First published in 1982. In this volume we present a collection of original papers, edited by Arvind N. Das, on agrarian movements in the populous Indian state of Bihar. These movements are traced from the early twentieth century through to the Naxalite activity of the recent past; their content and the forces which gave rise to them are examined; and the response of the state — both the colonial state and the post-colonial state — is identified. Believed to be a significant contribution to the literature on agrarian movements, which should be of considerable value to both specialists on India and to those with a more general interest in the agrarian question.
Sahajanand Saraswati (1889–1950) was a man of many parts. Monk, scholar, freedom fighter, and leader of the peasant movement, he made an impact in all these spheres. His autobiography, Mera Jeevan Sangharsh (‘The Struggle of My Life’), gives an account of his life and his attempts to reform the ills besetting his country, in religion and in politics. In doing so, it sheds light on a number of significant periods in the history of India. It is, however, the tale of the nation told from the margins, not from the perspective of the English-educated, vilayat-returned nationalist. It is written by a man with humble roots who decided to improve the life of the common masses. This is an especially relevant book in these times, when the aam aadmi has become the pivot on which election campaigns are run and won. The Struggle of My Life chronicles the remarkable life of a man who lived in remarkable times.
Bhumihars are a prominent ‘Ayachak’ brahmin community of East India. Ayachak brahmins gave up priestly duties and took up agriculture for subsistence and bore arms to protect the motherland. Ayachaks have coexisted alongside the traditional priestly Yachak class, within the Brahminical fold across India since time immemorial. Bhumihar brahmin community, though small, has a rich history of both valour and scholarship. Even as the Greeks, led by Alexander the Great, were ravaging the north-western flanks of India, a Chanakya was plotting a quiet pushback. When the successors of King Ashoka, smitten by the non-violent ways of Buddhism, were dilly dallying against the imminent threat of a Greek resurgence, a Pushyamitra Shunga rose to shake the warriors out of their stupor of non-violence and pushed back the Greeks beyond the borders of Bharat forever. When forced to use a rifle cartridge laden with beef starch, against their Hindu beliefs, a Mangal Pandey became the first one to rise in protest and soon a nation followed. The indomitable spirit of the community has inspired and dazzled with their scholarship as well. Ramdhari Singh Dinkar’s pen, drenched in the patriotic fervour of ‘Veer Rasa’, inspired many mutinies against the British. From the venerable Shri Babu, the first chief minister of Bihar in independent India, to Raj Narain, the giant killer who defeated Indira Gandhi, the community has shone in the field of politics and leadership. The community has not shied away from raising its voice against injustice and led reform movements like abolition of Zamindari and the temple entry movement. They may have lost their traditional tools of subsistence, but they still carry the twin endowments of bravery and intellect in their genes. Bhumihar ‘Ayachak’ brahmins are truly the brahmins who refused to beg.
In this compelling social history, William R. Pinch tackles one of the most important but most neglected fields of the colonial history of India: the relation between monasticism and caste. The highly original inquiry yields rich insights into the central structure and dynamics of Hindu society—insights that are not only of scholarly but also of great political significance. Perhaps no two images are more associated with rural India than the peasant who labors in an oppressive, inflexible social structure and the ascetic monk who denounces worldly concerns. Pinch argues that, contrary to these stereotypes, North India's monks and peasants have not been passive observers of history; they have often been engaged with questions of identity, status, and hierarchy—particularly during the British period. Pinch's work is especially concerned with the ways each group manipulated the rhetoric of religious devotion and caste to further its own agenda for social reform. Although their aims may have been quite different—Ramanandi monastics worked for social equity, while peasants agitated for higher social status—the strategies employed by these two communities shaped the popular political culture of Gangetic north India during and after the struggle for independence from the British.
The Second Edition of Asian Cultural Traditions expands our understanding of the bewildering diversity that has existed and continues to exist in the cultures of South Asia, East Asia, and Southeast Asia. In a single volume, the authors pull together some of the major cultural strands by which people in Asian societies have organized their collective life and made their lives meaningful. With new sections on Central Asia, Islam, Korea, and Insular Southeast Asia, this first survey of its kind draws on multiple disciplines to contextualize the interplay of culture, historical events, language, and geography to promote better understanding of a realm often misunderstood by Westerners. The skillful synthesis of a vast amount of information, boxed items featuring popular culture or current events, abundant in-text illustrations, and vivid color plates make Asian Cultural Traditions, 2/E an outstanding introduction to Asian cultures. The Second Edition welcomes the editorial collaboration of Jeremy Murray and is sure to have continued broad classroom appeal.
"Sisters of Mokama is proof that faith and courage does move mountains."—Abraham Verghese, author of Cutting for Stone The never-before-told story of six intrepid Kentucky nuns, their journey to build a hospital in the poorest state in India, and the Indian nurses whose lives would never be the same New York Times editor Jyoti Thottam’s mother was part of an extraordinary group of Indian women. Born in 1946, a time when few women dared to leave their house without the protection of a man, she left home by herself at just fifteen years old and traveled to Bihar—an impoverished and isolated state in northern India that had been one of the bloodiest regions of Partition—in order to train to be a nurse under the tutelage of the determined and resourceful Appalachian nuns who ran Nazareth Hospital. Like Thottam’s mother’s journey, the hospital was a radical undertaking: it was run almost entirely by women, who insisted on giving the highest possible standard of care to everyone who walked through its doors, regardless of caste or religion. Fascinated by her mother’s story, Thottam set out to discover the full story of Nazareth Hospital, which had been established in 1947 by six nuns from Kentucky. With no knowledge of Hindi, and the awareness that they would likely never see their families again, the sisters had traveled to the small town of Mokama determined to live up to the pioneer spirit of their order, founded in the rough hills of the Kentucky frontier. A year later, they opened the doors of the hospital; soon they began taking in young Indian women as nursing students, offering them an opportunity that would change their lives. One of those women, of course, was Thottam’s mother. In Sisters of Mokama, Thottam draws upon twenty years’ worth of research to tell this inspiring story for the first time. She brings to life the hopes, struggles, and accomplishments of these ordinary women—both American and Indian—who succeeded against the odds during the tumult and trauma of the years after World War II and Partition. Pain and loss were everywhere for the women of that time, but the collapse of the old orders provided the women of Nazareth Hospital with an opening—a chance to create for themselves lives that would never have been possible otherwise.
