
Macroeconomic Policies ◽  
Effect Model ◽  
Private And Public

The objective of this study is to analyse the effect of debt on economic growth as well as the channels, that is, investment, total factor productivity (TFP), interest rate and saving channel through which debt affects economic growth in South Asian countries. The study uses growth model based on conditional convergence and augments to include debt. Panel data of four South Asian countries from 1990 to 2013 at annual frequency are utilized and fixed effect model is used for estimation. The results of the study showed that inverted U-shaped relationship exists between debt and economic growth in South Asian countries. However, the most important and significant channel through which debt affects economic growth is private and public investment as well as TFP. Reducing debt accumulation alone will not rectify the problem unless the supplementary macroeconomic policies are made sound; therefore, there is a dire need to improve macroeconomic policies, good governance and elimination of structural distortions. JEL: C23, H6, O47

Restructuring for the Twenty-First Century

1996 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stanley N. Katz
Keyword(s):  
Social Services ◽  
Personal Responsibility ◽  
First Century ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Political Climate ◽  
The Press ◽  
Major Reform ◽  
Technological Level ◽  
Traditional Institutions ◽  
American Society

Today, as the demographics and culture of America change, the demands made on any number of social, cultural, and educational institutions that had their origins in the traditions of Europe and earlier American history seem almost impossible to reconcile. The current demand that these institutions serve all members of American society—people of a multitude of backgrounds, cultures, and interests—and at a higher technological level than ever before, gathers increasing weight, weight that threatens these institutions. At the same time, those with a vested interest in universities, museums, social services, and arts organizations desperately try to shore up their beloved institutions from within, with the result that no one is pleased. Reform attempts seem to lead to the creation of yet more bureaucracy, further stifling institutional ability to respond to the new needs. Goals apparently so simple and clear as "We must better educate our youth to compete in the new world economy" become complicated and muddled. To complicate all the more this process of "change"—to use the current buzzword—we are coming to realize that in tinkering with our traditional institutions, we no longer have confidence in the traditional ways of passing along our values, nor is there a strong consensus on what those values are. William E. Brock, chairman of the Wingspread Group, which was convened to study higher education, states that we must pass along to the next generation the "critical importance of honesty, decency, integrity, compassion, and personal responsibility in a democratic society." Who could disagree? The problem is that people of goodwill no longer necessarily define terms such as "integrity" and "personal responsibility" the same way. So while everyone of every political persuasion is able to agree that something must be done, it has become almost impossible to agree on what to do. Goals become either so idealistic that they are laughable or so watered down, in order not to offend any interest group, that they are useless. In today's political climate, it is clear that to call for "major reform" plays well in the press but can actually forestall any needed change.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document