{"title":"Can an Electoral System Ensure Real Representation? The Poona Pact and Preferable Dalit Representatives","authors":"S. Biswas","doi":"10.1177/03769836231173045","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/03769836231173045","url":null,"abstract":"This article challenges the traditional view that Dalits† gave up their right to representation when Ambedkar signed the Poona Pact and agreed to joint electorates, which allowed caste Hindus to elect ‘failed’ Dalit candidates of the primaries in the final polls. The article shows that upper-caste Hindus cast their votes for the same Dalit candidates in the final elections who received the highest Dalit votes in the primaries through an examination of the provincial elections in 1936−1937 and 1945−1946. The article argues that Dalit candidates elected either through joint or separate electorates cannot necessarily guarantee the autonomy of Dalit representatives. It contends that only Dalit legislators having the epistemic aspect emphasised by Ambedkar and the empathetic character underlined by Gandhi can be preferable representatives of Dalit interests.","PeriodicalId":41945,"journal":{"name":"Indian Historical Review","volume":"48 1","pages":"25 - 46"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2023-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80771931","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"INA’s Model of Communal Harmony: A Way Forward Among Communal Tensions in India","authors":"Gh Hassan Wani","doi":"10.1177/03769836221136275","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/03769836221136275","url":null,"abstract":"India, despite being a small world with different cultures, religions, races and languages, has been living on the ideal of unity in diversity. This unity in diversity works on the twin principles; unity and harmony. India’s harmonious sociocultural edifice rests on some basic pillars; communal harmony, composite culture, syncretism, non-violence, common brotherhood, morality and social values, whose cementing materials are mutual trust, accommodation, adaptation, toleration, fraternity, mutual respect and progressive thought. These elements of Indian society form the base of the Indian nation and have always made India a living entity. The harmony and unity in diversity, now an international hallmark of India, has helped the country to keep up its vibrant journey and face all the odds coming with time and space. It was this unity and harmony that liberated India from colonial rule and it must be so to free India from all evils. India’s first army of liberation, Azad Hind Fauj, although primarily a revolutionary army formed to liberate India through armed revolution, was also an embodiment of unity and harmony. During its course, INA has also developed some models of unity and communal harmony which are always relevant to India, owing to their compatibility to the basic elements and tenets of Indian society. This piece of research presented here will focus on INA’s model of communal harmony vis-à-vis its relevance to contemporary and future India.","PeriodicalId":41945,"journal":{"name":"Indian Historical Review","volume":"22 1","pages":"292 - 308"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90336800","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Book review: Suhit K. Sen, The Paradox of Populism: The Indira Gandhi Years, 1966–1977","authors":"P. Roy","doi":"10.1177/03769836221140308","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/03769836221140308","url":null,"abstract":"Suhit K. Sen, The Paradox of Populism: The Indira Gandhi Years, 1966–1977. Delhi: Primus Books, 2019, viii + 294 pp., ₹995, ISBN: 9789352909421.","PeriodicalId":41945,"journal":{"name":"Indian Historical Review","volume":"657 1","pages":"331 - 333"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74734744","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Book review: Bes, Lennart, The Heirs of Vijayanagara: Court Politics in Early Modern South India","authors":"U. A. Kadam","doi":"10.1177/03769836221139978","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/03769836221139978","url":null,"abstract":"Bes, Lennart, The Heirs of Vijayanagara: Court Politics in Early Modern South India. Leiden: Leiden University Press, 2022, xxv + 567 pp., $84.00, ISBN 9789087283711 (Paperback).","PeriodicalId":41945,"journal":{"name":"Indian Historical Review","volume":"120 1","pages":"326 - 328"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72526913","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Geographical Study of Temple Desecration: The Reign of Emperor Aurangzeb in India","authors":"Anjan Sen, A. Rai","doi":"10.1177/03769836221136277","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/03769836221136277","url":null,"abstract":"The history of Aurangzeb’s reign for 50 years from 1658 to 1707 CE is an indelible part of the history of India. The Mughal Empire grew in the east and south of India, so did the religious persecution of the infidels. Their temples were demolished and their religious practices were put to end. The objective of this article is to carry out a geographical study of desecration of temples during his rule and find the possible reasons behind it. The study takes help from books written during his reign by the office bearers in his administration translated into English. Aurangzeb was of the view that temples can be desecrated any time as they cannot walk. He did issue several orders, specific as well as general, for the destruction of places of worship of the worthless infidels. The study concludes that the state of Rajasthan has witnessed the highest number of temple desecrations under his rule. From the first Muslim invasion till the modern times, the vandalism and desecration of places of worship of infidels seems to be inspired by the Islamic concept of Sunnah—which means following the sayings, teachings and doings of the Prophet.","PeriodicalId":41945,"journal":{"name":"Indian Historical Review","volume":"88 1","pages":"198 - 214"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78330104","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Woman Suffrage in Bengal (1921–1925): The ‘Great Game’ Between the Imperialists and the Theosophists","authors":"N. Das","doi":"10.1177/03769836221140203","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/03769836221140203","url":null,"abstract":"In 1921, the Bengal Legislative Council defeated the Woman Suffrage Bill. It created quite a stir because Bengal showed strong opposition to the Bill, in spite of its reputation for being receptive to progressive thought. The bafflement was complete when the same Bill was passed in the Bengal Legislative Council in 1925. Longstanding social taboos and attitudes do not change within 4 years. Therefore, the explanation for the curious voting pattern has to be sought in Bengal politics. Very little research has hitherto been devoted to this episode of Indian history. Feminist historians of 1970s were satisfied when the Indian male’s purported social orthodoxy were repeatedly cited as a blanket explanation for all regressive obstructions. In 1978, Brian Harrison suggested that British Imperial resistance to woman suffrage was essentially a crusade against communism. Although Harrison’s work gave rise to a vigorous reinvestigation of anti-suffragist movement in England, no similar enquiry about anti-suffragist movement in India was carried out. The article investigates why and how the British Raj opposed woman suffrage in India, when principal supporters of woman suffrage was the Theosophical Society, considered to be a shady Russian-funded mischief-making organisation by British Intelligence.","PeriodicalId":41945,"journal":{"name":"Indian Historical Review","volume":"45 1","pages":"273 - 291"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85007349","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"(Re) reading Chivu Stone Inscriptions: Colonial Archives, National Histories and Commemorations in North-eastern India","authors":"Deepak Naorem, Mutum Kenedy Singh","doi":"10.1177/03769836221136276","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/03769836221136276","url":null,"abstract":"There are a large number of contested spaces, objects, monuments, historical figures, events and memories in North-eastern states of India. Their commemorations often incite historical controversies, which often spill into the fragile, contested political landscape of the region. The construction of a memorial park at the site of nineteenth century stone inscriptions recently dragged these inscriptions out from historical obscurity, and hence they became another site of contested history in the region. This article historicises the creation of these contested objects and commemorations, in the local and colonial archives, and subsequent writing of national histories in the region. It will also look at the entanglements and intertextualities between these archives and local histories, and how they produced these contested objects and their numerous histories.","PeriodicalId":41945,"journal":{"name":"Indian Historical Review","volume":"19 1","pages":"249 - 272"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75208414","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"From National Revolutionism to Marxism: A Politico-historical Narrative of Origins of Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI)","authors":"B. Deb","doi":"10.1177/03769836221136271","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/03769836221136271","url":null,"abstract":"The national revolutionaries of India while in detention in the first half of the 1930s came in contact with Marxist literature. Imbibed by the Marxist view of social change, they gave up ‘terrorism’ after coming out of jails/camps. However, a sharp debate developed among them on the perception of the Comintern, its colonial policy in general and the policy with respect to the Indian freedom struggle in particular. Instead of joining any of the existing Marxist political parties, these revolutionaries formed their own parties. The Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) and Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI) are two such parties. The RSP was formed in 1940. However, a group of young revolutionaries who were with the RSP dissociated themselves and formed a ‘Platform of Action’ as Socialist Unity Centre (SUC) in 1946 and then gave birth to yet another political party, SUCI, on the Marxist–Leninist lines in 1948. The process of formation of SUCI has been analysed in this article.","PeriodicalId":41945,"journal":{"name":"Indian Historical Review","volume":"1 1","pages":"309 - 325"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89521156","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Medieval Deccan: Reflections Through the Lives of Madame Martin and Madame Dupleix","authors":"U. A. Kadam, Shelley Christine Lamare","doi":"10.1177/03769836221136268","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/03769836221136268","url":null,"abstract":"This article brings to the forefront an underexamined aspect of French Indian history. Scholars have researched on various aspects of French imperialism in India, but one aspect which remains outside the purview of many is the role played by European women who accompanied their husbands overseas. This article studies Madame Martin and Madame Dupleix and highlights their functions towards the fostering of the French colonial policy. Although indirect in many ways, they in a way contributed to the ongoing projects of the French Company. Consequently, this article seeks to present a holistic view of Madame Martin and Madame Dupleix. In doing so, mostly French sources have been used, accompanied by a Tamil source. Although there are differences between these two women, one aspect remains clear, which is their adoration for the French Company. The sacrifices they had to endure were immeasurable. The difference in time periods (seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, respectively) also had a very imperative role to play in the lives of Madame Martin and Madame Dupleix.","PeriodicalId":41945,"journal":{"name":"Indian Historical Review","volume":"17 1","pages":"183 - 197"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"91048691","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}