The South Asianist Journal
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Can the memsahib speak? A re-examination of the tropes and stereotypes surrounding the Anglo-Indian female during the Indian Rebellion of 1857
Full text linkThis essay offers an exploration of the tropes and stereotypes that came to define the Anglo-Indian female during the Indian Rebellion of 1857. Powerful at the time, these notions of imperial femininity survived within subsequent androcentric historical discourse. Through an in depth analysis of female accounts of the Rebellion, evidence can be uncovered that gainsays these accepted \u27truths,\u27 particularly the mutual exclusivity of male and female realms. This essay documents how the dominant stereotypes of women as \u27helpless,\u27 \u27domestic\u27 and \u27passive\u27 were founded in male narratives of 1857, but also subverted in those of female authorship. The most potent and lasting trope of femininity surrounding the Rebellion, the \u27fallen woman,\u27 is also shown to be a product of a heavily gendered discourse in which women were conspicuously silenced
Empire, industry and class: the imperial nexus of jute, 1840-1940 - By Anthony Cox
Full text linkFrom the 1840s onwards, as the commercial success of jute as a packing medium grew, the fortunes of the city of Dundee, the British centre of jute manufacturing, became intertwined with that of one of Britain’s central Indian possession, Bengal. While jute cultivation, and hand manufacture was concentrated in Bengal, successes in the mechanical manufacture of the fibre led to the development of a “jute dependency” in Dundee where jute became the main employer and economic sector. After the setting up of the first jute manufacture in Bengal in 1855, the following decades witnessed the floating of many new companies around Calcutta, with Scottish – and mostly Dundonian – machines and men. By the 1890s Calcutta had become the prime centre of jute manufacture, consigning Dundee to a secondary position.cont\u27d..
Tales of the tribes: Pardhan Gond adoption of new media
No full textDocumentation of tribal culture suspends it in time confining it to archives. This view of stagnation is resented by the indigenous communities themselves, who feel that they should be allowed to develop and express themselves in modern forms. Edwards (1997) writes that “authenticity does not reside in a past that is unchanging, lacking any internal dynamic.” The Pardhan Gonds are a clan of the large Gond tribe inhabiting Central India. They traditionally served the larger tribal community as musicians, bardic priests and keepers of genealogies and sacred myths. With declining support for their traditional role Pardhan Gonds have adapted their oral traditions for the visual medium has already been adapted from auspicious designs on the walls and floors of mud huts for acrylic paintings on canvas, pen and ink drawings, silkscreen prints and large scale murals. In 2006 Gond art and storytelling entered the medium of animation in The Tallest Story Competition, a collection of animated tribal folktales from Central India produced by a Scottish based Animation Company. The Gond film Best of the Best was the most popular film in the series and the following year Pardhan Gond artist Venkat Raman Singh Shyam was invited to visit Scotland to receive a Trophy at the Inverness Film Festival for the film. Since then, several Gond artists have travelled abroad for exhibitions and Pardhan Gond painting has gained popularity in the mainstream art market. With decline in interest in oral storytelling traditions, storytelling through the animation medium may be a way of reigniting interest in culture amongst the young generation of Pardhan Gonds.http://www.gondanimationworkshop.blogspot.i
State and society reimagined: India’s novel Unique Identification Scheme as a state hi-tech fantasy
Full text linkLaunched in 2009, Aadhaar – also known as the Unique Identification Scheme – is one India\u27s latest large-scale poor-poor initiatives. With the goal of providing all of the country\u27s residents with unique, biometric-based identification numbers, Aadhaar is a particularly ambitious project, which has been depicted by the Indian government as a transformative step that will enable the poor and marginalized to access public services and welfare entitlements. At the same time, Aadhaar has also attracted a fair amount of public critique, pivoting around what is seen as the scheme\u27s potential for state monitoring and surveillance. This essay is an attempt to move beyond the normative polar opposition that composes the public debate on Aadhaar. Instead, it seeks to place this extensive government project within the framework of dreams about the state and its relations with citizens. Aadhaar, it is argued here, rests on an ideological formation that combines utopian, technological, and neoliberal notions about state and society. On a symbolic level, the scheme expresses a desire for responsive disintermediation in state-society relations, to be achieved specifically through a reformation of government ventures in the image of an entrepreneurial information technology start-up. This essay thus provides an analysis of Aadhaar as a state hi-tech fantasy, which can offer an insight into the (post-)neoliberal Indian state
To what extent was 1857 an example of colonial genocide? A study of colonial violence during the Indian Uprising of 1857-59
Full text linkThe 1857-59 Indian Uprising was a cataclysmic event in the history of the British Empire in India and would witness monumental and shocking scenes of violence on both sides of the conflict. The Uprising has become something much debated and discussed within Indian and British history, and an exploration of the fundamental brutality of the conflict, albeit in this case on the British side, is an important element of better understanding such an important historical event. This article therefore explores the British Army\u27s use of violence against Indian Sepoys and ordinary civilians during the Uprising and works to explore as to whether this approached something akin to a genocide, as has previously been suggested.
The institutional construction of ethnicity: anthropology of the Nagas
No full textThe indigenous world of Naga tribes has come to the attention through colonial ethnographies, census documentation and itineraries developed by early travel writers, botanists, foot soldiers, surveyors, tea planters and later hill administrators. Anthropological knowledge in this part of colonial India grew out of the need to control the “savage other” through imposition of “house tax” and “forced labour” that restricted their “autonomy”. This mechanism of political control was not strictly obligatory for the Nagas. Instead the hill administration worked hand in hand with the village headmen and local go between (dobashis) to establish patronage and rule of law. As Bernard Cohen (1996) has attentively argued, the administrative-ethnographic discourse was a crucial cultural technology of ruler. For the administrator-ethnographers the natives of the Naga Hills represented primitive societies almost untouched by (Western, Buddhist or Hindu) Civilizations. Jhum cultivation or slash and burn farming, head hunting rituals and slave trade practices became a key part of the colonial strategy to caricature the Nagas as savage and hedonistic. The imperial project of administering the frontier was thus justified. Textual and visual documentation of the Naga tribes gave literal and symbolic meaning to these portrayals. It led to ethic classification – ‘ethnic involution’ or ‘ethno genesis’ (Van Schendel 1992, Sumit Guha 1999) of the Nagas – social differentiation of hill people from the plains
Social science research and inclusive polices: a focus on Adivasis, Dalits and Muslims
Full text linkTISS and University of Edinburgh received UKIERI funding for an innovative collaboration on the themes of “Marginal Populations, Social Mobilisation and Development”. This thematic collaboration focuses on marginal populations – Dalits, Muslims, and Scheduled Tribes – and analyses their adverse incorporation into or exclusion from processes of development in India. A two-day workshop in Mumbai in August 2012 focused on Social Science Research and the possibilities for inclusion of Muslims, Adivasis and Dalits. It involved interactive and deliberative exchanges amongst advocacy groups, policy makers and representatives of marginal populations as well as academic experts. The discussions offered rich insights into the dynamic social contexts of marginalised groups and processes of development (defined in a broad sense). We have, therefore, sought to share some of the insights of the debates with a wider audience through this summary of the workshop
The life of two Birhor brothers: a photo essay
Full text linkThis photo essay seeks to illustrate the life of two Birhor brothers: Biru, the village pahan (priest), and his younger brother Phagon. By adopting metaphors of entrapment and entanglement, this piece explores the impact of a Government resettlement program on a nomadic community in central India. The State’s development strategies, which attempt to bring this Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG) into Indian society, highlight misconceptions about the nature of hunter-gathers. Through the prism of the Birhors material culture, the themes of primitivism, vulnerability, and entrapment will be discussed. To further highlight why the Birhors have been labelled primitive, and display how their material culture traditions have changed, I will draw parallels with the first major ethnographic account of the Birhors by Sarat Chandra Roy. This contrast with Roy will also serve as a counter-narrative that celebrates how Biru and Phagon’s community has maintained and adapted their traditions. Roy predicted the Birhors disappearance a century ago. By celebrating their endurance this essay seeks to place the Birhors\u27 own agency at centre stage rather than paint the tribe as perennial victims in an anthropology of suffering.
Making peace with the earth: beyond resource, land and food wars - By Vandana Shiva
Full text link\u27When we think of wars in our times, our minds automatically turn to Iraq and Afghanistan, but the bigger war is the on-going war against the earth\u27. Thus begins Vandana Shiva\u27s alarming exposé of what she believes is an all-out capitalistic assault on Mother Earth. Here, \u27[t]he global corporate economy based on the idea of limitless growth\u27 is presented as a \u27a permanent war economy against the planet and people\u27—comprising a combination of \u27land-grab,\u27 \u27water wars,\u27 \u27climate wars,\u27 \u27forest wars,\u27 and \u27seed wars.\u2
\u27Stardust has always told facts, not gossip!\u27 An interview with Nari Hira, founding editor of Stardust Magazine
Full text linkFor 100 years, Indian cinema and its galaxy of stars have defined the drama on screen for generations of viewers and fans across the globe. For nearly half that time span, India\u27s leading film magazine in English (and Hindi), Stardust, has been a much trusted source for some equally engaging real life drama revolving around the lives of Bollywood\u27s bold and beautiful off-screen. The rise of Stardust is a unique single-magazine-driven, 20th century media success story, that made Magna Publishing Co. Ltd. one of the largest magazine groups in India long before other publishing houses joined the trend of diversifying risk with myriad theme publications. Loved and loathed by its star subjects, consumed to addiction by its readers, and aspired for by journalists as a valuable and influential access to the film industry, Stardust remains for its founder-editor, Nari Hira, a legacy, an alter ego, and an attitude to reporting that continues to make headlines in a far more competitive and crowded space since its near monopolistic success for over two decades with a circulation of peak 300,000-plus copies and annual issues sold in black. Breaking film industry scoops may no longer be exclusive to Stardust, but a presence on its cover page still remains a dearly desired honour for many film stars. In a free and frank interview Piyush Roy, former Editor of StarWeek and Stardust, talks to Nari Hira, the uncrowned pioneer of tabloid journalism in India, and Chairman & Managing Director of the Magna Publishing Co. Ltd., on four decades of the Stardust impact story and how and why could it shape and set the agenda for film journalism in India, apart from making writing in \u27Hinglish\u27 acceptable and fashionable. Fresh insights are also provided on what went behind the making of some of Bollywood\u27s biggest scoops of the last 50 years