Social Conflict and Political Unrest in Bengal, 1875-1927
Social Conflict and Political Unrest in Bengal, 1875-1927

Author: Rajat Kanta Ray

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 1984

Total Pages: 424

ISBN-13:

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In studying the social, political, and economic history of Bengal during 50 critical years, this book unravels the complex relationship between imperialism and nationalism in Calcutta and its hinterland. Here, Ray analyzes both the long-term goals and short-term parochial preoccupations of Bengali nationalists in their struggle against imperialism. He examines how well the Bengalis fared on the all-India platform, how and why Bengali nationalism became divided within the region, and the movement's ability to penetrate from elite Calcutta to the grassroots of provincial Bengali society. Throughout, Ray effectively demonstrates that the dynamics of political change in Bengal lay in the increasing conflict between the European commercial and administrative elite and the Indian business and professional groups before, during and after World War I.

Rethinking Indian Political Institutions
Rethinking Indian Political Institutions

Author: Crispin Bates

Publisher: Anthem Press

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 1843310791

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This book explores various aspects and processes of the twentieth-century Indian state, from the central, Union government down to grassroot-level in the provinces and villages.

The Changing World of Caste and Hierarchy in Bengal
The Changing World of Caste and Hierarchy in Bengal

Author: Sudarshana Bhaumik

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2022-08-26

Total Pages: 317

ISBN-13: 1000641430

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This book challenges the prevalent assumptions of caste, hierarchy and social mobility in pre-colonial and colonial Bengal. It studies the writings of colonial ethnographers, Orientalist scholars, Christian missionaries and pre-colonial literary texts like the Mangalkavyas to show how the concept of caste emerged and argues that the jati order in Bengal was far from being a rigidly reified structure, but one which had room for spatial and social mobility. The volume highlights the processes through which popular myths and beliefs of the lower caste orders of Bengal were Sanskritized. It delineates the linkages between sedantized peasant culture and the emergence of new agricultural castes in colonial Bengal. Moreover, the author discusses a wide spectrum of issues like marginality and hierarchy, the spread of Brahmanical hegemony, the creation of deities and the process of Sanskritization, popular Saivism, the cult of Manasa in Bengal and the revolt of 1857 and the caste question. Rich in archival sources, this book will be an essential read for scholars and researchers of colonial history, Indian history, political sociology, caste studies, exclusion studies, cultural studies, social history, cultural history and South Asian studies, especially those interested in undivided Bengal.

Gentlemanly Terrorists
Gentlemanly Terrorists

Author: Durba Ghosh

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2017-07-20

Total Pages: 293

ISBN-13: 1107186668

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Durba Ghosh uncovers the critical place of revolutionary terrorism in the colonial and postcolonial history of modern India.

The Nonviolent Struggle for Indian Freedom, 1905-19
The Nonviolent Struggle for Indian Freedom, 1905-19

Author: David Hardiman

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2018-11-15

Total Pages: 294

ISBN-13: 0190050322

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Much of the recent surge in writing about the practice of nonviolent forms of resistance has focused on movements that occurred after the end of the Second World War, many of which have been extremely successful. Although the fact that such a method of resistance was developed in its modern form by Indians is acknowledged in this writing, there has not until now been an authoritative history of the role of Indians in the evolution of the phenomenon. Celebrated historian David Hardiman shows that while nonviolence is associated above all with the towering figure of Mahatma Gandhi, 'passive resistance' was already being practiced by nationalists in British-ruled India, though there was no principled commitment to nonviolence as such. It was Gandhi, first in South Africa and then in India, who evolved a technique that he called 'satyagraha'. His endeavors saw 'nonviolence' forged as both a new word in the English language, and a new political concept. This book conveys in vivid detail exactly what nonviolence entailed, and the formidable difficulties that the pioneers of such resistance encountered in the years 1905-19.

Periodicals, Readers and the Making of a Modern Literary Culture: Bengal at the Turn of the Twentieth Century
Periodicals, Readers and the Making of a Modern Literary Culture: Bengal at the Turn of the Twentieth Century

Author: Samarpita Mitra

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2020-06-15

Total Pages: 447

ISBN-13: 9004427082

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Periodicals, Readers and the Making of a Modern Literary Culture is a study of literary periodicals and the Bengali public sphere at the turn of the twentieth century, the variety of interests and concerns that animated this domain and how literary relations were seen to constitute new social solidarities.

India in the Shadows of Empire
India in the Shadows of Empire

Author: Mithi Mukherjee

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2009-11-25

Total Pages: 422

ISBN-13: 019908811X

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This book explains the postcolonial Indian polity by presenting an alternative historical narrative of the British Empire in India and India's struggle for independence. It pursues this narrative along two major trajectories. On the one hand, it focuses on the role of imperial judicial institutions and practices in the making of both the British Empire and the anti-colonial movement under the Congress, with the lawyer as political leader. On the other hand, it offers a novel interpretation of Gandhi's non-violent resistance movement as being different from the Congress. It shows that the Gandhian movement, as the most powerful force largely responsible for India's independence, was anchored not in western discourses of political and legislative freedom but rather in Indic traditions of renunciative freedom, with the renouncer as leader. This volume offers a comprehensive and new reinterpretation of the Indian Constitution in the light of this historical narrative. The book contends that the British colonial idea of justice and the Gandhian ethos of resistance have been the two competing and conflicting driving forces that have determined the nature and evolution of the Indian polity after independence.

Bengal in Global Concept History
Bengal in Global Concept History

Author: Andrew Sartori

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2008-09-15

Total Pages: 295

ISBN-13: 0226734943

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In this study, Sartori closely examines the history of political and intellectual life in 19th- and 20th-century Bengal to show how the concept of 'culture' can take on a life of its own in different contexts, weaving the narrative of Bengal's embrace of culturalism into a worldwide history of the concept.

Policing ‘Bengali Terrorism’ in India and the World
Policing ‘Bengali Terrorism’ in India and the World

Author: Michael Silvestri

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2019-07-08

Total Pages: 362

ISBN-13: 3030180425

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This book examines the development of imperial intelligence and policing directed against revolutionaries in the Indian province of Bengal from the first decade of the twentieth century through the beginning of the Second World War. Colonial anxieties about the 'Bengali terrorist' led to the growth of an extensive intelligence apparatus within Bengal. This intelligence expertise was in turn applied globally both to the policing of Bengali revolutionaries outside India and to other anticolonial movements which threatened the empire. The analytic framework of this study thus encompasses local events in one province of British India and the global experiences of both revolutionaries and intelligence agents. The focus is not only on the British intelligence officers who orchestrated the campaign against the revolutionaries, but also on their interactions with the Indian officers and informants who played a vital role in colonial intelligence work, as well as the perspectives of revolutionaries and their allies, ranging from elite anticolonial activists to subaltern maritime workers.