Yugantar: The Dream of Bharatavarsha Takes Shape 2300 Years Ago
Yugantar: The Dream of Bharatavarsha Takes Shape 2300 Years Ago

Author: Raghavan Srinivasan

Publisher: One Point Six Technologies Pvt Ltd

Published: 2020-11-25

Total Pages: 229

ISBN-13: 9390463696

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The fourth century BCE is full of dangers and opportunities. Old republics are giving way to empires and cities. ‘Naastik’ sects are challenging the established varna system. The intellectual life of India is bristling like new shoots after the monsoon. The domination of the Kshatriyas and the Brahmanas is being challenged. State power is up for grabs. And the Macedonians are at the gates! Most people believe that Bharatavarsha is only a dream. But not the Yugantar, a brotherhood of the wisest and most selfless thinkers of ancient India. Interesting turn of events bring ordinary people from different parts of the subcontinent into the fold of the Yugantar -- a rebel blacksmith from Ujjayini, a Siddha doctor from Madurai; a doughty mariner from Muziris; a trader from Pataliputra and a widow nun from Kaushambi. They represent a microcosm of the sub-continent. Each of them is drawn towards the Yugantar by a strange turn of events. Each has a prowess which the Yugantar can mould into a formidable force. They converge in Takshashila, the centre of learning and transformation. This is the story of how their wit and determination contribute to a united Bharatavarsha.

The Concept of Bharatavarsha and Other Essays
The Concept of Bharatavarsha and Other Essays

Author: B. D. Chattopadhyaya

Publisher: SUNY Press

Published: 2018-08-23

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 1438471750

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This exploration of key terms related to social and political order, found in early Indian texts, challenges the idea of a unified ancient India and a unified national identity at that time. This collection explores what may be called the idea of India in ancient times. Its undeclared objective is to identify key concepts which show early Indian civilization as distinct and differently oriented from other formations. The essays focus on ancient Indian texts within a variety of genres. They identify certain key terms—such as janapada, desa, var?a, dharma, bh?va—in their empirical contexts to suggest that neither the ideas embedded in these terms nor the idea of Bharatavarsha as a whole are “given entities,” but that they evolved historically. Professor Chattopadhyaya examines these texts to unveil historical processes. Without denying comparative history, he stresses that the internal dynamics of a society are best decoded via its own texts. His approach bears very effectively on understanding ongoing interactions between India’s “Great Tradition” and “Little Traditions.” As a whole, this book is critical of the notion of overarching Indian unity in the ancient period. It punctures the retrospective thrust of hegemonic nationalism as an ideology that has obscured the diverse textures of Indian civilization. Renowned for his scholarship on the ancient Indian past, Professor Chattopadhyaya’s latest collection only consolidates his high international reputation.

India Secularism in Decline a Narrative
India Secularism in Decline a Narrative

Author: Dr. K.V.Sangameswaran

Publisher: Prowess Publishing

Published: 2019-04-23

Total Pages: 676

ISBN-13: 154574422X

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The title of the book is slightly deceptive in that for once it does not depict the Hindu as an arch villain in the attempts to destroy the Universal Panacea for the Indians that is Secularism. In fact the book's objective is to present what the Hindu perceives as injustice meted out to himself and his co-religionists in the skewed application of Secularism which involves the idea of New Poulism or Appeasement of the minorities. The objective again is to target the younger generation, the student audience and to present to them the other side of the story a variation of political history from the Hindu perspective as also Hindu grievances. The intent is certainly not to indoctrinate this segment of society but is an honest effort to bring it up to them knowledge about the events of the Medieval period in Indian history to which the apellation the "black hole" can be applied. The history of this period which saw the most barbaric attacks on Hindu society on an unprecedented scale any time in the history of mankind was a void which needed to be filled in so far as knowledge dissipation was concerned. There has been a deliberate attempt at ignoring the events which occurred both during Muslim invasions and that following the equally infamous British occupation. Modern historians by design were probably instructed by successive governments to draw a veil over these atrocities during this period in an effort at reducing social feuding among various communities. This book is also an effort to highlight some of the dangerous trends currently permeating through Indian society. The current narrative in this country is now moving in the direction of highlighting the effects of demographic changes, Islamic militancy, Christian evangelism and Maoism or Naxalism as it is commonly called. Of particular concern to the author is the uncontrolled migration of people from across our borders and Christian evangelism, this latter phenomenon threatening to destroy the social fabric and our native culture. This work attempts to highlight the fact that the Hindu society has unwittingly fallen into the technology trap with no safety net to protect our native culture.

The Return of the Mughal: Historical Fiction and Despotism in Colonial India, 1863–1908
The Return of the Mughal: Historical Fiction and Despotism in Colonial India, 1863–1908

Author: Alex Padamsee

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2018-11-03

Total Pages: 179

ISBN-13: 1137354941

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This Pivot explores the uses of the Mughal past in the historical fiction of colonial India. Through detailed reconsiderations of canonical works by Rudyard Kipling, Flora Annie Steel and Romesh Chunder Dutt, the author argues for a more complex and integral understanding of the part played by the Mughal imaginary in colonial and early Indian nationalist projections of sovereignty. Evoking the rich historical and transnational contexts of these literary narratives, the study demonstrates the ways in which, at successive moments of crisis and contestation in the later Raj, the British Indian state continued to be troubled by its early and profound investments in models of despotism first located by colonial administrators in the figure of the Mughal emperor. At the heart of these political fictions lay the issue of territoriality and the founding problem of a British claim to sole proprietorship of Indian land – a form of Orientalist exceptionalism that at once underpinned and could never fully be integrated with the colonial rule of law. Alongside its recovery of a wealth of popular and often overlooked colonial historiography, The Return of the Mughal emphasises the relevance of theories of political theology – from Carl Schmitt and Ernst Kantorowicz to Talal Asad and Giorgio Agamben – to our understanding of the fictional and jurisprudential histories of colonialism. This study aims to show just how closely the pageantry and romance of empire in India connects to its early politics of terror and even today continues to inform the figure of the Mughal in the sectarian politics of Hindu Nationalism.

Indian Fiction in English
Indian Fiction in English

Author: P. Mallikarjuna Rao

Publisher: Atlantic Publishers & Dist

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 328

ISBN-13: 9788171568437

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Indian Fiction In English Now Enjoys A Major Presence Across The World. From Its Humble Beginnings In The Thirties It Has Come A Long Way To Emerge As A Serious Contender To Some Of The Most Coveted Literary Prizes In The World. In Terms Of Popularity And Market Presence It Has Experienced Phenomenal Success In The Recent Years. While It Behoves Well To Celebrate Its Success And Revel In Its Glory, We Should Also Stop To Enquire Into Its Strengths And Weaknesses, Its Achievements And Failures And Its Present Status And Future Prospects Standing As We Do On The Threshold Of The Twenty First Century. The Underlying Purpose Of Indian Fiction In English, Therefore, Is To Attempt A Fairly Comprehensive Turn Of The Century Stocktaking Of Indian Fiction In English.The Anthology Puts Together Incisive And Highly Rated Articles On Almost All The Important Indian Novelists In English. Starting With The Three Pioneers, Namely Mulk Raj Anand, R.K. Narayan And Raja Rao, It Goes On To Include Perceptive And Analytical Articles On The Second Generation Novelists Such As Manohar Malgonkar, Bhabani Bhattacharya, Arun Joshi, Anita Desai, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Kamala Markandaya And Nayantara Sahgal And Finally, It Attempts An Assessment Of The Relatively Recent Entrants Into The Field Like Salman Rushdie, Amitav Ghosh, Bharati Mukherjee, Rukun Advani And Boman Desai.Among The Contributors Are Some Of The Most Respected Scholars In The Field Of English Studies In India: K.K Sharma, Saros Cowasjee, Alastair Niven, H.H. Anniah Gowda, G.S. Amur, Ayyappa Paniker, M. Sivaramkrishana, Vasanth A. Shahane, Shiv K. Kumar And S. Krishna Sarma.

Contesting the Master Narrative
Contesting the Master Narrative

Author: Jeffrey Cox

Publisher:

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13:

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Social historians today are calling into question the persuasiveness of the master narratives that have dominated our stories about the past. Motivated now by personal and professional commitments to solving problems by telling stories, not by epistemological and ontological certitude, social historians are constructing alternative narratives relevant to an expanded, more inclusive audience. The essays in this thoughtful volume reflect an explicit self-consciousness about historians' choices of narrative strategies, a new skepticism of the rhetorical strategies embedded in all scholarly arguments, and a recognition that every historian has a point of view. Critically examining past master narratives in light of emerging alternatives, these essayists ask us to reevaluate the stories we tell, the narrative traditions within which they are situated, and the audiences they are designed to persuade. The first essays explore the gendered character of social history rhetoric by exposing alternative, feminist traditions of social scientific and social historical writing. The second section focuses on alternative narrative traditions of historical writing in non-European contexts, specifically India, Japan, and China. And the third group spotlights the rhetorical uses of synthesis in the writings of social historians. The essays feature the range of narrative possibilities available to historians who have become self-critical about the pervasive use of unexamined master narratives; they show how limited that tradition can be compared with the diverse alternatives derived from, for example, gendered traditions of Latin American travel writers of the nineteenth century, Victorian women's historical writing, or the lively subaltern tradition in Indian social history. Together they argue not for the abandonment of historical materialism or the elimination of all master narratives but for the reinvigoration of social history through the use of new and more persuasive arguments based on alternative narratives.

Cultural History of Modern India
Cultural History of Modern India

Author: Dilip M. Menon

Publisher: Berghahn Books

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 206

ISBN-13: 9788187358251

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'Cultural History Of Modern India Edited By Dilip M. Menon Definitely Qualifies For Interesting Reading&The Different Approach Attempted Through The Book Indubitably Is A Fresh Endeavour For A Multidisciplinary Approach With Sociologists, Art Historians And Music Theorists Working Within A Historical Paradigm.' The Statesman, 9 December 2006 The History Of Modern India Has Been Narrated Largely In Terms Of The Nationalist Movement, Personalities And What Has Been Seen As The 'High' Politics Of The State. Recent Shifts In History Writing Have Tried To Bring In Subordinated Histories Of Regions And Of Groups. We Are Moving Towards A Wider Understanding Of Politics, History And Of The Ordinary People Who Make History. This Collection Tries To Push The Emerging Paradigm Further By Moving Away From Conventional Notions Of The History Of The Nation And Indeed Of The Political. The Six Essays In This Collection Present Original And Pioneering Forays In The Study Of Cricket, Oral History, Gender Studies, Film, Popular Culture And Indian Classical Music. Whether Looking At Issues Of Caste On The Seemingly Level Playing Field Of Cricket In Early Twentieth Century India; Or How A Nineteenth Century Housewife Comes To Pen The First Autobiography By An Indian Woman; Calendar Art Reflecting Deeper Notions Of Religion And Community; Or How An Idea Of Pure Classical Music Faces The Challenge Of Technology, These Essays Show How Ideas Of Self, Community And Art Are Formed Within A Larger Politics. Moreover, Culture Far From Being A Refuge From The Political Is Also The Space Within Which Politics Comes To Be Worked Out.

Bhangra Moves
Bhangra Moves

Author: AnjaliGera Roy

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-07-05

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 1351574000

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Bhangra is commonly understood as the hybrid music produced in Britain by British Asian music producers through mixing Panjabi folk melodies with western pop and black dance rhythms. This is derived from a Punjabi harvest dance of the same name. This book looks at Bhangra's global flows from one of its originary sites, the Indian subcontinent, to contribute to the understanding of emerging South Asian cultural practices such as Bhangra or Bollywood in multi-ethnic societies. It seeks to trace Bhangra's moves from Punjab and its 'return back' to look at the forces that initiate and regulate global flows of local texts and to ask how their producers and consumers redirect them to produce new definitions of culture, identity and nation. The critical importance of this book lies in understanding the difference between the present globalizing wave and previous trans-local movements. Gera Roy contrasts the frames of cultural imperialism with those of cultural invasion to show how Indian cultures have constantly reinvented themselves by cross-pollinating with 'invading' cultures such as Hellenic, Persian, Arabic and many others in the past. By looking at Bhangra's flows to and from India, the book revises the relation between culture, space and identity and challenges boundaries. It weighs both the uses and costs of visibility provided by global networks to marginalized groups in diverse localities and explores whether collaborations between Bhangra practitioners, largely of working class origin, give ordinary people any control over the circulation of culture in the global village. Finally, the book considers whether cultural practices can alter hierarchies and power structures in the real world.