sumir-history

Professor Morris David Morris passes away

2011-03-17T06:44:00.001+05:30

It is reported by Dr. Frank Conlon on H-Asia Discussion forum of H-Net org that the eminent scholar Prof. Morris David Morris had passed away on March 12, 2011. Prof Morris was an authority on Economic History of India. Dr. Frank Conlon had written an obituary which can be accessed here.

An extract from the above mentioned obituary which highlights the contribution of Dr. Morris to the Economic History of India:

In 1949 Morris was appointed to the Economics faculty at the University of Washington in Seattle to teach European Economic History. Although his mentors at Berkeley had assumed he would complete a dissertation on labor unions in California, he found himself drawn back to some earlier research, and, taking advantage of the new Fulbright program, he went to India in 1951-52. There he conducted research in preparation of what would be his PhD dissertation "A history of the creation of a disciplined labor force in the cotton textile industry of Bombay City, 1851-1951" -University of California, Berkeley, Sept. 1954. Morris later described the work as being "concerned with labor as a factor of production. I sought an answer to a rather narrow economic question: did the characteristics of the labor supply constitute a bar to effective industrial discipline and thus to long-run economic development" (in his review of _Workers and Unions in Bombay, 1918-1929 by Richard Newman (1981) in _Pacific Affairs _56:1 (1983) p. 167. In time the revised work was published as _The Emergence of an Industrial Labor Force in India: A Study of the Bombay Cotton Mills, 1854-1947_ (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1964; Bombay: Oxford University Press, 1965).

During his career, Morris wrote numerous essays and chapters that opened new horizons in the history of the Indian economy and problems of economic development. Many of these challenged conventional thinking of the time and sometimes drew sharp rebuttals from other scholars. Morris was among the earliest American scholars to contribute to _Economic Weekly_ and its successor _Economic and Political Weekly_ such as "The Myth of 'Paradise Lost'-UNESCO's Study of Bombay Labour" EW 9 (6 July 1957) 857-862; "Order and Disorder in the Labour Force" EW 10 (1 November 1958), "What Is a Famine?" EPW 9:44 (November 2, 1974) 1855-1864, and "Needed--a new famine policy" EPW 10 (Feb, 1975) 283-294.

He helped define his field through his contributed essays to various volumes such as "Trade Unions and the State", in _Leadership and Political Institutions in India_ Ed. R. L. Park and I. Tinker (Princeton, 1959); "The Labor Market in India" in _Labor Commitment and Social Change in Developing Areas_ Ed. W. E. Moore and A. Feldman (New York, 1960); "Neglected Fields" in _Resources for South Asian Studies in the United States (ed. R. D. Lambert. (Philadelphia, 1962); ""The Effects of Industrialization on 'Race' Relations in India" in _Industrialization and Race Relations_ Ed. G. Hunter (London, 1965); "Economic Change and Occupational Cultures in South Asia" in _Entrepreneurship and Modernization of Occupational Cultures in South Asia_ Ed. M. Singer: (Durham, NC, 1973) and "Indian Industry and business in the Age of Laissez-faire" in _State and Business in India: A Historical Perspective_. Ed. D. Tripathi (New Delhi, 1987).

Morris was blessed with a vivacious curiosity and he offered up new ideas as pointers to further research in his field. With Burton Stein he produced "The Economic History of India: A Bibliographic Essay" _Journal of Economic History_ 21 (June 1961), followed by "Towards A Reinterpretation of Nineteenth Century Indian Economic History", _Journal of Economic History_ 23 (Dec. 1963) and "Trends and Tendencies in Indian Economic History _Indian Economic and Social History Review_ 5 (Dec. 1968) which was subsequently reprinted with papers by Bipin Chandra, T. Matsui and T. Raychaudhuri as _Indan Economy in the Nineteenth Century; A Symposium_ (Delhi: Indian Economic and Social History Association, 1969) His "Values as an Obstacle to Economic Growth in South Asia" _Journal of Economic History_ 27 (Dec. 1967) was reprinted in Thomas Metcalf's _Modern India: An Interpreted Anthology_ (London, 1971; Delhi, 1990).

Further,

Morris continued his contributions to Indian economic history throughout his Seattle years. Among his publications were "Private industrial investment on the Indian Subcontinent, 1900-1939: some methodological considerations" [review article on A.K. Bagchi, _Private investment in India_] _Modern Asian Studies_ 8 (Oct 1974) 535-555, "Selected railway statistics for the Indian subcontinent (India, Pakistan and Bangladesh), 1853--1946-47" (with Clyde Dudley), _Artha Vijnana_ 17.3 (Sep 1975)[ later reprinted in Ian J. Kerr, _27 Down: New Departures In Indian Railway Studies_ (New Delhi, 2007)] and "South Asian Entrepreneurship and the Rashomon Effect, 1800-1947,"_Explorations in Economic History_16.3 (1979) 341-361. Morris was an active participant in the major publication project led by the late Dharma Kumar and others in creation of the two-volume _Cambridge Economic History of India_. He contributed a chapter "The Growth of Large-Scale Industry to 1947" in the second volume (Cambridge, 1983) Here Morris viewed overall poverty rather than exotic religious or social values as the fundamental constraint upon development in pre-1947 India, tiny scale of units of production, extremely low productivity of labor, and very limited social investment in human capital-as measured by the high rate of illiteracy throughout the period; British investments tended to be in export industries, Indian in domestic ones; and the Raj did relatively little to promote or protect industries in India.

One Hundred and Fifty Years of American Civil War

2011-03-06T08:21:00.001+05:30

It is now 150 years after American Civil War. The Americans are showing it on Televisions and Internet.

I do not have the exact idea that how they are doing it. In any case at C-SPAN, they are showing it on internet.For their You Tube displays Click HERE.

My post is not directed towards Americans. I am seeking audience for my post in India. I am not suggesting to emulate them. The idea is to suggest that how some occasions should be celebrated making use of technology.

The reporting is borrowed from History News Network at www.hnn.us

The First in Digital History

2011-01-19T19:55:00.003+05:30

The First History Site on Internet:

The site by Lynn Nelson of University of Kansas was probably the first history site on internet. It was released by Lynn Nelson in September 1993.

The method of use of web started among the Physicists in 1991. The actual shape of the web world emerged only by 1993 as developed in University of Illinois.

The First History Department Website:

"In November 1994, Morris Pierce, ..., created one of the first departmental websites for the University of Rochester."*

Morris Pierce launched the first website for a History Department of University of Rochester.

First Computer Course for History:

"In the fall of 1994, (George) Welling developed a course in computer skills for American history students and asked them to construct an American Revolution website."*

First Most Popular Website on History:

"Welling’s site, From Revolution to Reconstruction, quickly became one of first popular history websites."*

Welling's site, "From Revolution to Reconstruction" was first such site on History which became popular.

First History Discussion List:

"In the late 1980s, Joni Makivirta, a student at the University of Jyvaskyla, Finland, started an online history discussion list."*

It was Joni Makivirta from Finland who started an email listing for history on web. He followed the model of similar email listings in the field of general sciences. Later, Richard Jensen, one of the participants in the email list of Joni Makivirta started the H-Net email listing. It has now more than 100 such email listings. It can be accessed at h-net.org

First Display of Historic Material on Internet:

The first regular display of history material on Internet was done by Library of Congress in the year 1994.

Year 1995:
The year 1995 is a historic year because in that year Marc Andreesen and James H. Clark launched Netscape browser. It replaced the earlier method of Internet which was done through Mosiac, the first most popular web browser developed by National Centre of Supercomputing at University of Illinois. The same year is important for the history related sites as since than, History related sites have continued be launched on Internet.

Source and Acknowledgement:

* Cohen and Rosenzwelg"Digital History - Guide to Gathering Preserving, and Presenting the Past on the Web" Print, Chapter 1, Exploring the History Web.

Also online version at http://chnm.gmu.edu/digitalhistory/

Centre de Sciences Humaines New Delhi

2010-11-07T10:19:00.000+05:30

Centre de Sciences Humaines ( CSH ) is based in New Delhi. It has a wesbite at www.csh-delhi.com.

According to the site description, “The Centre's activities are primarily oriented towards the study of issues concerning the contemporary dynamics of development in India, in its regional and international context.”

As per the history of the Centre given of the site, it has shifted to New Delhi from Kabul. At that time, it was working as the French Archaeological Delegation in Kabul and on arriving in India, it became French Archaeological Mission in India. The CSH was created by it in 1990. It is stated there that “n 1995, there was a shift in the research focus and the CSH became a centre specialising in contemporary India and South Asia.”

It is part of 27 research centres of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The object of the Centre is and I quote from the site that “As a research centre, the overall objective of the CSH is to examine India as an emerging power on the international scene, and to analyse the various transition processes that affect India and the South Asian region.”

It conduct many research projects with a pre-defined objectives already given on the site.

It provides the information on its activities through a news magazines which is interestingly titled “Pattrika” which is a Hindi term for magazine. The Pattrika is available online.

There are no online full length papers available on the site. However, the papers which are being produced by the Centre through research has been mentioned there with required glimpse of the contents of the papers.

I have come across the activities of the centre through the email listing of H-Asia and edited by Frank Conlon on November 3, 2010.

In battle of Wandiwash, the British company defeated the French company. I continue to read about the British empire especially its rule in India. The question comes to mind again and again that what scenario would have been there if British did not win that battle. Well, in history, you can not think like that. Even then, there remains a streaks of French presence in India. The times have changed. Now, India as a nation has matured. However, it attracts attention rooted in fascination for those nations which once ruled over India. The activities of the present governments of erstwhile imperial powers in their erstwhile colonies attract attention of any student of history. I have not gone through whole of the site and papers displayed there. But, the presence of such an institution in India definitely attracted my imagination and curiosity. The aim of the blog is to collect the the material/source on history at one place. No doubt, the institutions which are engaged in undertaking the research also come under such intellectual interest. Therefore, I include it in the list.

Kudhabaksh Oriental Public Library Patna Online

2010-06-29T21:10:00.003+05:30

It is a pleasure to write about the online Kudhabaksh Oriental Library Patna.

It is after a long time, I am putting such a writeup on this blog. This blog was envisaged to emerge as a source of original sources and related comments along with discussion on the intricacies and methodology of the craft of history. I was surprised to find this online source and that in case of India by the Indians.

First, the main attraction of this heritage site is the availability of the Rare sources online for the rest of the humanity to use. It was envisaged by the founder and his father for that. The present version was also envisaged in prophetic words by the Prime Minister of India, Jwahar Lal Nehru when on his visit to the library he wrote and I quote, "I should like to see them reproduced by the latest techniques, so that others can see them and share in this joy." That has been achieved with marvellous success in its present avatar.

The contents and format provoked in me such a sequence of thoughts which will be out of place to bring it here. However, some of the major features are the availability of the different kinds of primary sources online as envisaged by Jwahar Lal to be presented ‘by the latest techniques so that others can see them and share in this joy”. The feeling of joy is definitely there but the actual vision of its original founders remained unachieved. Anyhow, one can find in its Online Catalogues Persian and Arabic Volumes. In the collection, one can find poetry, histories, encyclopaedias, biographies, work on jurisprudence, Islamic laws, theology, medicine treatises, Quran based literature, Metaphysical and philosophical literature and miscellanies.

The Rare Collections , which was reported to have been procured by Maulvi Khudabaksh beyond borders such priceless items of antiquity, are beyond description.

In order of the things, the Album section (it is a publication of the library) deserves special mention. It is worth visiting for any antiquarian and research scholars.

I had always been critical of the government departments and e-governance policy of Indian government. However, in this case, NIC Bihar State Unit under the Department of Information Technology had accomplished the job in a manner in which such activities should be performed. They have developed the site from all perceivable requirements. The address is nicely placed. The administration of the library is described in the required in manner. However, there is some shortcoming in the navigation feature. But, on the whole, it is a online source which is precious gift for Digital Historians.

Tattered Indian Historiography

2010-06-10T14:04:00.000+05:30

J. L. Mehta had remarked that the contribution of Japial has been underrated. It is not a over statement. Rather, it is a 'matter of fact' statement. It can be put in other terms and can be said that it is one of the biggest shortcoming of Indian historiography. There are similar cases throughout the history writing in India.

There is need to define the issue underlying the above assertions. Alberuni had remarked that Indians did not have the awareness of the intellect of maintaining historic record. It is very difficult to contradict the statement of Alberuni. He was not an employ of Ghori. He was a type of a free lancer. He remained in India. He had undertaken empirical study. Then only he wrote his Tarik I Hind. He was not there to appease any patron. All these arguments favour the validation of the observation of Alberuni. Further, before Alberuni, Mahmud Ghazni deputed Fartishta to write his chronicle. Utbi covered his reign in detail. Amir Timur had to his name his autobiography. However, the scholars have found that it was got written by the Amir. Froze Shah Tughlaq wrote his autobiography though in form of small notes. Babur wrote Baburnama. Humanyun was a scholar. Akabr did not have liking for writing himself but he was highly fond of listening to the books. He had used his resources to arrange for writing and translation of many books. Jahangir had written Jahangirnama. There was a tradition among the Turkish political leaders to maintain a record. The same thing can not be said about the Indian political leaders.

Now the preceding observations are open to debate. We can say there is every reason to say such a thing that the absence and non-availability of any written record was not an evidence of its non-existence. We have cases contrary to that. Chandar Bardai wrote about Prithviraj. Kalhan and then six next authors continued to write about Rajtrangani. Every king tried to relocate his ancestry to a Puranic King. The inscriptions are found written on mathas and temples. There is every possibility that if political accounts were there, then they were destroyed. We have a case for it. It is recorded evidence that Ikhtiyarudin Bakhtiyar Khilji used the leaves books to warm the water for his bath. Bakhityar Khilji could have been a stupid person who was not able to learn the value of written books found at Nalanda. But such a justification is a very simplistic justification. It is rather a cunning way of hiding the bigger game plan which had been played by the invaders. Probably Khilji was just repeating a practice which was in force since the days of Ghori when he crossed Indus. The case of Khilji had come on record and the earlier acts were not recorded. Who was there to record? The invaders had it a part of their strategy to destroy the written records of the vanquished.

Now if there was any written record and that was destroyed by the khilji act, even then work of historians was not hampered. They had the testimonies of the foreign writers to extract the references and resurrect the history the period. However, that was not to happen. The invaders were followed by invaders. The next invader was Europeans. They were more committed. They did not have the policy of Dar-ul-harb and Dar-ul-Islam. But they had a mind set of 'White Men Burden'. It was more cruel and nasty mind set. The mind set get reflected in the first fully formulated work of J. Mills. The characterization hides beneath it the overtones of a racial invader. The issue is not that who were more racial – Nordics or Turks. The issue is the failure of Indian History. The finest example is the history of V. A. Smith published in 1904. The author and a retried bureaucrat had performed his work as per the craft of historian. But a discerning reader and analyst can easily find a truck load of paragraphs standing alone in his work which mocks at the failure of Indian historians. They are surfeited with racial bias. At many places the author just stop his narration and write a paragraph mocking at the Indian history. He had been quoted on Akbar that Akbar was a foreigner with no drop of Indian blood in his veins. The preceding and succeeding contents get dragged with the racial tinge. There are numerous such examples which could be gleaned from the book.

The above points can be authenticated by true evidences. Here, the argument is taken forward and it can be said that bit too abruptly taken forward to 1960's of Indian historiography. The European world was taken over by the spirit of post-modernist idea. They had started dismantling their own percepts of their history in light of the experiences of the post World War Second period. The Renaissance period was revisited. The concept of 'Dark Age' was dismantled, devastated, destroyed and liquidated. A new concept of Middle Ages was brought out in its place. In India, there was a chance for Indian historians to play their role. India was a free country then. It had started providing solutions to her own problems in her own terms. Historians had a chance to define India. They could also have dismantled, devastated, destroyed and liquidated the mindset about India which have been breathing life since the days of Alberuni. The task devolved upon such historians who were good analysts. But that became their shortcoming. They were good analyst. Their analytical tool was mathematical in nature. Their guru in India was an established mathematician, D. D. Kosambi who rubbed shoulders with Einstein and von Nuamann. But they were wedded to a philosophy which had a different goal which unfortunately had been missed in a miserable manner at a time when chasm between rich and poor was widening and the capitalist mindset through liberal use of impartial but more powerful technological marvels had pervaded everything which is called human.

The Marxist historians revisited the history of India with an intellectual anchor of Marxist philosophy. This became the cause of their failure to define the history of India for the the Indians. All their intellectual exercise revolved around the core of Marxist theory of fight between the classes and economic forces as the major engine of history. It was desired that they should have written history for India but they were under the subjugation of a western philosophy.

The Indian continent suffered the shower of Turkish races, the swords and hoofs of their horses from the beginning of the second millennium. After that they just poured down on Indian land and it seems if there was no one in India to stop them. Now it is a historic fact. They came, they saw and they conquered. Was there no effort on the part of the actual habitants to counter them, to oppose them and push them back? You read the history books and you find that all that is written is just the success stories of the successes of invaders. While writing about Akbar, V. A. Smith boldly wrote that there was not a single drop of blood from India in his veins. He was a foreigner, a complete foreigner. He was just there in Gurdaspur when he became the king without any territory in Indian to his name but when he died, he had his own city at Fatehpur Sikri where he was buried. It was an achievement and a great achievement from every angle. He had his son who had Indian blood in his vein. But Jahangir, the son of Akbar, was boldly proud of his Turkish origin and his son Shahjahan who had crossed over the other side of Vindhya dreamt of even conquering Farghana, totally in the different direction, the original land of their origin. Between, Jahangir and Shahjahan, there was a Prince Khusrau. The history books do not narrate much about him. His father was annoyed that the boy was imprudent. His brother took him along to south and then killed him. Later he killed his nephews also. Everyone knew about it. Jahangir knew about it. But no body spoke. Shahjahan might have destroyed every evidence of the greatness of Khusrau. Akbar wanted him to succeed him. This is how the invaders work.

There are references in Akabrnama, that Akbar had in his library more than 24000 books. Abul Fazal had it on record that his brother Faizi contributed the choicest books to the library. There was a team of fourteen writers, two each for every day, who wrote down every thing about the happenings in the court of the Mughals. Anybody could get a copy of those writings. Aurangzeb had even passed an injunctions that the minutes of the courts as prepared by the department on daily basis would not be available to the scholars in his time. There was a department and there was a system to maintain the record. Those papers were definitely kept in Agra Fort. But where are those papers? There are historians who have found many manuscript from the offices of the Mughals in different archives. But that would definitely have been a big treasure from where history of the period could have been written. But they are not available. What would have happened to them. They would have perished or was they destroyed by the English administrators the way the Khilji did to the Nalanda library. There was not one paper burning Khilji.

It was not only J. L. Mehta, who got disturbed by many patches in Indian history. Even, probably more famous and popular than him, the student of A. L. Basham, Dr. Romila Thapar had also brought on record some similar judgements in her writings. She had given an opinion that the Indian historians did not try to write history for India. They had been merely reacting and criticising what had been written about India.

The main issue is that there is a need to dismantle many of constructs which are raised by the invaders about India. Then, there is dire need to define the India as it has been existing since the antiquity. Mind it, it can only be done if you dismantle the theory of nation in making of nineteenth century. As long as Vishnu Purana is there, nation in making is a construct. The English should have burnt the Vedic literature also. However, they had a problem because there were some sick minded scholars among them whom they had called Orientalist. Those guy were bend upon preserving some of the literature. Then, it was to be followed by revisiting the India history once again. The government of India establishes committees and commission on the use of technology for empowering India. It forms groups on the judicious use of water resources. It forms groups on alleviating the poverty of the masses. Similarly, there is a need to form a group of scholars to revisit the history of India.

The Essay is Open. It means that the contents may be altered.

Edit Report
Date of Posting: June 10, 2010

Turkish Women and India: A Suggestive Topic

2010-06-04T16:51:00.003+05:30

The idea of this title came to my mind when I was reading the Mughal as well as the Delhi Sultanate history.

I am unable to understand that how had India remained under subjugation. When it is said that India as a nation a concept, did not exist, I am not able to adjust to this observation. I am also not able to refute this observation also because the facts and evidences prove that had India be a nation, it could not have remained under such a long subjugation. Even the countries like Italy and Germany which are of recent origin, they existed in a thought and that was why they came up. The divisive forces were strong. The foreign intervention was there. Some times it was the Guals and on the other hand there was the Austrain empire. But, somewhere, there was a sense of belongingness there all through their non-existence. In case of India also, there was sense of belongingness. The regions might have been under the control of different political powers, but people moved across. People bought from people across their boarders. People exchanged even cultural things across the boarder. The Raja ji was there but one could move from one side to the other. No doubt, during the Mughal period, we have on record that those people who had escaped from their villages, they were brought back to their villages. So there was sense of belongingness. The Turks came. But this sense of belongingness did not developed into a sense of preservation. There had been resistances. But there are no accounts which could bring out the feature of India as a nation.

Well, the above idea is different from what I am suppose to write here. While reading the history of the period of Mughals and the Turks, I have found that again and again there were references to the women of these people playing the role in political arena. Babur was guided by his dominating maternal grandmother. He was assisted by the Mongols when he himself had written dereogatory remarks against the Mongols. Similarly, in case of Akbar also, it was for a long time, it was the women who influenced the political acitivities of the court. The role played by this gender had made one historian, V. A. Smith to call it even a petticot government. During the period of Jahangir, the Nurjahan was dominating the whole show. The foriegn visitors had clearly recorded that how she dominated the court activities. It was other thing that she was not of Turkish lot. She was a Persian. But Jahangir was very proud to declare that he was from the Turkish blood even if he was born of a Rajput lady. On the other hand, the mother of Prince Kusrau, committed suicide when she found that her son had revolted against the father. Man Bai, the mother was a Rajput lady. Similarly in case of Shamsuddin Iltutmish, there was the dominance of women during his time as well as after his death. He had even tried to give throne to his daughter. In case of Alauddin Khilji, it was his wife and mother in law who had played a major role in making of the events as they turned up. Hence, there are enough clues to suggest that there is need to study the role of the women of Turkish clans in making of the history of India. Now comes the same proverbiale problem of sources on women. There are no specific histories written for the women. In case of Minhas, there are some pages on the character of Razia. Gulbadan Banu had written Humanyun Nama. But they are very scarce sources. However, even then, we find references here and there. There are enough references wherein there are clear cut verdict that the Turkish women had played and changed the course of history of Muslim period. There should be study on this angle.

The Corporate World of India: Jati, Sangha, Gana and Sreni

2010-02-19T18:16:00.004+05:30

Jati, Sangha, Gana and Sreni

I must first emphasize that I am not in favour of Jati system as such. However, I, being a student of history, get amused and amazed on learning that when it is claimed that times are changing and old things are dying out and new things are replacing. I till this day have not understood the actual meaning of Jati. I am called Brahmin. There are suggestions and expectation for being a Brahmin to behave in an expected manner. However, I find that many Brhamins do not follow what they preach. I find the same things in case of other Jatis.

I am not sure those who say that old is dying out and new things are replacing, do actually know that what is dying and being replaced by new. The democratic processes had changed the political arena of human life. The stories about Monarchies are now dumped in untouched titles of history books. The family system is loosing its actual efficacy and marriage system has been reduced to a social contract attended by legal mechanism. A new factor of technology is bringing out more radical and extreme paradigm shift even in the democratic world. Even new is dying out faster than the old one but no body knows what actually is dying out and what new is replacing them.

Anyhow, I came across a book, which was a Thesis published in form of a book by a name in history books of India and it is 'Corporate Life in Ancient India' by R. C. Majumdar. I found in introduction a highly arresting hypothesis which just grabbed my attention and soothed me at some subconscious level. I am not going to pass any judgement. Being a student of history, I have learnt that it is foolish to pass a judgement. The best way to treat a fact as a fact as given in a language medium is to keep on visiting it again and again with keeping alive a question or query still the actual truth behind the fact as given in a language dawns upon your perception or the mental eye. Say it cognition or perception, as you like but here I am reproducing the lines from the book which requires attention by the world of scholars.

“The spirit of co-operation was a marked feature in almost all fields of activity in ancient India and was manifest in social and religious as well as in political and economic life. The well-known ' Jati (caste)and the Samgha (the community of the Buddhist monks) are the most notable products of this spirit in the first two spheres of life. The same spirit, however, played an equally important part in the remaining ones, and its effect may be seen typified in Gana (political corporation) and Sreni (guild)."

Quoted from Corporate Life in Ancient India by R. C. Majumdar, 1920. pp 1-2.

Were Indians Ever Shocked by Their History

2009-08-10T23:23:00.000+05:30

Yet to be completed Thought. No Apologies to Alberuni because I am going to present a different view not as a nationalist history student but in line of Ranke School of Thought.

A Descendent of Shradha Ram Speaks

2009-08-10T23:21:00.000+05:30

The Contents will soon appear.

Emancipation Proclamation Breaths to Life

2009-01-20T20:25:00.001+05:30

The oath taking ceremony of Barack Obama, as the 44th President of United State of America is going to take place today that is January 20, 2009. I am writing this in India at 7.49 pm in way to feel the history as it breaths to life. I remember that it was Lincoln who spoke what latter became as Emancipation Proclamation. It read that on first day of 1863 all persons held as slaves in areas in rebellion against the United States were to be then, thenceforward and forever free.

The slaves mentioned in there were African Americans. However, nothing changed for them. In 1865, there took place the Amendment XIII which read, “Section 1, Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall existed within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Then came the Article XIV adopted in 1868. It read, “Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to ay person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Section 2. Representatives Shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of person in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of Electors for President and Vice-President of the Unites States, Representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers of a State, or the members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty one years of age and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.

Section 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or Elector of President and vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officers of any State, support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in the insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each house, remove such disability.

Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States, or any claim for the loss of emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations, and claims shall be held illegal and void.

Finally Article XV was adopted in 1870.
It read, “Section 1. The right of citizens of the Unites States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, colour, or previous condition of servitude.

The above mentioned terms and vision has been nurtured further by the blood of Martin Luther King. However, finally, today, it has starting breathing.

It is for the Europe to see that the democratic principles and the human rights as envisaged by them are made to work in North America. It is for Islamic world to see that if there is to be fight then it should be against the divisions based on colour, race, and place of origin.

However, I believe this is again a stage in gradual revelation of thought through man in nature. The process will continue and United State will soon bring in female President. It will be the final Emancipation and culmination of Abolitionism.

I love my country Bharat. I am proud to be an Indian. I admire United States of America for the achievement which she has shown now in the 21st century.

Sources used: Bailyn, Davis, Donald, Thomas, Wiebe, Wood, The Great Republic: A History of the American People, Oxford and IBH Publishing Co. New Delhi.

RTI as a Research Tool in History

2009-01-12T19:40:00.002+05:30

Is anyone surprised by the title of this post?

Well, I am not giving any thesis here. I am not going to talk about invention which I may use in research in history in India or on India. I believe that whatsoever I am going to say here had been somewhere already referred to on H-Asia list from where I am presently de-listed because I have given @satyam.net.in email address.

Now I come to the point. I fear the infringement of copyright of some website as well being of plagiarism, so I will suggest the readers to visit the motive(about) page of the National Security Archive of USA. I intently emphasis that the readers from India attentively read that how the George Washington University has used Freedom of Information of Act. I believe or you may say that I have assumed that it is somewhat similar to Right to Information Act 2005 of India. I could have done some more google on it but a recent research says that every search on google produce CO2 which is not environment friendly, therefore, I am only giving importance to the content of the page. The page further gives detail on how the archive of university is using FIA for the collection of data - an important step in the historic research. It has also shared its other and further activities.

Now, I just wonder that can the similar thing be done in India by the people engaged in the field of history?

Well, I know that there are people who had sought information on the case of Subash Chander Bose. I think, that it can be a good question or experiment to execute in India. I think if I am able to frame my idea well, I can do PhD which I have not yet done and now Sixth Pay commission will not allow me to attach word Professor to my name if I do not do or get it done or purchase PhD. (No apologies if I have trampled on the tails of many of PhDs and ready to face the music if any agency want to prosecute me for saying such a thing in such a generalized manner for all the PhDs).

And one more important point which I will like to make full force and emphasize. I have visited three of the de-classified documents on Columbian police. All the pages were in PDF form and I have not faced any difficulty in reproducing them on my computer. In case of online resources in India, you face such difficulties. Has anyone recently visited Digital history of India? For me, I now generally route my search through the pages of Wikipedia.

Dinesh Kannambadi on Wikipedia

2008-12-10T22:43:00.000+05:30

Dinesh Kannambadi is an Electronic Engineer by profession. He has interest in history and contributed to the wikipedia articles on Kannada and Karanataka History or to be more specific Hoysala, Vijayanagar Empire and Later Chalukya (Kalyani or Western Chalukyas). His interest is in architecture of the temples of Karnataka.

He does not belong to group called historians. However, I am just wondering that how he has been able to develop historic thinking on cultural aspect and then placed in the right words. I am still reading his discussions and articles on Wikipedia. There sheer depth of some of the works has made me to make this noting in form of the post. I intendly marking that he can be accessed at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Dineshkannambadi

Alberuni on Indian Historic Thinking and Historiography

2008-10-25T03:29:00.001+05:30

“The Hindus do not pay much attention to the historical order of things; they are very caeless in relating the chronological succession of things, and when they are pressed for information and are a loss not knowing what to say, they invariable take to tale-telling”. Alberuni (As described in Sachau, Alberunis India, Vol. II, P. 10 and quoted in Rama Shankar Tripathi, History of Ancient India, 1992, Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited, Delhi.)

Motive of above Reference:
I found the need of quoting the above statement of Alberuni many a time while discussing Indian historiography and historic thinking in India. Somehow, I did not get hold of this quotation. I presently do not remember that if I had made any effort to locate the above quotation on internet but, I did not find this quotation whenever I found the need of quoting it. I have read R. S. Tripathi during my college days but I did not remember that it was written. Recently I came across a copy of it and located this above quotation in the very first chapter.

I believe, those who are interested in Indian history may be equally interested in the quotation. Secondly, it is one of the purpose of this blog to collect such quotations which have need for those engaged in the craft of history writing and teaching. I also aim at identifying some highly significant sentences written by established scholars and bringing it on this blog. Therefore, I am writing this quotation here in a form of a post.

It is mere a quotation. However, the scholars know the great significance in field of history of India and Orientalist studies.

External Reference:

Abu Rayhan Biruni

(Here you can access the book by Dr. Edward C. Sachau Vol. I)

One Check Books Google here

A Side Talk
(I have a funny story revolving around this quotation concerning the thesis of one of a scholar. Unfortunately that is not meant for this blog.)

Captain Indra Passes Away

2008-10-08T15:38:00.000+05:30

On October 6, 2008, Captain Indra Rani Jhansi Regiment of INF alias Laxmi Panda had passed away. With her, the tragic aspect of Indian History and history writing have been fixed for its one sided emphasis.

Laxmi Panda was denied her dues till the end. The tragic story was that she was not given her dues because of red tapism. She was denied her dues because she did not have any jail record.

With her demise, the conspiracy theory and Indian history re-writing case has become more strong. One can not deny the place of eminence given to those people who had remained with non-violent Gandhian course of struggle for independence. However, it is wrong to deny the place to those struggles which had been undertaken with the same spirit with which satyagrahis had exerted. But alas, History is mistress of the power that matters.

However, it was the present Honourable President Pratibha Patil, who helped her to get her dues. But alas, she had suffered much by that time and did not learn even that her status had been restored. After Jalianwala Baugh episode, wherein, a local deputy commissioner failed to understand the real nature of the contributions of such freedom fighters, it is the second case which has come to light. These cases emphasis that India needs to re-examine its historiography and records. Presently when the country is again engulfed in communal mind set, there is need to find a common glue which only a right course of history writing can provide.

Source:
The Hindu

Who was Indra of Subash Chandar Bose?

2008-09-29T05:06:00.002+05:30

The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Nation

Laxmi Panda was a member of Indian National Army or Azad Hind Fauj. She was named Indra by Netaji.

It is better to remember the name of one's own father because that is required to claim the right of ancestral property. What is the need of remembering History? History is the mistress of politics. Do we remember Netaji?

Kumrahar Palibothra, Patliputra, Patna

2008-09-23T19:17:00.001+05:30

Urbanization is an important subject in itself. In making of history of any region, country and social group, the urbanization and its process determine the contours of the development effecting every aspect of the life of inhabitants.

Similarly, to know the history in right order is as important as making of a nation and its existence. This statement may not be comprehensible to many people and nor it is going to be further dilated upon here. However, there is need to emphasis that there are some cities which are more important for remembering the history and heritage of ones own country than remembering and establishing the title of the property papers of your plots in which you have indulgently invested your hard earned or luck earned money. One of such city is Kumrahar and Rajgriha.

It is Kumrahar, from where the very political identity of India as a nation has started emerging. That is other thing, many scholars will object to this statement because there is a group of scholars who believe that the very concept nation is nineteenth century concept and in India, the India as a nation started emerging only after 1870. There is need of debating on Euro-Centric and Euro-Defined and Euro-Oriented paradigm and I am ready to debate on what I have said here. This very Kumrahar then became the Patliputra of Ajatsatru, then of Sungas, Dhana Nanda, Vishnu Gupta and finally of Chandragupta Maurya. It was the same Patliputra, which was Palibothra of Sandrocotus in the Indica of Magasthense as referred to in the writing of Strabo. It is the same Pataliputra which later became the Patna.

In a news item of Times of India, it is being announced that the Bihar Government is about to bring out a book titled ‘Patna: A Monumental History’. It is coming out at a time when Bihar is suffering from the curse of Kosi. Any how, some of the extracts of the news item is reproduced below.

“Patna is pioneer among selected towns of India having run horse-drawn trams as urban mode of transport.”

“Now trams run only in Kolkata.”

“The founder of Kolkata Job Charnock spent more than a decade as the chief of Patna factory before founding the city of Kolkata in 1699 AD by integrating three adjoining villages — Sutanati, Kolikata and Govindpur.”

“The present day Patna Saheb is the oldest station of Patna. Its name changed several times, starting from Begampur, to Patna, to Patna City and now Patna Saheb.”

“The Danapur railway station, just outside Khagaul, later became the headquarters of the then `Company of East Indian Railway Volunteers.”

It is a reposting of the post which has already appeared at History in News.

A Glimpse at the Inaugration of the Supreme Court of India Building

2008-09-20T19:37:00.000+05:30

Dr. Rajendra Prasad, H.E. the President of India, Hon'ble Shri S.R. Das, Chief Justice of India, Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, Vice-President of India, Shri Ananthasayanam Ayyangar, Speaker, Lok Sabha and Shri Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister of India on the occasion of inauguration of the Supreme Court of India Building - August 4, 1958

Source and Acknowledgement:
Photo Gallery as shown on the Website of Supreme Court of India. Kindly note that this site is quite useful for the research scholars who undertake research on the judiciary, supreme court judgements and jurisprudence.

Russell, R. V. : The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India

2008-09-09T09:58:00.002+05:30

The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India by R. V. Russell is now available on Gutenberg Project from the last year.

It was one of the book coveted by me. I have read one volume by Ibbetson but when I reached this Volume, I developed some conflict with the library people. I did not return to the library. Since then, I was just repenting my decision. Now, along with J. Mills Book (that book is yet not available on Gutenberg Project but readily available from different sources), I have two books which I will read thoroughly.

The book was published in 1916. The project of such surveys had started by 1881 when the first Census of India was published. This book has been highly criticized by the nationalist historians. There is some valid arguments which they have used. By mere survey of the bibliography, it can be seen, that it was mere a work of civil servant. The very diction while discussing various castes, tribes, clans of different states, one can observe that the writer is giving mere opinion.

Further, it is only after 1920, that nationalist historians started writing about India. They started with criticism of the contents of the history. There was no serious research as such. There were many reasons for that. Even today we find that new titles are published in which totally untouched sources are used. However, the proximity of the time of publication of this book and the emergence of Nationalist Historiography of Modern India, makes it an important book. One should remember that the Discovery of India, the books by Bhandarkar, R. K. Mokerjee, and later J. N. Sarkar, et al came later.

In addition to that I have plucked out some photographs. The photographs in itself are a treat to the eyes. In the hand of a research scholars, they can be very good source especially, the upanayan yagyana photograph by Arya Samajis whom Russell had treated with supportive terms.

24 Books online: Courtesy of the UK

2008-08-31T14:50:00.001+05:30

British Council Library India has nearly 2500 books on India. According to the website of the British Council Library in India, they possess some rare books on India. Those books were published from the 17th century to 1947. Out of that collection, the Library has displayed 24 complete books (The news section claim that it has displayed 25 books.) in pdf. format.

Some of the major authors and titles are listed below.

Joseph Davey Cunningham: A History of the Sikhs. 1849

Andrew H.L. Fraser: Among Indian rajahs and ryots: a civil servents recollections and impressions of thirty-seven years of work and sport in the Central Provinces and Bengal, 1911

Edward Balfour: Cyclopaedia of India 1885

Sir William Jones and others: Dissertations and miscellaneous pieces relating to the history and antiquities; the arts, sciences and literature of Asia - Vol.1 1792

Joseph Dalton Hooker: Himalayan journals; or, notes of a naturalist in Bengal, the Sikkim and Nepal Himalayas, the Khasia mountains etc. - Vol.1, 1854

Dosabhai Framji Karaka: History of Parsis; including their manners, customs, religion and present position, 1884

There are in this manner twenty four titles available online.
It is further reported that it is a pilot project. If the readers will respond, then they may bring more books from their collection online. The email for the feed back is k.elavazhagan@in.britishcouncil.org

Controversies of Historiography of Indian Subcontinent from 1960 to 1970s

2008-08-29T20:56:00.001+05:30

To a Question that what does Marxist History actually mean, Dr. Upinder Singh had given an elaboration to Malvika Singh. It had been published in Tehelka of Tarun J Tejpal, Vol 5, issue 33, Saturday, August 23, 2008, New Delhi.

According Dr. Upinder Singh, “Well, I think there is a lot of diversity within what we describe as Marxist historiography. Marxist history writing of the 1960s and 1970s was truly path braking. It brought in an important focus on economic and social processes. It brought in marginalised and subordinated social groups. It brought in a focus on agrarian relations, class structure, forms of labour. At the same time, it is important to recognise that Marxist historiography, especially in forms in which it percolated down into classrooms and public consciousness, also did have major problems. One of the limitations was the fact that religion, for instance, was generally treated as something that was a reflection of existing social and political power relations and certainly the aesthetic dimensions of the past were not given the kind of treatment they deserved. When an ideology, - any ideology - becomes dominant, deeply entrenched in research and education institutions, and is given state patronage, it can become a major obstacle to fresh creative thinking. I think without disagreement and dissent there can be no progress in any discipline. It is also important to look at other strong ideological positions that exist in our times. You have right-wing interpretation of the past, which are constantly trying to impose a very monolithic view of Indian culture on us and are very intolerant of anyone who thinks differently.”

The above definition is complete in itself to some extent. However, Dr. Upinder, a teacher of Ancient History at Delhi University India, has obliquely referred to some controversies. The readers would be able to develop good picture of Indian Historiography in post independence India by referring to another statement made by S. Gopal, another established historian and son of Honourable President of India, S. Radhakrishanan. Dr. Upinder Singh is daughter of Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh. The statement of S. Gopal is given at the following link.
The Fear of History.

Further, an obituary by K. N. Pannikar, another established historian, which contains reference to debates of 1960s and 1970s plays another dimension and it can be accessed at the following link.
A Great Historian

Source: TEHELKA, VOL 5, ISSUE 33, AUGUST 23, 2008, TEHELKA

Frontline, Volume 19 - Issue 09, Apr. 27 - May 12, 2002, India's National Magazine from the publishers of THE HINDU

Seminar 221, January 1978

Indian history on UK school syllabus-UK-World-The Times of India

2008-08-28T20:53:00.001+05:30

Indian history on UK school syllabus-UK-World-The Times of India

It is reported that from September 2008, the student of secondary education in Britain learn that there was not something good about British Empire.

Kevin Brennan, the children's minister, said: "Although we may be ashamed to admit it, the slave trade is an integral part of British history. It is inextricably linked to trade, colonisation, industrialisation and the British Empire".

Apart from that, it learns that how did British occupy India.

It will deal with questions like, "How was it that, by 1900, Britain controlled nearly a quarter of the world?"

No doubt, one of the definition of history that it is a collective consciouness and consciousness sometimes leads to some realizations also.

Gender Studies Deserve a Fair Deal

2008-08-28T16:36:00.002+05:30

Manveen Sandhu is the author of Maharaja Ranjit Singh: Personalitas Extraordinaire. While doing research on the book, she learnt about the significance of Moran in the life of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. She had gathered so much information on her, that according to Aruti Nayar, if someone refers to her, then Manveen narrates numerous episodes on Moran and can talk on and on.

Manveen Sandhu herself remarked, “The character of Moran played hide and seek with me while I was researching my book on the maharaja.”

Moran, The Mystery Woman, which had appeared in The Spectrum, dated August 24, 2008, is based on a narrative by Manveen Sandhu and as listened by Aruti Nayar, is mainly a report on the incidences related to Moran.

The gender studies is now an important subject in history. However, one of the major hurdle related to gender studies is the scarcity of the sources. Geraldin Forbes, who had written Women in Modern India had referred to this problem in emphatic words. She had also pointed out in one of her interview that when she was about to start her research, she was discouraged by others by directing her attention to the scarcity of sources. Then, she had demonstrated in the book itself that how she had overcome that shortcoming. She was able to collect material on Tarabai, mother of Raja Rammohan Rai, from the writings of Raja Rammohan Rai and episode related to mother son relations. In the above mentioned report also, something similar has been reported. The female characters play hide and seek in the available sources. It is for the scholar to hold their hand and pull them out in open. Hence, this report is made a part of noting on this blog.

It is reposting of the similar post which appears on History in News, an associated blog.

Harneet's Definition of Pre-Hisory and Proto-History

2008-08-27T18:51:00.003+05:30

Harneet Singh, the author of His-story or Vibrant History has written following definition of Pre-History and Proto-History.
I am reproducing them here for my definition section.

Pre history

The word Prehistory has been formed of two words - Pre (Latin) which means 'before' and Greek word 'historia' which means History. the term is often used to describe the period before written history. Paul Tournal originally coined the term Pré-historique in describing the findings he had made in the caves of southern France. It came into use in French in the 1830s to describe the time before writing, and was introduced into English by Daniel Wilson in 1851.Prehistory can be said to date back to the beginning of the universe itself, although the term is most often used to describe periods when there was life on Earth; dinosaurs can be described as prehistoric animals and cavemen are described as prehistoric people.

Proto history

Protohistory refers to a period between prehistory and history, during which a culture or civilization has not yet developed writing, but other cultures have already noted its istence in their own writings. For example, in Europe, the Celts and the Germanic tribes may be considered to have been protohistoric when they began appearing in Greek and Roman texts. Protohistoric may also refer to the transition period between the advent of literacy in a society and the writings of the first historians. The preservation of oral traditions may complicate matters as these can provide a secondary historical source for even earlier events. Colonial sites involving a literate group and a non-literate group, are also studied as protohistoric situations.

Evoke History to Seek Heritage Status

2008-08-27T18:42:00.001+05:30

In a report appearing in The Hindustan Times, dated August 27, 2008, Chandigarh Edition, page 4, it is conveyed that Punjab Government will claim heritage status for Sultanpur Lodhi because it has historic association with Guru Nanak. The Chief Minister, Parkash Singh Badal stated “that the original architecture and grandeur of the town of great religious and cultural importance would be preserved while implementing various development projects.
It is added here that Sultanpur Lodhi and Ludhiana came into existence during the period of Sikandar Lodhi in order to counter the attack of Khokhars. Such historic facts should also be given due place while getting motivation for preserving heritage which is the only surety of preserving ones existence.

If Hindustan Times people happens to this post, then it is requested that they should not insist the users of their internet users to register first in order to access the links. There is no such bar in case of The Tribune and The Hindu. As a result, one may find numerous references to those newsprints on this blogs as well its associated blog like sumir-history.blogspot.com

It is a reposting of a post which appears on History in News.

Inculcate Historical Thinking as an Important Attribute of Citizen

2008-08-22T17:30:00.000+05:30

How I wish that I could have been the author of following lines:
“In other words when an event or even a process that shapes up, it does so in a social, economic, political and cultural context. And these socio-economic, political, cultural factors impinging on an event have to be studied, recognized and understood as materializing or actualizing in time or over a period of time. This according to me is historical thinking which can be nurtured and needs to be nurtured for the kids and adults as well, for historical thinking is actually an important attribute of citizenship.”

The author is S Krishna Bangalore, Karnataka, India at Developing a pedagogy for History.

The essay deals with the issue of the basic craft of the historians. It deals with the issue of using the primary and secondary sources to develop the historical thinking. Historical thinking is ability to study the facts in the perspective of time and space on the basis of the ability to learn facts from primary sources. S Krishna has been able to take the issue in a nice manner.

Nineteenth Century: An Age of Historians

2008-08-05T06:20:00.002+05:30

The essay which is being reproduced for being a classic essay on philosophy of history, was a part of inaugural address to the students of King's College for Women, University of London, October 8, 1909 and delivered by Sir Alfred Comyn Lyall.

I have intentionally borrowed a phrase from the essay itself to make it title of this post. That actually sums up my understanding of this essay. However, on further criticism and elaboration, any reader, interested in philosophy of history, may find many more points.

The essay follows:

Since I have accepted, at the request of your Warden, the honour of delivering an inaugural address on this occasion, it has appeared to me appropriate to choose, for such an audience, some literary subject. And I propose, with some diffidence, to offer a few observations on the reading of history, because in these latter days, when education has come in upon us like a flood, rising higher and spreading wider every year among our people, no part of literature is more sedulously studied than the field of history. On the other hand, this field is being very rapidly enlarged. It has been said that the output of histories during the nineteenth century has exceeded in bulk and volume the production of all previous centuries. And in all the countries now standing in the forefront of civilisation, the chief product of their serious literature is at this time historical and biographical—for I take authentic biography to be a kind of handmaid of history. It has been reported that during the ten years ending 1907 there were published in England 5498 books under the head of history, and 1059 biographies. Moreover, of those who are not actually writing history, an important number are occupied in criticising the historians.

Now the first observation that I submit to you is that the production of all history has been almost entirely the work of Europeans, among whom I reckon the American writers, as belonging by language and culture to Europe. So far as the African continent has any trustworthy history, it is in some European language. In Asia there have been annalists, chroniclers, and genealogists, mostly Mohammedan, who narrate the wars and exploits of great conquerors, the succession of kings, and the rise and fall of dynasties. And I believe that in China official record of public events and transactions has been kept up from very early ages. But if we measure these Asiatic narratives by the standard of literary merit and the demand for authentication of facts, I fear that they will be found wanting; though they may be relied upon to give the general course of important events, and an outline of the result of battles and the upsetting of thrones.

When these Asiatic chroniclers wrote of the times in and near which they were living, they were fairly trustworthy. But whenever they attempted to write of times long past and of countries unknown to them personally, their narratives became for the most part fabulous and romantic, confused and improbable, with some grains of truth here and there. Our best information regarding the earlier ages of Asia is derived, I think, from Greek and Latin literature, and latterly from the researches of quite modern scholars and archæologists. So that it may be affirmed that authentic history began in Europe, and that to Europe it has ever since been practically confined. At this day the history of all parts of the world is being written by Europeans. The result has been that for the last 2500 years historical material, collected from and relating to all parts of the world, has been accumulating in Europe.

Such masses of records and monuments necessarily require methodical treatment by men of trained intelligence and of untiring industry, learned, and accurate. Their systematic labours, their acute and intelligent criticism, have created what is now usually termed the Science of History, which abstracts general conclusions from the mass of particulars. And so, I think, we may agree with Renan, who has declared that to the nineteenth century may be accorded the title of the Age of Historians, and that this has been the special distinction of that century's literature.

Now I believe that the question, whether history is an art or a science, is not yet universally settled. But whatever may be the case in these modern days, I submit that in earlier times, and certainly when history began to be written, it was mainly an art. Indeed, it could hardly have been otherwise. In all ages and countries, from the time when men first attained to some stage of elementary culture, they have been curious about the past, they have enjoyed hearing of the deeds and fame of their ancestors, of far-off things and battles long ago. But the primitive chronicler had very slight material for his stories of bygone times—he had few, if any, documents—he was himself creating the documentary evidence for those who came after him; he could only compile his narratives from tradition, legends, anecdotes of heroic ancestors, from information picked up by travel to famous places, and so on. Yet from sources of this kind he composed tales of inestimable value as representing the ideas, habits, and social condition of preceding generations that were very like his own. Herodotus, who is our best example of the class, reconstructs, revives, and relates conversations that neither he nor his informants could have actually heard; but he does this in order to give a dramatic version of great events. In the opening sentence of his first book he says that he has written in order that the actions of men may not be effaced by time, nor great and wondrous deeds be deprived of renown. And one may notice the same style and method in the historical books of the Old Testament. In both these ancient histories the narratives represent life, action, speech, situations.

It is futile, I may suggest, to subject work of this sort to critical analysis by attempting to sift out what is probably true from what is certainly false. You only break up the picture, you destroy the artistic effect, which is at least a true reflection of real life. Moreover, it is dangerous for learned men sitting in libraries to regard as incredible facts stated by these old writers. The legend of Romulus and Remus having been suckled by a wolf has been dismissed as a childish fable. Yet it is certain that this very thing has happened more than once in the forests of India within the memory of living men. You cannot be particular about details, you must take the story as a whole.

From this standpoint we may agree, I think, that in illiterate times, and, indeed, throughout the middle ages of Europe, history-writing was practised as an art. The unlearned chronicler wrote in no fear of critics or sceptics; he drew striking scenes and portraits; he described warlike exploits; he related characteristic sayings and dialogues which completely satisfied his audience or his readers. The society in which he lived was not far different, in morals and manners, from that which he portrayed, so that he can have committed very few anachronisms or incongruities; and in sentiments and character-drawing he could not go far astray. He produced, at any rate, vivid impressions of reality, just as Shakespeare's historical plays have stamped upon the English mind the figures of Hotspur or Richard III., which have been thus set up in permanent type for all subsequent ages. At any rate portraits of this kind have not been modernised to suit the taste of a later age, as has been done with King Arthur in Tennyson's 'Idylls of the King.' And when work of this sort has been finely executed, the question whether the details are untrustworthy or even fictitious is immaterial, particularly in cases where the precise facts can never be recovered. We do not know exactly how the battle of Marathon, or, indeed, the battle of Hastings, was fought, but we have in the chronicles something of great value—a true outline of the general situation, and some stirring narratives of the clash and wrestling of armed men, compiled either at first hand from the recollections of those who were actually on the field, or else taken at second hand from others who made notes of what had been told them by those present at the battles. This, then, is what I meant when I said that in early times history was an art. Its method was picturesque.

Now my next observation is that, although the science of history has since been invented, we have, among quite modern English writers, men of singular genius, who have to some extent followed the example, adopted the manner, of the ancient annalist. Like him, they are artists, their aim has been to depict famous men, to reproduce striking incidents and scenes dramatically. Their technical methods, so to speak, are entirely different from those of the old chronicler, who sketched with a free hand, and trusted largely to his inspirations, to his own experience of what was likely to have been said or done, or to popular tradition, which is always animated and distinct. The modern historian, of what I may call the school of impressionists, has no such experience, he knows nothing personally of violent scenes or fierce deeds; he composes his picture of things that happened long ago from a mass of papers, books, memoirs, that have come down to us. Yet although style and substance are quite different, the chief aim, the design, of the ancient and modern artist in history is the same. They both strive to set before their reader a vision of certain scenes and figures at moments of energetic action—not only to tell him a story, but to make him see it. Let me give an example. Every one here may remember the story in the Old Testament (2nd Book of Kings) of Jehu driving furiously into Jezreel, how on his way he smote Ahaziah, king of Judah, with an arrow, and how Jezebel, the Phœnician Queen, was hurled down out of her palace window to be devoured by dogs in the street. And some of you may have read in Froude's History of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth his description of the murder of David Rizzio by the fierce Scotch nobles, how he was killed clinging to Queen Mary's knees in her chamber in Holyrood Palace. Now the manner, the artistic presentation of ferocious action, are in both cases alike; we have the words spoken and the deeds done; we can look on at the bloody tragedy; we have a dramatic version of the story. The ancient writer of the Old Testament probably did his work naturally, instinctively; he tells the story as he received it by word of mouth, briefly—laying stress only on the things that cut into the imagination of an eye-witness, and remain in the memory of those to whom they were related. He troubles us with no moral reflections, but goes on quietly to the next chapter of incidents. The modern historian has composed his picture from details collected by study of documents; he puts in adjectives as a painter lays on colour; yet the effect, the impression, is of the same quality: it is artistic.

Now the principal English historians of the modern school, who revived what one may call the dramatic presentation of history, I take to be Macaulay, Froude, and Carlyle. They all worked upon genuine material, upon authentic records of the period which they were writing about. Lord Acton mentions that Froude spoke of having consulted 100,000 papers in manuscript, at home and abroad, for one of his histories. Macaulay was industrious and indefatigable. Yet Ranke, the great German historian, said of Macaulay that he could hardly be called a historian at all, judged by the strict tests of German criticism. And Freeman, the English historian, brought violent charges against Froude of deliberately twisting his facts and misquoting his authorities; though I believe that Freeman's bitter jealousies led him into grave exaggerations. Then take Carlyle. His Cromwell is a fine portrait by an eminent literary artist. But is it a genuine delineation of the man himself, of his motives, of the working of his mind in speech and action? Later investigation, minute scrutiny of old and new material, suggest doubts, different interpretations of conduct and character. Take, again, his description of the battle of Dunbar, Cromwell's great victory. Carlyle explains to us the nature of the ground, the movements of the troops, the tactics, the points of attack, with admirable force and clearness—it is a marvellous specimen of literary execution. Yet recent and very careful examination of the locality, and a comparison of the evidence of eye-witnesses, have proved beyond doubt that Carlyle had not studied the ground, had made some important errors. He was, in fact, giving a dramatic representation of the battle, which, if it had come down to us from some mediæval annalist, would have been universally accepted as genuine. In short, these three artists have all suffered damage under scientific treatment.

Now I am not here to disparage Macaulay, Froude, or Carlyle. They were all, in my opinion, authors of rare genius, whose places in the forefront of the literature of the nineteenth century are permanently secure. Yet I fear that the tendency of the twentieth century is unfavourable to the artistic historian. It seems to me probable, much to my personal regret, that the scientific writing of history, based upon exhaustive research, accumulation and minute sifting of all available details, relentless verification of every statement, will gradually discourage and supersede the art of picturesque composition. In the first place the spirit of doubt and distrust is abroad, every statement is scrutinised and tested. The imaginative historian cannot lay on his colours, or fill up his canvas, by effective and lively touches without finding his work placed under the microscope of erudite analysts, some of whom, like Iago, are nothing if not critical, are not only exact but very exacting. In these days a writer who endeavours to illuminate some scene of ages past, to show us, as by a magic lantern, the moving figures brought out in relief against the surrounding darkness, is liable to be set down as an illusionist, possibly even as a charlatan or conjurer. Yet one feels the charm of the splendid vision, though it may fade into the light of common day when it falls under relentless scrutiny, and one is haunted by the doubt whether the scientific historian, with all his conscientious accuracy, is after all much nearer the reality than the literary artist. For it is seriously questionable whether the precise truth about bygone events and men long dead can ever actually be discovered, whether, by piecing together what has come down to us in documents, we can resuscitate from the dust-heap of records the state of society many centuries ago. And in regard to historical portrait painting Lord Acton has warned intending historians to seek no unity of character—to remember that allowance must always be made for human inconsistencies; that a man is never all of one piece. But cautious conclusions, nice weighing of evidence, do not satisfy the ordinary reader. The vivid impressions that are stamped on his mind by the power of style are what he mostly requires and retains; and these we are all reluctant to lose. We must concede to the writer, as to the painter, some indulgence of his imaginative faculty. Otherwise we must leave the battle scenes and the national portrait gallery to the poets and romancers of genius—to Shakespeare and Walter Scott, whose art had nothing to gain from accuracy, who have only to give us the types, the right colouring and strong outline of life and character in days bygone.

However, I think we shall be compelled to accept the change from the artistic to the scientific school of historians, though we may regret it as unavoidable. It is the vast enlargement of the field of historical study, the strong critical searchlight that is turned on all the dark corners and outlying tracts of this field, that is irresistibly affecting the work of writers, enforcing the need of caution, of scrutinising every point, of weighing evidence in the finest scales, of assaying its precise value. The contemporary writer has to deal with the huge accumulation of material to which I have already referred; he must ransack archives, hunt through records piled up, public and private, must decipher ancient manuscript, must follow the labours of the wandering collector of inscriptions and the excavator of old tombs. He has to make extracts from correspondence, diaries, and notes of travel which are coming for the first time to the light; he must keep abreast of foreign literature and criticism. The mass and multiplicity of documentary evidence now at his disposal, most of which may not have been available to his predecessors, is enormous. Some twelve years ago Lord Acton wrote: 'The honest student has to hew his way through multitudinous transactions, periodicals and official publications, where it is difficult to sweep the horizon or to keep abreast. The result has been that the classics of historical literature are found inadequate, are being re-written, and the student has to be warned that they have been superseded by later discoveries.'
What has been the effect of this altered situation upon the writer of history at the present time? On such an extensive field of operations, which has to be cultivated so intensely, he finds himself compelled to contract the scope of his operations; he can only take up very narrow ground. So in many instances he limits himself to a period, or even to a single reign, to a particular class of historical personage, or to some special department of human activity. He looks about for a plot that he can work thoroughly; he concentrates his attention upon some line or aspect of a subject in which he may hope that he has not been anticipated by others. Lord Acton has laid down that 'every student ought to know that mastery is acquired by acknowledged limitation'—he must peg out his small holding and keep within its bounds. Histories are now written by many and various hands—as in the case of the Cambridge Modern History, which already counts numerous volumes—and so the general area is divided and subdivided among experts, each of whom dips deeply into his particular allotment, and takes heavy crops off his ground. Yet the productiveness of the field at large seems still inexhaustible, for there is always some new theory to be established, some fresh vein of facts to be opened, some corrections or additions to be made. Moreover, the experts, while they toil at their own special work, while they attack a difficult problem from different sides, must nevertheless co-operate with each other. Sir William Ramsay, a noted archæologist, tells us that for a new study of history there is needed a group of scholars working in unison; that the solitary historian is doomed to failure. He adds that the history of the Roman empire has still to be re-written. The late Lord Acton, when as Professor of Modern History at Cambridge he drew out his plan for a modern history that would satisfy the scientific demand for completeness and exactitude, proposed to distribute the work among more than a hundred writers. He observed that the entire bulk of new matter which the last forty years have supplied amounts to many thousand volumes. When history becomes the product of many hands and various minds the artistic element is likely to disappear.
One obvious result of this state of things is that we hear no more of the old-fashioned histories embracing vast subjects, the work of a single author—of histories of the world, or a history of Europe like Alison's in thirty volumes. Indeed it is not long since Buckle found his History of European Civilisation unmanageable; he died before he could finish it. At the present time historical subjects are divided and subdivided by classes, periods, or even single events. Art, literature, philosophy, war, diplomacy, receive separate treatment. We have colonial histories in numerous thick volumes; though no English colony has a long past. We have histories of the queens who have reigned in their own right, like Queen Elizabeth, and of Queens Consort: we have even a book on the bachelor kings of England, written by a lady who proves undeniably that these unlucky bachelors—there were only three of them—all came to a bad or sad end. As to military historians, Kinglake's History of the Crimean War takes up, I think, some eight volumes. The whole course of the recent Boer War has been related in five substantial volumes. Neither of these wars lasted more than two years, yet both histories are many times larger than Schiller's History of the Thirty Years' War in Germany. The only edition of Schiller's work that I have found in the library of this University is in four small volumes.
Now, the drawback to the composition of histories on this ample and elaborate scale is obviously this—that the ordinary man or woman can hardly be expected to read them, or at most to read more than two or three of them. So there has sprung up a natural demand for something lighter and shorter; the amplification has produced a supply of abbreviation. The massive volumes, the heaps of material, are taken in hand by very capable writers with a clear eye for the main points, for striking incidents and personalities. The big books are sliced up into convenient portions, and served up in attractive form and manageable quantities. The work is often done with admirable skill and judgment. You thus obtain a bird's-eye view of the past; you have the loftier prominences and bold outlines of the historic landscape.
In these serials, which are deservedly popular, you can read short biographies, for example, of English Men of Letters, of English Men of Action, of famous Scotsmen, Rulers of India, Heroes of the Nation. You have also a story of all the nations in series, and thus you can limit your mental survey to separate periods, events, countries, and figures. You are carried swiftly and adroitly over the dry interspaces which lie between startling incidents or between supremely interesting epochs.
Now I have no doubt that these series, which contain much sound information very skilfully condensed, have been of real service in the propagation of historical knowledge. On the other hand, we have to consider that this kind of reading is disconnected in style and subject. The reader can make a long jump from one period to another, or from the statesman of one century to another who flourished in a very different country and age. And the handling of these diverse subjects is not uniform; the points of view or lines of thought are various, and may be contradictory. It may be expedient to warn those who use these excellent summaries against the habit of neglecting the great English classics for short biographies or compendious sketches of periods and personages, as if one could learn enough of Edmund Burke, or Milton, or Oliver Cromwell, or master the events of some important period, from a well-written serial in some two hundred pages.
The demand for these historical handbooks has evidently been created by the spread of general education, which stimulates the laudable desire to learn something about subjects of which it is hardly respectable, in these days, to be ignorant. Such knowledge is very useful to those who have no leisure for more; and it is far superior to mere desultory reading, to the habit of picking out amusing bits here and there. Yet I hope it is unnecessary to impress on earnest students of history that they must go further; must push up as near as possible to the fountain heads of the rivers of knowledge; must make acquaintance with the masterpieces of literature—that their reading must be continuous and consecutive.
Now those among you who are studying for University honours have no need for any advice from me; they are well aware that the wide expansion, in these days, of the field of history has raised the standard of examinations, and that they must be prepared for questions testing a candidate's critical acumen, the breadth and depth of his reading, much more closely than was required formerly. But there must also be many here present who have no examinations in front of them, who have no ardent inclination or even leisure for abstruse labours. And I presume that all of you read history for a clear understanding of past ages, of the acts and thoughts of the great men who illustrate those times. You all desire to comprehend the sequence and significance of events. You feel the intellectual pleasure of appreciating rightly the character and motive of the men and women who stand in the foreground of our country's annals, and also of those who are famous in other countries, to know how and why they rose or fell, whether they deserved the success that they won, or won it without deserving it. Moreover, for us English folk, who live at the centre of an empire containing races and communities in various stages of political development, the lessons of history have a special value. They teach us to judge leniently of acts and opinions that appear to us irrational and even iniquitous as we see them in other backward countries at the present day. We learn that manners and morals may not be unchangeable in a nation; that fallacies and prejudices are not ineradicable; that even cruelty, tyranny, reckless bloodshed, are not incurable vices. For history tells us that some of the nations now foremost in the ranks of civilisation have passed through the stages of society in which such things are possible. And thus we can study the circumstances and conditions of political existence which have retarded the upward progress of certain nations and accelerated the advance of others. Such inquiries belong to the philosophy of history. When we read, for example, the history of England in the fifteenth or sixteenth century, we find that our ancestors, born and bred in this same island, kindly men in private life and sincerely religious, intellectually not our inferiors, yet, when they took sides in politics or Church questions, did things which appear to us utterly cruel, against reason, justice, and humanity. To remember this helps us to realise the difficulty of passing fair judgment not only on the conduct of our forefathers, but upon the actions and character of other peoples and governments that are doing very similar things at the present time in other parts of the world. We shall find it an arduous task to assign motives, to weigh considerations, to acquit or condemn. So that, to the politician of to-day, history ought to be an invaluable guide and monitor for taking an impartial measure of the difficulties of government in troubled or perilous circumstances. Yet one sometimes wishes that the record of the fierce and bitter struggles of former days had been forgotten, for it still breeds rancour and resentment among the descendants of the people that fought for lost causes, and suffered the penalty of defeat. The remembrance keeps alive grievances, and the ancient tale of wrongs that have long been remedied survives to perpetuate national antipathies. Moreover, in some of the most celebrated cases known to our own annals, we are never sure that we have the whole case before us, for the historians give doubtful help, since the best authorities often take opposite views, as, for instance, on the question whether Mary Queen of Scots was her husband's murderess, or a much injured and calumniated lady. The admitted facts are valued differently, interpreted variously, and made to support contradictory conclusions. The latest historian of Rome, Signor Ferrero, sums up a long and elaborate dissertation on the acts and character of Julius Cæsar by a judgment which differs emphatically from the views of all preceding historians. On some of these disputed questions we may make up our minds after studying the evidence; but many historical problems are in truth insoluble; the evidence is imperfect and untrustworthy.
These, then, are some of the warnings we may take from history. We must not be hasty about condemning misdeeds of past generations, whether of the rulers or their people. The times were hard, so were the men; they were encompassed by dangers, while we who criticise them live in ease and safety. And when we hear at the present day of misrule and strife and bloodshed among other races—in Asia, for example—we may remember our own story, and we may trust that they also will work their way upward to peace and concord.
But the truth is that, as our knowledge of the past is very imperfect, so also our predictions of the future are very fallible. The best observers can see only a very short way ahead. History shows us how frequently the course of affairs has taken quite unexpected turns, for good or for ill, forward or backward. On the whole, we may believe that the main direction is certainly toward the gradual betterment of the world at large, though the theory of progress is quite modern, for the ancients looked behind them for the Golden Age. Nowadays we trumpet the glory of our British empire; yet at intervals our confidence in its fortunes is shaken by some sharp panic; the decline and fall of England is predicted. It is, indeed, perilous to be overconfident, to live in a fool's paradise, for some of us have seen in our lifetime the sudden catastrophes that have overtaken great empires. But history may comfort us when we read how often the downfall of England has been predicted, how we have been on the brink of shooting down Niagara, as Carlyle declared, or threatened with imminent invasion, with total loss of commerce and colonies, with defeat abroad and bankruptcy at home. And yet our country is still fairly prosperous and free, and as for invasions, we may still trust that, as Coleridge has written:

'Ocean 'mid the uproar wild
Speaks safety to his island child.'

But on the whole history gives political prophets little encouragement—we cannot foretell the future from the past. Nevertheless, there is some truth in the saying that history is like an old almanac, if we may take this to mean that, although the same events never happen again in the same way, yet in the great movements of the tide of the world's affairs a sort of periodical recurrence, an ebb and flow, may be noticed. For example, we know that from the fifteenth until near the end of the seventeenth century the Asiatic armies of the Turkish Sultans were invading and conquering South-Eastern Europe—they reached the gates of Vienna. Then followed a swing backward of the pendulum, and from the eighteenth to the end of the nineteenth century the European Powers, Russia and England, were each extending a great dominion over Asia. Again, up to a few years ago, the Turkish empire was a barbarous despotism, and we all believed that it must break up and be extinguished. Yet it has now revived in a new form, which may possibly restore its power and prosperity. To search for and distinguish the operating causes, the powers that underlie these incalculable changes, is a task for the student of history.
There must be many of you for whom these high problems have a strong attraction, who enjoy rapid flights over the broad surface of history, wide outlooks over the past and future. Now, I admit that bold generalisations are hazardous, unless founded upon very solid knowledge; but in historical as well as in physical science they are needed to sum up results, to bring facts into focus. They enable us, so the late Lord Acton has said, to fasten on abiding issues, to distinguish the temporary from the transient.
The late Lord Acton, who, as you may remember, was Professor of Modern History at Cambridge, is reckoned by general consent to have surpassed all his contemporaries, at least in England, by his encyclopædic, accurate, and profound knowledge of history. His reading was vast, his learning prodigious, his industry never slackened. Yet the literary production of his life is contained in three volumes of essays, lectures, and articles; he has left us no complete book. Indeed, his writing is so disproportionate to his reading that one is tempted to liken his luminous intellect to a fire on which too much fuel had been heaped; the ardent mind glowed and shot up its streaks of radiance through the weight of erudition that overlaid it. Among Lord Acton's published papers is a 'Note of Advice to Persons about to Write History,' of which the first word is Don't. But he then proceeds to jot down some hints and maxims, brief and caustic, for the benefit of those who nevertheless persist in writing; and to some of these I commend the attention of readers, since upon readers as well as upon writers lies the duty of forming careful opinions, of judging impartially, in working out their conclusions upon the events and personages of past times. For Lord Acton was an indefatigable researcher after truth; his standard of public morality was austere, lofty, and uncompromising. I myself venture to think that he was too rigid; he admitted no excuse for breaches of the moral law on the pretext, however urgent, of political necessity; he refused to allow extenuation of violence or bloodshed even in times of great emergency. 'The inflexible integrity of the moral code,' he said, 'is to me the secret of the authority, the dignity, the utility of history.' Now this is hard doctrine for most of us to follow when we set ourselves, as students, to condemn or acquit, to blame or to praise the prominent actors in the drama of our national history. On that stage, as we all know, the real tragedies that stand on record were sanguinary enough, and the parts occasionally played in them by our ancestors were of a sort that now appear most unnatural and indefensible to their descendants. Yet most of us are disposed to regard with some leniency even the crimes of a violent and lawless age.
But however this may be, some of Lord Acton's counsels are undoubtedly valuable as warnings or for guidance, either as lamps to show the right road, or as lighthouses to keep us from going wrong. His inaugural lecture at Cambridge on the Study of History is full of precepts, maxims, warnings, injunctions, all of which may be pondered by students with advantage. We are enjoined, for example, to beware of permitting our historic judgment to be warped by influences, whether of Country, Class, Church, College, or Party; and it is said, by way of driving home the warning, that the most respectable of these influences is the most dangerous. But very few writers, and, I suspect, not many readers, can hold their mental balance quite steadily, can weigh testimony on either side of a question quite dispassionately, when our Church, or our Country, perhaps even our University, is concerned. Nor is it easy for students to find historians who are entirely unmoved by bias of these kinds, who have neither a theory to prove, nor a cause to support, nor a hero to be exalted, nor a sinner to be whitewashed. Indeed, the wicked men of history have always found some ingenious advocate to defend them by attempting to justify bad acts on the ground of excellent motives and intentions, of the exigencies of the situation, or other excuses and explanations. It is certain that some of the worst crimes on record, assassinations and savage persecutions, have been defended on pretexts of this kind, by allegations of patriotism or devotion to a faith. Not many weeks have passed since a dastardly murder was perpetrated in London, close to this spot, by a crazy wretch who declared himself a patriot.
So we may profitably lay to mind Lord Acton's stern denunciation, not only of criminals in high places, but of all, high or low, who pretend that foul deeds may be justified by asserting pure motives. Let me quote again from Lord Acton. He has said: 'Of killing, from private motives or from public, eadem est ratio, there is no difference. Morally, the worst is the last; the fanatic assassin, the cruel inquisitor, are the worst of all; they are more, not less, infamous, because they use religion or political expediency as a cloak for their crimes.' He affirms elsewhere that crimes by constitutional authorities—by Popes and Kings—are more indefensible than those committed by private malefactors. And he holds that the theorist is more guilty than the actual assassin; that the worst use of theory is to make men insensible to fact, to the real complexion and true quality of conduct. He would probably have insisted that journalists and others who instigate political crimes are at least quite as bad as the actual criminal. Herein, at any rate, we may thoroughly agree with him, though the question whether the intercourse of nations and their Governments can be strictly regulated by the same moral standard which rules among individuals, does raise difficult points for the conscientious student of history. We have to remember that no power exists to enforce international laws or police, so that every Government has to rely upon its own strength for the defence of its people and the preservation of its rights.
On the whole, I do not know any recent works that may be more profitable for advice and guidance in reading history than these three volumes of Lord Acton's. They contain the essence of his unceasing labours in collecting, comparing, and testing an immense quantity of historic material. They are particularly valuable for the flashes of insight into the deeper relations of events, for brief, sententious observations in which he sums up his judgments upon men and their doings. They are not to be taken lightly; they demand all your attention, for the style is compressed and packed with meaning; and the author seems to expect his readers to be prepared with more knowledge than, I think, most of us possess. His allusions take for granted so much learning that they occasionally puzzle the average man. For example, in one of his essays he makes a passing reference to 'those who in the year 1348 shared the worst crimes that Christian nations have committed.' What these crimes were he does not say; and how many of us could answer the question off-hand? Certainly I could not. But the lectures and essays abound in far-ranging ideas, and show profound penetration into historic causes and consequences. Some of the essays, written in comparative youth, betray here and there a natural leaning towards the Church of Rome, in which he was born, and against Protestantism; yet his hatred of intolerance and despotism, spiritual or temporal, was sincere and intense. In politics he was a Liberal, yet he saw that Liberal institutions, representative government, are by no means a sure and speedy remedy for misrule in all times and countries, as in our day simple folk are apt to suppose. In writing of the condition of Europe during the earlier middle ages he observes: 'To bring order out of chaotic mire, to rear a new civilisation and blend hostile and unequal races into a nation, the thing wanted was not Liberty, but Force.'
Here is a bold and clear-sighted deduction from the lessons of history, which revolutionary politicians in Asia, where no nationalities have yet been formed, may well take to heart. Parliamentary institutions, as Lord Acton has well said, presuppose unity of a people.
Scattered through these volumes may be found, indeed, certain brief paragraphs which, as they contain the essence of much learning and deep thought, may well set us all thinking. In a remarkable essay on the historical relations of Church and State Lord Acton observes: 'The State is so closely linked with religion, that no nation that has changed its religion has ever survived in its old political form.' Here again is a striking generalisation which a student might set himself to verify by careful examination of the facts.
And now I will make an end of my address by quoting one more remark of Lord Acton, in which he gives his definition of history taken as a whole. 'By universal history,' he says, 'I understand that which is distinct from the combined history of all countries, which is not a rope of sand, but a continuous development, and is not a burden on the memory, but an illumination of the soul. It moves in a succession to which the nations are subsidiary. Their story will be told, not for their own sake, but in subordination to a higher series, according to the time and the degree in which they contribute to the common fortunes of mankind.'

Source:

Gutenberg Project

Post Script:
The above essay, being a part of the Philosophy of History and especially the Cambridge School of History which is the core of Colonial History, will be referred to again and again in this blog at appropriate places.

An Act of Public History by TATA STEEL in India

2008-04-27T14:20:00.002+05:30

Before I begin with the actual contents of this post, I desire to make some points.

The Trend of Centenary Celebrations: What is Missing?
In India, 2007 and 2008 are becoming years of commemoration. I believe that this trend will continue now because every new year is a centenary year of some historic event related to India’s Struggle for Freedom. It is rather an understatement because this thing had been taking place every year. I was a young collegiate when I heard about the centenary year of founding of Indian National Congress. This year, or rather 2007, had been 150 anniversary of 1857 Indian Uprising. It was also a centenary year of Shahid Bhagat Singh which the film industry had already celebrated somewhere in 2000 to 2003 when five movies on Shahid Bhagat Singh had been released. However, as a student of history, I remember 2007 as the 150 anniversary of University Education. There was no celebration as such. I have written about it here and there. I have located very few references to it even in the press. Similarly, 2007 is also historic centenary of corporate and capital market world. No body is celebrating it. However, the inheritors of that legacy have done a commendable work by bringing alive a website celebrating that event. It is called Celebrating 100 Years TATA STEEL 100.

Case for Public History in India:
Before I talk about the website of celebration of 100 years of steel making in India, I seek attention to another dimension which has come into play with this site. The Public History is a full fledged subject now. It has been taught in foreign universities and activities are being undertaken as per the findings and theories of Public History. However, same thing is not happening in India. There had been some movies in India which can been identified as a case in practice as per the craft and theories of Public history. There was Rang De Basanti, Maine Gandhi ko Nahi Mara and Gandhi My Father. Now this site is another chapter which follows the norms and rules of Public History in India. Public History may not be a subject in Indian Universities at present but with such activities going on the side line, I believe that soon there will some papers or specialization in the Public History in India in Indian University academic world.

100 Years in Defining a Nation
Now let me share with you some of the contents of the site of 100 Years of TATA STEEL which for me as a student of history and a teacher, conveys more meaning as a subject of history than a display by the owner of his own story.

There are twenty web sheets on the history of the Tata Steel related story under the link History embed in the title Heritage. Each sheet contains precious capsule of historic information. The second sheet titled “The birth of a pioneer” traces initial years of Jamsetji Nursserwanji Tata and coming of an opportunity of starting an iron industry in India facilitated by the surveys of the British government in India. In the third sheet the story takes you to Charles Page Perin. The fourth page brings to the site where presently the Bhilai Steel plant has come up. The fifth sheet is about the research of P N Bose in Mayurbhanj. The sixth sheet talks of locating of Sakchi. The seventh sheet can be identified for the tribute paid by Jwahar Lal Nehru to Jamsetji N Tata. The eighth sheet talks about the Swadeshi Movement and its relation to the rise of the Tata Iron and Steel Company (TISCO as it was known earlier) - a dimension which should have been a part of the general history but it is not. No doubt, with the rise of the capital market and shift in study of the history of economic and corporate growth in India, this story has become an important chapter therein. The ninth sheet talks about the historic day of February 16, 1912, when the first steel ingot was rolled out the plant. The sheet tenth contains that proverbial statement of Sir Frederick Upcott wherein he vowed to eat every steel that the TISCO plant was supposed to produce and which once the Tata Steel Industries made a part of its advertisement jingle. The eleventh sheet tried to remember the hard times for the company and the commitment of the management to pawn their own assets to keep the dream alive. The twelfth sheet is somewhat out of order because it again takes back to 1910 to record another dimension of expansion of the company when it tried to acquire colliery. Secondly this sheet again have the photograph of Sir Dorabji Tata which also appear on sheet eleven. On the other hand every other sheet displays an exclusive rare picture related to TATA STEEL. The thirteenth sheet moves fast in narrating the contribution of TATA STEEL during the Second World War and to independent India upto founding of new cities and dams. The fourteenth sheet tells about the coming up of a family of steel companies which was using the TATA STEEL. The fifteenth sheet introduces to all encompassing vision of TATA STEEL wherein the company has established training institute for the men of steel. The fifteenth page again elaborates upon the future looking vision of the company responding to shifting paradigm in ever changing technology driven history. The sixteenth page talks about the vision of Jamsetji for making Sakchi a Jamshedpur. The seventeenth page continues with the saga of coming up of Jamshedpur. The eighteenth page talks about the social business policy with its historic significance and relevance. The last page ends with hope of continuing with the same zest based on nationalism, furthering social cause mixed with business.

Apart from a textual and snapshot narration of the saga of TATA STEEL, there is a link which displays the landmarks of this saga in flash display which however has to be operated through mouse. It displays the sage of TATA STEEL up to 2007 when the company has become a global player in the steel industry.

Then there is use of flicker show also where the whole story is again repeated with the photographs.

With three type of display available with Information Technology, the company has given a good display of Public History activity which I, as a teacher of history, find quite impressive and informative. There is need to stress here that in India, even the universities have not yet exploited the idea of Public History.

Exploiting the sources of video display there is a set of small movies which however include some advertisements also. However, I am not able to watch these movies because of small internet connection (browsing only with a 112 kbps channel) which I use to access the net.

In Gallery section, one can virtually go through a picture album which again I am not able to exploit because of the slow speed and large quantity of data available there. Apart from the album, there is history of advertisement used by the company. In people section, three pioneers have been venerated in a befitting manner.

In the vanguards section, one can study the second rung of leadership something similar to the nobles of Delhi Sultanate study which had been a trend in medieval India history in academic field.

Similarly Story of Steel is also a good reading section.

It is a good activity in the field of Public History. It is also a centenary of an activity in the life of a nation apart from the sacrifice of martyrs. Such activities have also made the nation. I believe that it was such activities which had defined the nation.

Unexplored Documents, Conspiracy, Lahore and Indian History

2008-04-12T09:10:00.000+05:30

A report has appeared in Jalandhar Edition of The Tribune Chandigarh on April 10, 2008.

It has been reported that the Desh Bhagat Yadgar Committee had requested the Chief Justice of India to request his counterpart in Pakistan for details of contents of 10 cases related to Lahore Conspiracy Case and photographs of 40 convicts who were transported to the ‘Kalapani’ - Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

It is reported that the committee had sought the details of the following cases:
Lahore conspiracy case (September, 1915)
Lahore supplementary conspiracy case (March, 1916)
Lahore second conspiracy case (January 5, 1917)
Lahore third conspiracy case (March 2, 1917)
Lahore fourth conspiracy case (May 26, 1917)
Lahore city conspiracy case (June 11, 1917)
Anarkali murder case Lahore (February 20, 1915)
First Akali conspiracy case (November 8, 1921)
Babbar Akali conspiracy case first supplementary (May 18, 1922)
Babbar Akali conspiracy second (November 8, 1921-22)

Conspiracy as a Term:

In present days, the Conspiracy as a term has acquired a selective meaning. However, many of the historic events during the colonial period of Indian History are identified with the term conspiracy. There is a need to change this term which could only be done in rightly full manner if the research is undertaken after re-interpreting the history. I borrow from another article which appeared in the same newspaper few days back as a right comment on the need of bringing such documents immediately under the scrutiny of the historians. Chaman Lal wrote in his article Stamp of Martyr as follows:
“Bhagat Singh’s correspondence makes for an interesting, unexplored and significant area of research in context of the Indian revolutionary movement.”

I reframe this comment. There are numerous documents that have remained untouched which are required for unexplored and significant research in context of the Indian Revolutionary Movement.

The sources used:

The Tribune, Chandigarh, India
April 10, 2008 and March 22, 2008.

Was it an Administrative Blunder by British East Indian Company against Sikhs during the uprising of 1857?

2008-03-21T17:34:00.001+05:30

A battle was fought in Chattra District in October 1857. The rebels were defeated and their two leaders, Jai Mangal Pandey and Nadir Ali Khan were executed in Chattra. During the battle the European soldiers had also died. A contingent of Sikhs soldiers, who were part of Rattary’s Battalion (Presently, 3 Sikh Battalion of Indian Army) had also fought to suppress the uprising in Chattra. Some of the Sikhs soldiers of Rattary Battalion had also died. It is on record that those Sikhs soldiers were buried along with English soldiers near Catholic Ashram, which is one kilometre away from Chattra city. There is a Divisional Forest Office nearby. The inscription on the cemetery reads,
“In the grave are buried "The 56 men of Her Majesty's 53rd Regiment of foot and a party of Rattrys sikhs who were killed at Chatra on October 2, 1857 in action against mutineers of the Ramgarh Battalion.”

Rattrays Sikhs was a battalion raised by Captain Thomas Rattray of 64th Regiment of Bengal Army as per a decision of British East India government taken in 1855. The battalion was to be a Corps of Military Police. It was raised in Punjab out of the Sikhs soldiers who had fought in Anglo Sikh war against the British forces. It was raised as Bengal Military Police Battalion.

BLUNDER:
It is known fact that the as per the Sikhs religious rites, they are cremated. They are not buried. However, in the episode mentioned above, the Sikhs were buried. The same fact is displayed on the Government website of the District of Chattra.

A Disclaimer
I understand that the Pandits of History would strongly object to the above type of posting. It is in a way, a journalist kind of reporting wherein in a scoop is being reported. The readers may find a motivated reporting here. However, my only intention is to bring out an activity or an incidence which went against the established belief of one community. I accept somewhere by nationalism is working behind the site to report this. However, even then, I will plead that it is an attempt to bring out an incidence which could be used as an evidence and argument by those historians who want to counter the Cambridge or Pan Britannica History.

Source:
Official Site of Chattra District of Jharkhand State of India.

Rattrays Sikh on Sikh Philosophy Network.

The Quasi Commercial Library of Gods

2008-03-09T10:02:00.000+05:30

I have been browsing this site for long.

It is all Nine:

Exactly nine years back, on ninth March, 1999, this site became alive on the cyberspace.

It is a library of “electronic texts about religion, mythology, legends and folklore, and occult and esoteric topics.”

I kept thinking about writing about this site. I thought out numerous titles for this site. During the course of the tumult in thoughts, I had been going through the contents of this site. The site owner, John B. Hare, California, equates it to a ’Public library’. I had thought of calling it Gyan Marga as per Advita Philosophy of Shankaracharya. I had even thought of calling it a Concert of Gods. I had been thinking of similar titles also. Finally, I decided to make a noting on this site on this very day, which is an anniversary of the site. I however, call it Quasi Commercial because I am unable to break away from the present realities. The owner has called it Sacred-Text.

I was undecided about writing on the contents of this site. It is beyond my capabilities and learning. Hence, I am only making a note of it here on my blog for the time being. No doubt, I will definitely come out with separate posts on the contents of this site which as per the owner is all about the texts and the texts written by dead people a long time ago. However, there are text which were not written at all by any identifiable being. In order to use the terminology of scholars of Linguistics, in which the owner of the site himself is trained, it is site of texts which is full of Shrutis and some Smritis (revealed and written out of memory).

Desired Ethics and Norms for Internet Scholarship

2008-03-05T22:24:00.001+05:30

Manan Ahmed had commented on the resolve of Danah Boyd as follows:
“Danah Boyd wrote her resolve to publish only in open access journals. I couldn't agree more - being an ardent supporter of scholarship that is freely accessible. One of my biggest complaint about our academic world is about the inaccessibility of research to anyone without institutional affiliation or a hefty bank account. The impact of which is that, academic work in the humanities remains largely confined to a handful of readers and commentators.”

Continuing with the ethics desired from the internet scholars, rather scholars as such, Ahmad had taken two case studies of Harvard University Resolve and the mission and motive of JSTOR. He mentioned about the help he had rendered to his friends in Delhi and Karachi. He had done so because he knew that there in Delhi (or may in Karachi also, apologies as I am from India) it was not all that smooth to get “institutional affiliation or a hefty bank account.”

He had pointed that “the Sciences were so far ahead of the Humanities on the Open Access issue.”

He also observed that “JSTOR results were already included in Google searches (through scholars.google.com but, often, also in normal search).”

All his observations are sounding music to my ears.

The open Access issue had attracted my attention when Google launched Google Print (Now Book Google.) The Google was threatened with legal warnings.

The Google Book is online now. There are many books which are available online. I have collecting such links wherein one can find the whole book or an article online.

Now wonder that whether I have stopped buying the books and journals. The answer is big “NO”. It is rather that I have bought more books, journals and magazines (I have other interests also and most of new subscriptions are related to other fields) after taking to blogging where I usually collect links to complete books. The only change in my reading activity that had occurred is that I have reduced my visits to the libraries. There is so much on the internet now that one can develop his arguments and material provided he has the right knack for mining the internet. The reduced visits to Libraries is also a different issue as such. It is not that the need of Library has been reduced. It is a different story that why I do not visit library now. However, the actual activity in pursuing your sources for developing an argument in order to write an article or notes for your professional use has remained the same. The availability of appropriate material through internet is an added facility. The actual activity of reading, collection, classification, deriving inferences, and then writing has remained the same. Getting a PDF of a good article does not reduce your activity for pursuing the knowledge. No, not at all. You have to undergo the same process in order to learn and then disseminate. I believe that Open Access just make you more effective by reducing the time to acquire the required material. It also reduce the cost. The main beneficiary is the society for which all such resources were generated through huge grants on which the copy right claims have been acquired by the practitioner. As one of my friend jokingly commented on a work of a scholar when he published the letters of Lala Lajpat Rai as his research work that the letters belonged to Lala Lajpat Rai and now copyright would be enjoyed by the bugger whereas the funds came from the taxpayers money. Joke apart, the Open Access is something which appeals and demands for new norms in the field of learning, education and research with the advent of new technologies which facilitate the communication among the scholars.

Sources Used:
Cliopatria: A Group Blog on History New Network

Seed of Varna System in Purush Sukta

2008-03-05T07:02:00.000+05:30

बराह्मणो.अस्य मुखमासीद बाहू राजन्यः कर्तः |
ऊरूतदस्य यद वैश्यः पद्भ्यां शूद्रो अजायत |

The above lines belongs to 10th Mandal of Rig Veda as 90th Sukta. It has been attributed with the status of religious sanction to the social differentiation of Indian society in four varnas or classes. It is argued that the four classes later became the anchor sheet of complex caste system based on Jatis in the social order and social differentiation of Indian social system. This theory is propounded by Marxist Historians and carried by the NCERT books adopted by CBSE board in India. It has become the basis of various thesis of the Indian scholars for explaining the development of caste system in India. According to the thesis of A. L. Basham, the tenth Mandal was compiled around 1000 BCE and it is the latest mandal. The caste system of India developed later as an edifice of Indian social system with Purusha Sukta forming the foundation of the system.

In the above mentioned lines, the word rajanya is used for the Kashtriyas. Now it is a question to be verified that when did the word Kashtriya replaced the word Rajanya. The Punjabi form of Kashtriya is Khatri. I am not an linguistic expert and can not explain this transformation. However, those Punjabis who generally call themselves as Punjabi belong to Khatri class. They are supposed to be the warrior class of the Indian society. The warrior class of medieval period call themselves as rajputs. The word Rajputs has more affinity with the word rajanyas. On the other hand, the Khatris are not generally found among the warrior class now these days. They do not divide themselves into castes or jatis. They divide themselves into Parivars. They are mostly found in the field of business which is a field meant for Vasiyas and Sudras. In case of film industry of India, especially Mumbai film world, we find Kapoors, Puris, Chopras, Chawlas, Khannas, Mehras etc who are all Khatris. The other Parivars which considers themselves of a superior scales like Sonis, Jalotas, Sobtis, Suds and some parivars of Malhotras are mostly found in business field of India. The Arora Khatris who generally call themselves as Soods, Sahdevas, Chadhas, Vermas and many of them call themselves as Chugs, Chopras, Chawlas etc but with different gotras in order to form a Parivar are found in the field of trading and artisans class. I understand that some of my observations are subject to criticism by the Khatri clans but this is what I have learned from Khatri class people at the time of organising their marriages and death rites.

Further, the word Shudras has appeared in the above mentioned richa. The scholars declare that this word appears only here in the whole of Rig veda. It means that the ideas of Shudra had appeared by 1000 BCE. The earlier words are Panis, Dasu and Dasuya.

Anyhow, my only motive is to identify the above mentioned Richa which is considered to be a starting point in the field of social history and sociological explanation of Indian Society.

Source:
Internet Sacred Text Archive

Indian Carnival

2008-02-28T20:51:00.001+05:30

Indian Carnival on history or in other words, Carnival of Indian History has appeared on the cyberspace. By now, two editions have appeared. It is notified that the new carnival will appear on 15th of every month.

It seems that it is well received by the world of bloggers. I have learned about it from an established blogger at Worldhisotryblog.com. Secondly, a noting is also made on the site of History News Network.

In the second carnival, JK of Varnam had included posts under twelve points. With such a carnival, the readers will find articles totally related to Indian history and historiography. It is a good thing to happen.

The Carnivals on history are there for some time by now. They are quite popular. It is an effective activity in the field of intellectual exchange in the field of history. As per the History Carnival Aggregator, there are eight such carnivals. All of them are quite popular. They are well organized and planned. I have found The History Carnival of great interest to me. It is also a fortnightly affair and well participated. Then there are carnivals like Carnivalesque, Asian History, Military history, Four Stone Hearth, Genealogy, Biblical Studies and Bad History.

Bill Turkel had once written a post similar to carnival which was well received.

I have found the appearance of Indian History Carnival quite interesting. However, it has made me to think about some related issues. Is it a sign of progress or a development in the field of carnivals? There is a carnival of Asian History. It appears quarterly. I have found that the organizers keep on encouraging the participant to host the next carnival. The Asian carnival is generally hosted by Frog in the well. They take up the posts which are mainly related to Fast East. In the recent carnival, there was no post on Indian History as such. They have covered the posts on China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and some related issues. But there are many regions which have never found any representation on the carnivals. Should it be believed that there is a kind of fragmentation in such an activity? Similarly, the History Carnival takes issues which are Euro Centric or Western world oriented. They do cover many issues. But there are some such topics about which the people of other regions are not familiar with. Similarly, there are some civilizations like Incas, Aztec and Mayas which are not commented upon or written about more frequently. I have found a little mention about the African continent. If we consider and welcome the Indian Carnival, then it can be appreciated only if we expect that it is a positive branching out of carnival culture in history. Soon, there may appear more carnivals dedicated to nations, regions, culture, civilization and trends. The carnivals like Military history, Four Stone Hearth, Genealogy, Biblical Studies and Bad History are dedicated carnivals. Therefore, similar branching out of carnivals should be welcomed and appreciated. I consider the coming of Indian History Carnival from that perspective. It is a branching out of the carnival culture.

However, some care should be taken about such branching out. There should not be overlapping of the carnivals. It has been taking place but it is a difficulty which can be well tackled if some activity continue to take place in that direction. I mean to say that there should be more branching out of similar carnivals. There should be carnival dedicated totally Chinese history. In case of H-Asia email listing, I have found scholars taking issues on Chinese history more than other issues. Similarly, there should be carnival on African continent and may be on Arab countries also. I hope that such carnival will remain in the realm of intellectual activity as the present carnivals have remained quite balanced and mostly unblemished.

Similarly, trend based and period based carnivals should also emerge. I suggest that the scholars may take a clue and tips from email listing on H-Net.

On the whole, I welcome the Indian History Carnival.

Macro History: A Definition

2008-02-24T11:32:00.000+05:30

Mark Hall writes, “macro-histories are comparative studies of cultures and civilizations through time and across the globe. They often attempt to explain how the modern world came into existence, and they also often utilize an evolutionary perspective.”

The definition has been given by Mark Hall while writing a review on the book, “The Rhythms of History: A Universal Theory of Civilizations by Stephen Blaha, Auburn, New Hampshire: Pingree-Hill Publishing. ISBN 0-9720795-0-5”.

The review is available at Human Nature Review.

I am starting a new category of Definitions in History. I will comment and collect such definitions under such category.

Historicism of World History was favoured by Dr. H. D. Mathur

2008-02-22T10:46:00.002+05:30

Dr. H. D. Mathur is more popular as Lala Hardyal. Lala Hardyal was an Indian revolutionary. He was General Secretary of Ghadar Party which organised an armed revolt in 1914. The Ghadar was response of the Indian youth against the oppression of colonial rule of Britain. It had followed the Indian national response to the colonial rule which had been variably called as Moderate period of Indian freedom struggle and peaked in form of Wang Bang Movement of 1905. It is other thing that many historians had termed it as a regional affair. After the Ghadarist were arrested, the world war had started. During this period, the revolutionary movement passed a period of hiatus. Even the Indian nationalist gave full support to the war efforts. Thereafter, the Indian struggle was again taken over by leaders like Bal Gangadhar Tilak which reached its zenith in form of Lucknow Pact. It was followed by Gandhian form of struggle of freedom. In between, especially after 1922, a chapter of communal politics was added to Indian struggle for freedom. It was during this period that the revolutionaries had again organized themselves.

Dr. H. Mathur had written his book, “Hint of Self Culture” during this period which was finally published in 1934 or to adopt his idea of historicism, then in 6934 A. H. (The idea of Anno Historia or A.H., as propounded by Dr. H. Mathur, will be taken up in other post.). In the preface of the book he had written thus.

“In this little book, I have tried to indicate and explain some aspects of message of rationalism for the young men and women of all countries.”

It was with that motive and spirit, he had studied the Historiography in the chapter titled Intellectual Culture. While giving his views about the role of history in formation and development of the personality of an individual, he studies his idea of History. He is not in favour of Nationalist History. He believes that mere political history is no history. He does not reject the concept of Political history but believes that the subject of history covers many more important aspects of the achievements and evolution of man. He has studies the idea of intellectual culture from the perspective of space, time and matter which happens to be the vital functions in the study and writing of history. During the course of elaboration, he has given his idea of history for which he gives a list of topics which should be covered under the subject History. The syllabus, if it is permitted to put it like that, is rather a definition of the idea of World History. The list is reproduced below. The comments on the list as well the thought which has gone into making of this list will be taken up in other post. The list follows.

THE CREAM OF HISTORY

You should first read several good treaties on World-history in general, and then concentrate especially on the following periods, movements and personalities

(1) Early Egypt, Sculpture and Architecture.
(2) Akhanaton: his Life and Work.
(3) War between Persia and Hellas.
(4) Greek Democracy and Socialism.
(5) Greek Philosophy from Thales to Plotinus.
(6) Greek Art (Sculpture and Architecture).
(7) Homer's “Odyssey.''
(8) Greek Tragedy, (AEschylus, Sophocles, Euripides).
(9) The Scientists and Scholars of Alexandria in the third century B.C.
(10) The Hebrew Prophets.
(11) Origin and Growth of the Christian Church: its Martyrs and Apostles.
(12) Zoroaster and the Rise of Zoroastrianism.
(13) Buddha and Buddhism in India. Asoka. Jainism.
(14) Nagarjuna and the Mahayana. Gandhara Sculpture.
(15) Kung-fu-tzu (Confucius); Mencius, and their movements. Lao-tse and Taoism.
(16) Early History of Rome. Democracy and Republicanism.
(17) Class struggles in Rome.
(18) The Reign of Justinian. Roman Law. Byzantine Art.
(19) The Rise of Monasticism in Egypt. The Orders of St. Basil and St. Benedict.
(20) Spread of Christianity in Europe. Irish Saints and Scholars.
(21) St. Francis and his Order. The Spiritual Friars.
(22) Muhammad and early Islam.
(23) The Islamia Renaissance; Moslem Philosophy and Science. (Ninth to twelfth century)
(24) Sufism and its Saints.
(25) The Dervish Orders.
(26) Persian Didactic Poetry.
(27) The Tang Dynasty in China. Progress of Buddhism and Chinese Painting.
(28)The Gupta Empire in India. Indian Literature and Art. The Ramayana.
(29) The Sassanian Period in Persia.
(30) The Renaissance in the Byzantine (ninth A.D.). Photius and Arethas.
(31) Early Renaissance in Europe (second and third century) (Here in I have corrected the dates.)
(32) The war between the Communes of Lombardy and the Emperor.
(33) The Great Renaissance in Italy and Europe (fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. (Here again I have changed the terms)). The New Schools and Colleges. Democracy at Florence. Italian Painting. Sculpture, and Architecture.
(34) The Vaishnava Saints of N. India. Reformers. Modern Hindu Sects, Tamil Saints.
(35) The Buddhist Religious Leaders of China and Japan: their Sects and Schools. Japanese Sculpture.
(36) The Sung Philosophers in China.
(31) Discovery of the Cape route and of America, Columbia.
(38) The Protestant Reformation, Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Anabaptists, Puritans, Socinians, Non-conformists in England and America. Gustavus Adolphus. The Dutch War of Independence.
(39) India's War of Independence against the Moguls. Mogul and Rajput Painting. Mogul Architecture in N. India. Hindu Architecture in S. India.
(40) Progress of Science since 1400 in Europe and America.
(41) German music from Bach to Wagner.
(42) Modern English Poetry. French Tragedy and Comedy. German Drama, Lyrics, and Short Stories. Russian Novels and Ballet. French and English Landscape-Painters.
(43) Modern Democracy. English, American and French Revolutions. European and South American National Movements. Parliaments. Abolition of Slavery.
(44) Socialism in Europe. The Russian Revolution. The Jesuits in Paraguay. The Communist Colonies of N. America.
(45) Modern Philosophy and Religion. Positivism. Spinoza. Spencer. Free thought and Ethical Movements in Europe and America. Theosophy. The Brahmo samaj. Bahaism. Oomoto in Japan.
(46) The Peace Movement. Esperanto. The League of Nations.

These are the really important and instructive periods and movements in history. If you wish to extract the very cream of History for your personal development, you may go further and concentrate only on the following abbreviated list.
(1) The "Odyssey," Greek Tragedy. Greek Philosophy. Greek Art (Sculpture and Architecture).
(2) Lives of Rama, Krishna, Zoroaster, Confucius, Mencius, Laotse, Mahavira, Buddha, Mani, Muhammad, Yuan Chwang, Rabia, Nanak, Bodhidharma, Chi-Kai, Luther, Calvin, Fox, Bab, Baha-ullah, Honen, Shinran, Nishiren, Wesley.
(3) History of Early Christianity.
(4) The Order of St. Benedict and its work.
(5) The lives of Petrarch, Erasmus and the other Scholars of the Renaissance. Vittorino and other Educationists.
(6) Chinese and Italian Painting. Japanese, Gandhara and Italian Sculpture. Goethic Cathedrals. Islamic Architecture in Spain and India.
(7) German Music.
(8) English Poetry. Shakespeare. French Comedy. German Lyrics. Goethe. Russian Novels. Tolstoy and Dostoevsky.
(9) Modern Democracy.
(10) History of Modern Science and Education.
(11) Modern Socialism and Communism.
(12) Modern Philosophy. Rationalism. Positivism and free thought.
(13) Modern Internationalism and the-League of Nations.

Source:
Hints of Self Culture by Har Dayal M. A. Ph.D. London, 1934.

A Storehouse of Primary Sources (Persian) on Medieval India

2008-02-11T20:30:00.001+05:30

One can find a store of original sources on Medieval India translated into English from Persian, and Urdu at The Packard Humanities Institute, Persian Literature in Translation. The site of Packard Humanities Institute declares, “The Packard Humanities Institute (PHI) is a non-profit foundation dedicated to archaeology, music, film preservation, historic conservation, and early education. PHI is located in Los Altos, California.”

There are some of the established sources like the book by Eliot and Dowson titled “The History of India, as Told By Its Own Historians” also available on the site.

I had not studied any major work on Medieval India for sometime by now. I have copies of works by Irfan Habib, J. N. Sarkar and Alam with me but most of my time is taken by Modern India and American history. I have many questions on Medieval Period of India which have remained answered because I did not have access to original sources or some better book. I have just studied one of the chapter by Abbas Khan Sarwani in his book Tarikh-i Sher Shahi”. From there I found the answer to a question which had remained in my mind since my graduation years. I had studied A. L. Srivastva and then J. L. Mehta in detail. I was highly impressed by the personality of Sher Shah Suri. However, in A. L. Srivastva, it was written the ancestors of Sher Shah Suri had come from Afghanistan in search of employment. I was never satisfied with the explanation given in there. Now, after reading Sarwani account I have learned that how Behlol Lodhi encouraged that migration.

One can find nearly 140 authors starting from 1100 A. D. to 1750 A. D. Khafi Khan is not included but there are Abu Fazal, Utbi, Yahya Ahmad Sarhindi, Mawlana Jalal al-Din Rumi, Nurul Haq Dehlvi, Muhsin Fani (it is a pseudo Name, I did not know.), Sultan Jahangir, Harcharan Das, Gulbadan Begum, Farishta, Firdawsi, Fayzi, Faqir Delhvi, Munsi Sujan Rai Bhandari, Budh Singh Hatri, Barani and many more.

Acknowledgement:
I acknowledge that I have located this source on the site of Wikipedia.

Personal Library of Arvind Gupta

2008-02-10T19:49:00.001+05:30

Arvind Gupta Toys. This is the name of the personal library of Arvind Gupta which is available on line at Arvindguptatoys.

Who is Arvind Gupta? Well those who had been watching the UGC programmes on Dordarshan Network or presently watch Gyandarshan, they would have definitely watched his programmes. A Kadar clad lanky, broad headed and bearded person has been showing to the rural children how to make experiments with commonly found items. If one can remember, then recollect a person who had been using cardboard, pins, safety pins, glass of water, bottle straws etc to perform the general experiments in Physics which form the part of +2 syllabus even.

I suggested this site to one of my colleague who is professor of Physics. He himself is a highly versatile personality. One can just watch his lessons on Physics with amazement. He has used flash software to demonstrate the lessons on light, conduction, electricity current and many such items. He has also developed lessons in the field of biology explaining numerous process and diagrams which has been produced with the help of a Botany scholar who has recently completed his doctorate degree. After learning about the site of arvind gupta and you tube resources, one day he came back exulting with great happiness because he had filled his laptop with many live demonstration of topics in Physic. I casually remarked that many of them are available on the site of Arvind Gupta also. He retorted back that along with You Tube contents, the whole of Arvind Gupta site has been dumped on his laptop. He was beaming with energy as he felt that he could now show an active experiment virtually on every topic which he had been teaching undergraduate of science. This is what the Arvind Gupta Toys are all about.

However, being a history teacher, how I am interested in this site. Well, two of my posts, one on E. H. Carr and other on D. D. Kosambi, are based on the contents available on this site.

Then who is this Arvind Gupta? I straightway quote the whole citation on him which runs as follows:

“Shri Arvind Kumar Gupta, after graduating from IIT Kanpur, in 1975, joined TELCO, Pune and worked there for a few years. In 1978, he took one year’s study leave from TELCO to work with the grassroot village science teaching programme for children in the tribal district of Hoshangabad, Madhya Pradesh.
While working in Hoshangabad, he developed many useful low-cost teaching / science teaching aids using locally available materials. The possibilities of using ordinary things for doing science and recycling modern junk into joyous products appealed immensely to children. Shri Gupta’s first book “Matchstick Models
and other Science Experiments” was translated into 13 Indian languages by various Popular Science groups and sold more than half a million copies. His science models and toys were widely featured in daily newspapers and magazines across the country. Since then he has written 10 books and translated over 45 books on science, environment and education. He has conducted science workshops for children and teachers in over twelve hundred schools across the country. Shri Arvind Gupta has presented over 70 TV
programmes on science based fun activities, innovative toys and teaching aids on the national television. These films have been made by the NCERT and the UGC countrywide classroom. He was also featured as the Green Guru on the popular TV programme titled “Living on the Edge”.

Shri Arvind Gupta’s outstanding contribution in designing science teaching aids for young children has been recognized by several international organisations such as UNESCO, UNICEF, International Toy Research Association, Halmstad University, Boston Science Centre, MIT (Media Lab), Walt Disney Imagineering and Research, Auhof Rehabilitation Centre, Hilpolstien, Germany and the International Play Association, Finland. As a UNESCO consultant on science education he has been invited to share his experiences in science teaching with teachers of several developing countries. He has been actively associated with the Bombay Natural History Society, Conservation Society of Delhi, Spastic Society of North India and the Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti. He is an advisor to the National Book Trust on popular science books. He has received several awards for his outstanding contributions. These include Eklavya Award (1982), the inaugral National Award for Science Popularisation amongst Children (1988), Hari Bhau Mote Award of the Marathi Vigyan Parishad (1988), a special award given by the National Association for the Blind for designing teaching aids for pre-school blind children (1991), Granthali award for his book Khel (1992), Ruchi Ram Sahni Award for science popularisation (1993) and the Hari Om Ashram Award by the UGC (1995).”

Gutenberg of India: Gutenberg of India, is the remark made by a reputed newspaper on the website of Arvind Gupta. Well it is not that. It has rather its own feature and contents.

The site as such is not attractive. However, the main page has three main section consisting of links. They are viz Books, Toys and Films. All the three sections can give there own introduction if one explore each link. However, I here point out the book section. The Book section has further four sections which are English, Hindi, Marathi and Combinations. Those who are interested in Hindi literature or Sahitya, they may explore Hindi and Combinations section. They may take months together to explore the literature available on those two links. The English Books section in itself is divided into subsections. The main sections are : Books by Arvind Gupta, Books on Maths/Science Activities, Books on Education, Books on Environment/Anti-War/Peace, Isaac Asimov’s “Science Fact” Masterpieces (Virtually whole of the work), Children’s Books, English Translations of Russian Classics, Newberry Medal Winners, Inspiring Books, Books by Laurie Baker, Science Comic/ Picture Books by Prof. Jean-Pierre Petit, Books by D. D. Kosambi, and some secondary links.

It is under the links “Inspiring Books” and “Books by D. D. Kosambi” hat the students of history may find some old books which can be used as secondary sources. These books are available in form of Zip files or PDF files. They are easily accessible, a feature which you do not find even on Digital Library of India, which aims at bring one million books online.

On the whole, as per one newspaper report, there are 7000 books available on this site. Remember that online Liberty Library has 1000 books and Gutenberg has by now 20000 books. In any case, apart from the contribution to the popularization of science in India, Arvind Gupta’s site is an example of best ICT source and model which can be developed in the field of learning, teaching and knowledge sharing.

Source of Photograph: A social Website promoted by Tina Munim Ambani (link will appear soon)

To the Readers of Munshi Premchand

2008-02-07T21:11:00.001+05:30

I am made to write this post because I have been receiving too many visitors to this blog only because of the post on Munshi Premchand Ki Kahaniya.

Some of the visitors have left the comments to that post. It seems that after visiting the site Munshi premchand ki kahaniya, some visitors have developed this impression that blog of stories is my creation. They have left words of praise for me. First of all, I thank them for visiting my site. I also appreciate and thank them for putting words of praise on my blog.

Now, I categorically state that the above mentioned blog is not my creation. The real author of that blog is Raman Kaul, a Kashmiri Brahmin who is readily available at http://kaulonline.com/. It is his job and imagination that he has brought these stories on the net which the visitors have been enjoying a lot if I can rightly judge from the visitors log on the site meter. It is from his site that I can further substantiate that all these stories can be accessed at C-DAC Noida titled Dawaray Dawaray Gyan Sampada. The readers interested in more Hindi Sahitya (Hindi Literature online) may also find more authors and stories at the CDAC Noida website. They must have Window 2000/XP on their system to access the material provided by C-DAC. The visitors with older version can access the site of Raman Kaul.

Those of you, who are interested in writing in Hindi, they may visit the site of Raman Kaul at Kauloline.com, reach the lower portion of the main page and locate the title Miscellaneous pages. Under Miscellaneous, click Devnagari Editors. Download any of the editors recommended by Raman Kaul and try your hand at them. Give importance to the comments of Raman Kaul for each editor. They are based on practical experiences with each editor. Some of the editor not recommended by Raman are also useful. They may also visit his associates about whom he has referred to at the same site. Even I have developed my hindi blog titled Sumir Sharma Hindi Main with their help. I have been quite indulgingly assisted by Debashish Chakarborty, Shashi Singh and their friends for developing that blog. You may get to their blogs and websites from the main site of Raman Kaul already mentioned above. When I learnt it from them, the google blogger did not have the right device to write in UTF 8 directly on this blog service. It is only latter that they have added this device to their service. I have also written one story on that blog. If you enjoy reading hindi literature, I am sure you may like that story also. I will be obliged if you read and find one of my story titled Phagwara Ka Phataka at that blog which I believe the readers from Punjab may appreciate more.

Online Library of Liberty - It attracts

2008-01-26T08:52:00.000+05:30

Online Liberty Library

The main page of this library declares, “to encourage study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals”.

The library is being run as an educational enterprise by Liberty Fund, Inc. in Americas and Europe. According to the main page of the site, it is based in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Presently, the online library has one thousand books available on-line. Apart from them, there is a section wherein one can find original documents. Many documents are related to the history of America.

In addition to that there is a forum which has numerous articles written by experts. When this feature is compared with Gutenberg project, this library acquires its own character. The Gutenberg project also has articles on different authors but they are written in association with Wikipedia project. The articles written on Liberty Library are exclusive. In addition to that there is feature of Timeline for each author. It makes good source for an academic and scholarly work. The Timeline feature definitely score for Liberty Library over and above Gutenberg. The second feature is that there is a group of classifications over which the available material is spread. It helps the user to undertake a study as per some established school of thought or a time period already decided and accepted by academic and intellectual world. That is other thing that I will still go with Gutenberg project.

The books placed in the Liberty Library belongs to Enlightenment period. This is the period which becomes basis for the study of eighteenth and nineteenth century historic development. I am interest in these two centuries. Therefore, it attracts me more.

The Liberty Library has adopted Amargi as its logo. It is a cuneiform symbol from Sumerian culture. It literary means return to mother. This is the main concept of the library which is to seek a social order which has a real liberty. No doubt, somewhere is the concept reflects the core ideas of Rousseau and
Enlightened period of literature.

Online Books on History by D. D. Kosambi, the Mathematician

2008-01-24T19:35:00.000+05:30

One can access the classic books authored by the Indian Mathematician D. D. Kosambi on line.

The following books can be accessed on an Indian version of Guttenberg project run by an individual (Arvind Gupta, the Child toy maker from IIT).

Indian Numismatics

Introduction to the Study of Indian History

History and Society, Problems and Interpretations

Culture and Civilization of Ancient India

Myth and Reality

Combined Methods in Indology and Other Writings

Kosambi was a mathematician. However, his book titled Introduction to the Study of Indian History laid the road for the Marxian historiography on Indian history. A related observation and comment had been made in my earlier post.

What is History by E. H. Carr

2008-01-23T06:22:00.002+05:30

One can read the classic book "What is History" by E. H. Carr online at the following link:

What is History? by E. H. Carr.

Attention Readers:

The above link is not functioning.

You are requested to seek the following path to access the book.

Kindly visit http://www.arvindguptatoys.com/

On the main page, click the link "English".

You will reach the library of Arvind Gupta. On that page, drag down and reach a category "Inspiring Books". Under that category you can locate the "What is History?" by E. H. Carr. That is a zip file. Today, that is August 12, 2008, when I accessed it, I found it functional and working well. I hope that will satisfy your quest.

Experiences with Digital history of India

2007-11-12T06:42:00.000+05:30

The Digital History of India is online for a long time. However, it has undergone numerous changes in its display and contents. But, even then, it has always left a feeling of dissatisfaction.

It is hosted by Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, CMU, IIIT, NSF, ERNETand MCIT and 21 participating centers. All the participating associates are the outstanding identities of the Indian intellectual world.

The site has a Flash Display of its aim and vision. It aims at bringing nearly one million books on Indian heritage and culture. It has links for different subjects which classify all the books which are being made available on it. It is other thing that if you start exploring the site, you may find many books classified as history but it does not have any separate classification for history.

So far so good.

My Experience:
I have learned about the Digital History of India on November 6, 2005 while making a note on Ian Sinclair blog. Ian Sinclair regularly refers to digital sources on the culture and heritage of Vajrayana Buddhism. During the process and activity of making notes on such sources he invariably refer to links to such sources which have origin in India.

Later, once I tried to explore the site, I found that the link provided there was not functional. However, while mining the Internet, I again came across the fresh URL of Digital History of India. I was again excited to find it there. At that time, it had links to numerous books from various regional languages. It had links to some other libraries in which it had included a link to Rashtripati Bhavan also. But I was not able to get any access to any text which I tried at that time. I again returned to that site but I found that even the new URL had become non-functional. I think, it was during my exploration of the ERNET resources reached through the web site of University Grant Commission that I again came across the site. At that time, the site was available in totally a new form. I found that it had given links to other libraries. I was highly disappointed. I remember that in one of my post I had criticized their efforts.

Now, I have again come across a fresh URL of Digital History of India. It was again during the mining of the Internet for the Digital Documents on India that I have located this URL. By now, my blog is quite rich with many links to such sources from where one can make his own digital library on Internet. No doubt, the visits to my site have increased and similarly the out clicks from my blog have also increased. I have been receiving good comments and references in different groups and on highly prestigious sites. A simple search query made as "sumir-history" on any search engine can prove my claim.

A case of Merii Kahaanii:

A visit to the Digital Library of India is again not a good experience. When the site opens, it gives very impressive look. There are two insignias displayed on it. One is displayed in a Flash format and shown glittering. The other insignia is a normal jpg file on the right hand site.

Below the title, there is again a rectangular Flash Display which take a lot of time to download on a computer which I am using. I have a very slow internet connection. The space available on my computer is also very less. I am using Pentium III and Window 98s operating system. A similar type of display is given on British Library. However, in case of British Library site, I do not have to wait for long for the download. However, in case of Digital Library of India, it took half an hour to download last time.

The Library has a good catalogue. India is a country of multi-language and multicultural society. As a result, there are separate links for leading languages of India wherein the old books are sifted in the corresponding category. Further, the old books are then again classified according to time period.

I tried to explore for some books. I was made to download new software in order to read them. After I had installed the software as directed, I experienced a very disappointing display. Some of the books just show a blank space as if the book is not uploaded and only a link is created. In some of the cases only the library chart of issue is displayed.

I tried to open the book written by Jawahar Lal Nehru titled Meri Kahani. I received the following message.
Drenched Book, Damage Book.

Further, the details of the book is given in the following manner. I have copied it from the site and they appear as they are written there.

Title
Merii Kahaanii
Author1
Neharuu Javaaharalaal
Author2
Subject
GEOGRAPHY. BIOGRAPHY. HISTORY
Language
hindi
Barcode
2990140052837
Year
1948

I hope that the shortcoming is quite evident from the example. The spellings of title as well as author are in un-edited form. It seems that it had been scanned but while converting to the text the dealing person had not taken care of proof reading. It hardly matters as many of my posts were posted without post-editing and there are numerous spelling mistakes, grammatical mistakes and skipping of the words which take place while typing down your argument or version.

Digital Libraries Option:

Visit Wikipedia with the query Digital Library, one can find a good list on it. There is a good collection of original documents, contemporary books (Primary as well secondary sources) on wikipedia associated sites.

Gutenburg project now have more that 17000 books. Wikipedia is nicely associated with Gutenburg as one can find it on its own that there is an entry each for each author or title from Wikipedia on Gutenberg site.

The Library of Congress is another site which allow you access numerous documents related to many non-USA matters.

It is part of Library of Congress work, that NARA has displayed 100 documents on American History. Well it is specifically related to American history but it is an example that how an online library should be displayed.

There are many sites of leading universities which may not allow you to access the book without registration which invariably require some payment, but they definitely allow you to access their catalogue. The site on Cambridge University has such a store house that at least one can prepare a good bibliography for any research project with the confidence that the book is available at least with that library.

The next revolutionary project in ICT and digitization is Google Books. They have now added a new feature of making a clipping from the books whether it is full available version or restricted available version. No doubt, every book entry has further information about the availability of the book with the publisher or with the associated library.

The Online Library of Liberty has 1000 books online. They have even related essays on authors, historic trends and period from which they have selected those books. The project has displayed from seventeenth to nineteenth. The special essays on thinkers written by established scholars is a feature which attracts and impress.

I am here made to direct the attention to one of my post titled Microfilming of Indian Publication Project. I am unable to understand the rational of undertaking this project when Government of India, with the help of the best brains of India, is trying to establish the Digital Library. However, the form in which the library is presently available, I believe that it is a blessing that somewhere the Government of India has realized that the work is not been done and the activity of getting online sources is worth needed and they have sought the help of the friends. The associated organization, that is Digital South Asia Library is far better source available. You can find a big set of Social Scientist there.

Moral of the Story:
Naam Unchee, Darshan Chotty.

NB: I have not given links to many of the sources mentioned above. However, I have written posts related to such sources and they are available on this very blog. One can check the archive or use the title bar above, where the query can be placed and the relevant post will be fetched. The second option is access my blog through a query "sumir-history" on www.blogsearch.google.com.

The History of British India By J Mill in Six volumes 1817 is online

2007-10-29T15:30:00.000+05:30

The complete text of The History of British India by J Mill in six volumes is available online on The Online Library of Liberty.

The book was published in 1817 and the online version has used its third edition of 1826 published by Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy, London.

Those who are interested in Indian History, must read this book before reading the books by present authors.

I may like to reframe my statement given above. The interested people, who wanted to learn about India, must read the book by J Mill in original before developing any opinion about the historiography of India on the basis of the comments given in other books about the influence of J Mill writings on the periodization of Indian History.

The above book is divided in to six volumes and each volume is called a Book.

The Book 1 is given a peculiar title and it is 1527 – 1707. This book contains five chapters. In the beginning of this book, the author has defined the motive and method of writing the six volumes.

The Chapter 1 studies the coming of the Europeans on Indian Subcontinent. The most fascinating aspect which is discussed in detail is the finding of the American colonies
¹ while struggling to find the path to India to beat the riches being earned by Portugal. While describing the different efforts made by England during the sixteenth century to find a path to India, the author has described the expeditions of Francis Drake in detail. The second person who has found favour with author to get enough words for his work is Thomas Cavendish. Then, going through different aspects, the author reaches the incidence of appointment of Captain James Lancaster who was to command the first ship to India the company named, "The Governor and Company of Merchants of London, trading to the East Indies.

The Chapter 2 studies the development of company in 1612 when it received the formal papers to establish the factory at Surat, Ahmedabad, Cambaya and Goga.

In this chapter, he had undertaken a deep study of the development of the European trade in East Indies and with the activities of the British East India Company as a central theme.

The Chapter 3 studies the development of the British East India from 1632 to 1657.

It is in this chapter, Mill studies the development of the holding of the Company in India or Hindustan as he had used this term for India. During this period, the activity of the company was extended to Golcunda and Pipley in Orissa.

The Chapter 4 studies the development of the company merger with the activities Merchant Adventurers. It contains details about the development in the Mughal Empire which were directly related to the development of the British Company within India.

The Chapter 5 studies the development of the company under the charter of 1711. The chapter covers in detail the development of the circumstances under which the charter of 1711 was granted.

The Book 2 is spread over seven chapters and the title is Of the Hindus. It is worth going through the contents of this book in order to understand the historiography of India, the bias of an invader, the actual views of the Utilitarians, the type of records which would have been maintained in London about India.

As a point of elaboration, I give the titles of all the seven chapters.

The chapter 1 begins with the title "Chronology and Ancient History of the Hindus".

It is begins with the following line.
"Rude Nations seem to derive a peculiar gratification from pretensions to remote antiquity."

The Chronology given in the chapter is not the one as it is given in general books by later authors especially after 1947. The author had taken up the Three Yugas divisions of the Puranic History and there is a tinge or rather quite dominating tone of disdain and ridicule. It seems that there was some conflict between the authorities in London and the Orientalist group which was emerging under the guidance of William Jones.

The Chapter 2 is given the heading "Classification and Distribution of People".

This chapter attracts for the thesis that the Indians were earlier tribal people and latter settled for farming at a fixed place. Now, Marx came on a later date. However, the explanation as given here is so much Marxian in nature that if one does not know the chronology of development of various thoughts, he could conclude that that Mill had read Marx.

The another feature of this chapter is the image that the author had carried for the Priest in the Hindu society. Then, there is an elaboration of the class of Brahmins, Cashtriyas, Vaisya and Sudra. The classification as given by Mill has taken such a strong hold of the intellectual world about the Indian society, that no body has cared to check on his own the actual ground realities. It was only through the essays of people like M. N. Srivastva and other sociologist that the Indian social classification was given a review. The election activities, the issue or reservations etc are now bringing some facts before the general public. But the European world carried this four fold division so rigidly that they never ever developed the right view of the Indian society.

The chapter 3 is "The Form of Government".

The chapter has tried to trace the development or atleast the basis of rule during the pre conquest period in India. The authority which has been quoted is the Law of Manu. The most repeated phrases in the whole chapter are "those rude ideas" and "a rude and ignorant people".

It makes a good reading for the student of politics and the law. One should remember that when Mill was writing those volumes, the world has not learned about the existence of Arthasashtra.

The chapter 4 is "The Law".

It will be pertinent to quote Mill here to understand the development of the British rule towards the Indian law. I quote, "For elucidating this important point (that is the law), in the history of the Hindus, materials are abundant."

For this chapter also, the main source of information is Manu and the translation by Halhed and Colebrooke. Mill has observed in the beginning of the chapter that the availability of the material made the discussion of the subject very wide. Therefore, he suggested that he would deal only with the limited aspects of the law of Hindus. He took the main eighteen basis of law as given by Manu. The elaboration which followed is however, made against the background of the understanding of the law by the author. During the course, he had taken the selective issues which I believe latter became the milestone in interpreting the Indian basis of law. It was openly taken up by the present Dalit political groups like BSP. However, atleast for me, it is quite an exhaustive chapter covering an exhaustive list of issues.

The Chapter 5 is "The Taxes".

While taking up the issue of taxation in India during the ancient time, Mill was made to refer to the major problem faced by the company officials about the issue of deciding the taxes to be taken by the company administration. One must remember that by 1792, the company had already developed their own view about the quantity of tax to be collected from the farmers under the rule of Lord Cornwallis.

The Chapter 6 is "Religion".

Mill has started this paragraph which is till this day considered as truism in case of Indian society and Religion.

He writes, "It is difficult to determine whether the constitution of the government and the provisions of law, or Religion, have, among the Hindus, the greatest influence upon the lives of individuals, and the operations of society."

The contents of the chapter is based on the records deposited by William Jones, Colebrook, H. H. Wilkins etc. This shows that how far the work of Indologists of Bengal Asiastic Society and the Wellington College influenced the framing of the perception of the Company administration in Britain.

The Chapter 7 is "Manner".

The motive of studying this chapter is laid by the author in the very first line of the chapter. He writes, "By the manners of a nation are understood the peculiar modes in which the ordinary business of human life is carried on."

The second observation of great importance is also important. He writes, "So much of the entire business of life, among the Hindus, consists in religious services, that the delineation of their religion is a delineation of the principal branch of their manners." This very point is emphasized by the sociologists. However, while studying the political history from the general book, the student in school and colleges would never learn this truth about the history whereas he may be experiencing it in his or her daily life. It is further emphasized when the communal tensions are developed. But no body asks that how different communities continue to live and interact on economic plane when such tensions are not there?

However, with a glorifying beginning of the chapter, J Mills discuss the behaviour of the higher classes to the lower classes. It is surprising to learn that what kind of material was submitted to the Britain that a person who did not visit India even once for writing the book learned about the negative aspect of the society?

Book IV is spread over nine chapters.

In the first chapter of the book the development of the company from 1708 to 1773 has been studied.

The second chapter has studied the development of the Carnatic wars involving Nabob of Carnatic.

The chapter 3 deals with the relation of the East India Company of Britain with Bengal.

The chapter 4 deals with the third war of Carnatic and establishment of the supreme European trading company in India.

The Chapter 5 deals with the Battle of Buxar and second governorship of Clive.

The Chapter 6 deals with the political activity of Company in Madras Presidency.

The Chapter 7 deals with the second governorship of Clive in Bengal in detail and rising problem of the finance in the Company.

The Chapter 8 deals with the political activity of Company in Madras Presidency and dealing with Hyder Ali in the Anglo Mysore Wars.

The Chapter 9 deals with following issues as per J Mill.
Public opinion in England, Proceedings in the India House, and in Parliament—Plan of Supervisors—Plan of a King’s Commissioner—Increase of pecuniary Difficulties—Dividend raised—Company unable to meet their Obligations—Parliamentary Inquiry—Ministerial Relief—An Act, which changes the Constitution of the Company—Tendency of the Change—Financial and Commercial State

In this chapter one can find an example of best imperialistic tendencies of Britain. It was reflected in the wordings of 1769 Act which conveyed "That the territorial revenues in India should be held by the Company for five years to come; that in consideration of this benefit they should pay into the exchequer 400,000l. every year; that if the revenues allowed, they might increase the dividend, by augmentations not exceeding one per cent. in one year, to twelve and a half per cent.; that if, on the other hand, the dividend should fall below ten per cent., the payment into the exchequer should obtain a proportional reduction, and entirely cease if the dividend should decline to six per cent.; that the Company should, during each year of the term, export British merchandise, exclusive of naval and military stores, to the amount of 380,837l.; and that when they should have paid their simple contract debts bearing interest, and reduced their bonded debt to an equality with their loans to government, they should add to these loans the surplus of their receipts at an interest of two per cent."

In this very chapter, J Mill had touched upon the issue of scandals in the working of the company and the appointment of commissioners to investigate it. It has proved the opinion of R. C. Majumdar, that the British Parliament was interested in the affairs of India since the days of 1757 with imperialistic tendencies.

On the whole, this chapter is worth reading for the people who want to understand the role of Directors and Parliament in deciding the course of activities in India. One should remember that most of the books would suggest that the course of the events in India was much influenced by the personalities and attitudes of the governor generals. However, this is only one side of the coin. The other side can be briefly studied in this chapter.

The Book 5 is covers the period between 1773 and 1784, and covered in two chapters.

Chapter I. This chapter is more marked for discussing the scandals during Warren Hastings. (Kindly note, the word "scandal" is my version and not that of J Mill. Apart from that, the chapter provides the political happenings in India in detail. There seems to be sudden shift in the details.

Chapter II is also about the political activities of the British trading company in India. J Mill gives the following topic which are covered in this chapter.

"Commencement of the New Government—Supreme Council divided into two Parties, of which that of the Governor-General in the Minority—Presidency of Bombay espouse the Cause of Ragoba, an ejected Peshwa—Supreme council condemn this Policy, and make Peace with his Opponents—Situation of the Powers in the Upper Country, Nabob of Oude, Emperor, and Nujeef Khan—Pecuniary Corruption, in which Governor-General seemed to be implicated, in the cases of the Ranee of Burdwan, Phousdar of Hoogley, and Munny Begum—Governor-General resists Inquiry—Nuncomar the great Accuser—He is prosecuted by Governor-General—Accused of Forgery, found guilty, and hanged—Mahomed Reza Khan, and the office of Naib Subah restored."

The Book 6 is spread over thirteen chapters and end with an eye catching statement, "The peace which terminated the war with the Mahrattas, a few months after the period of Lord Wellesley’s administration, is the last great epoch, in the series of British transactions in India. With regard to subsequent events, the official papers, and other sources of information, are not sufficiently at command. Here, therefore, it is necessary that, for the present, this History should close." It also tells that the work ends with the tenure of Wellesley period in 1806.

Chapter I is about Administration of Mr. Macpherson—State of the Government in India, internal, and external—Board of Control pays, without inquiry, the Debts of the Nabob of Arcot—Orders the assignment of the Carnatic Revenues to be given up—Absorbs the Power of the Directors—Lord Cornwallis appointed Governor-General—Commencement of the Proceedings in Parliament relative to the Impeachment of Mr. Hastings—The best Mode of proceeding rejected by the House of Commons—Articles of Charge against Mr. Hastings—Three Bills to amend the East India Act—Proceedings in Parliament relative to the Impeachment of Mr. Hastings—Impeachment voted—Proceedings in Parliament tending to the Impeachment of Sir Elijah Impey—Motion for Impeachment negatived—Mr. Pitt’s declaratory act.

Chapter II is about The Trial of Mr. Hastings.

Chapter III is about Arrangement about troops and money with the Nabob of Oude—The Guntoor Circar obtained from the Nizam, and a new arrangement made with that Prince—Aspect which that arrangement bore to Tippoo Saib—Dispute of Tippoo with the Rajah of Travancore—Tippoo attacks the lines of Travancore—The English prepare for war—Form an alliance with the Nizam, and with the Mahrattas—Plan of the Campaign—General Meadows takes possession of Coimbetore, and establishes a chain of depots to the bottom of the Gujelhutty Pass—Tippoo descends by the Gujelhutty Pass—And compels the English General to return for the Defence of Carnatic—End of the campaign, and arrival of Lord Cornwallis at Madras—Operations in Malabar—A new arrangement with Mahomed Ali, respecting the revenues of Carnatic.

Chapter IV is about Cornwallis takes the Command—Second Campaign begins—Siege of Bangalore—March to Seringapatam—Operations of the Bombay Army—Battle at Arikera between Cornwallis and Tippoo—Army in Distress for Bullocks and Provisions—Obliged to return—Operations of the Mahratta Contingent—Negotiations with Tippoo—Debate in the House of Commons on the War with Tippoo—Preparations for a third Campaign—Reduction of the Fortresses which commanded the Passes into Carnatic, and threatened the Communications—Operations of the Nizam’s Army, and of the Mahratta Contingent, in the Interval between the first and second March upon Seringapatam—Operations of the Bombay Army—Operations of Tippoo—March to Seringapatam—Entrenched Camp of the Enemy stormed before Seringapatam—Preparations for the Siege—Negotiations—Peace—Subsequent Arrangements.

Chapter V is about Lord Cornwallis’s Financial and Judicial Reforms.

Chapter VI is about Result of Lord Cornwallis’s Financial and Judicial Reforms.

Chapter VII of this book is about Proceedings in Parliament relative to the renewal of the Company's Charter in 1793—Sir John Shore succeeds Lord Cornwallis as Governor-General—Relations of the English Government to the Nizam and the Mahrattas—Death of Mhadajee Scindia—War between the Nizam and Mahrattas—Guarantee of the Treaty of Alliance—Death of the Peshwa, and its Effects—Treaty fulfilled by Tippoo, and the Hostages restored—State of Oude—Death of the Nabob of Oude, and Succession of his Son—The young Nabob dethroned by the English on a charge of Spuriousness, and Saadut Ali made Nabob—Affairs at Madras—Death of Mahomed Ali—Lord Hobart endeavours to obtain the Transfer of part of the Nabob's Country—Dispute between Lord Hobart and the Supreme board—Capture of the Dutch Settlements.

Chapter VIII of this book is about Lord Mornington Governor-General—Agents of Tippoo at the Isle of France—Governor-General resolves on immediate War—Import of the Circumstances—Opinions in India—Nizam Ali receives more English Troops and dismisses the French—Unfruitful Negotiations at Poonah—Progression of Governor-General's Demands—War begins—Plan of the Campaign.—March of the Army—Siege of Seringapatam—Alarming Situation of the British Army in regard to Food—Seringapatam taken, and the Sultan killed—Division and Settlement of the conquered Country.

Chapter IX is about Situation of Oude, as left by Lord Teignmouth, highly satisfactory to the home Authorities—Great Changes meditated by Lord Mornington—Extirpation of British Subjects, not in the Service of the Company—Apprehended Invasion of the Afghauns—Endeavour to obtain the Alliance of Scindia—The Idea abandoned—An Embassy to the King of Persia—Insurrection by Vizir Ali—Reform of his military Establishment pressed on the Nabob of Oude—His Reluctance—He proposes to abdicate in favour of his Son—The Governor-General presses him to abdicate in favour of the Company—He refuses—Indignation of the Governor-General—He resorts to coercion on the Reform, which meant, the Annihilation, of the Nabob's military Establishment—The business of the Annihilation judiciously performed—The Vizir alleges the want of Resources for the Maintenance of so great a British Army—From this, the Governor-General infers the Necessity of taking from him the Government of his Country—If the Nabob would not give up the whole of his Country willingly, such a Portion of it as would cover the Expense of the British Army to be taken by Force—This was more than one half—The Vizir to be allowed no independent Power even in the rest—The Vizir desires to go on a Pilgrimage—The Hon. H. Wellesley sent to get from him an appearance of Consent—The Cession of the Portion necessary for the Expense of the Army effected—A Commission for settling the Country with Mr. H. Wellesley at the head—Governor-General makes a Progress through the Country—Transactions between him and the Nabob of Oude—Proposition of the Bhow Begum—Objections of the Court of Directors to the Appointment of Mr. H. Wellesley—Overruled by the Board of Control—Government of Furruckabad assumed by the Company—Settlement of the ceded Districts—Full Approbation of the home Authorities.

Chapter X is about The Nabob of Surat deposed—The Rajah of Tanjore deposed—The Nabob of Arcot deposed.

Chapter XI is about Two sets of Princes, connected with the English; one, whom they made resign both the military, and the civil powers of their government; another, whom they made resign only the military powers—Endeavour to make the Peshwa resign the military part of his government—Negotiations for that purpose from 1798 to 1802—Negotiations with Dowlut Row Scindia for a similar purpose—The dependance of all the Mahratta states expected as the effect of the resignation to the English of the military power of any one of them—Negotiation with Scindia ineffectual—War between Scindia and Holkar—The Peshwa driven from Poona—For the sake of being restored by English arms, the Peshwa consents to the resignation of his military power—A treaty for that purpose signed at Bassein—The Governor-General expects, that the other Mahratta states will not dare to quarrel with the English on account of the treaty of Bassein—Scindia assembles his troops, and marches to the vicinity of Boorhanpore—Persevering attempts to make Scindia execute a treaty similar to that of Bassein—The Peshwa restored—Probability of a war with the Mahratta Princes on account of the treaty of Bassein—Junction of the armies of Scindia and the Rajah of Berar—Scindia and the Rajah required by the English to quit their present menacing position, and replace their armies at their usual stations—Scindia and the Rajah evading compliance, the English regard them as enemies—Arguments by which the Governor-General endeavored to prove that the line of policy which led to this crisis was good—Investigation of those arguments.

Chapter XII is about Objects to which the Operations of the Army in the North were to be directed—Objects to which the Operations of the Army in the South were to be directed—Minor Objects of the War—General Lake takes the Field—History of the French Force in the Service of Scindia, and of his Possessions in the Dooab—History of the Emperor Shah Aulum continued—Battle of Allyghur, and Capture of the Fort—Battle of Delhi, and Surrender of the Emperor to the English—Agra taken—Battle of Laswaree—French Force in the Service of Scindia destroyed, and his Dominions in the Dooab transferred to the English—Operations of the Army under General Wellesley in the South—Ahmednuggur taken—Battle of Assye—Boorhanpore and Asseerghur taken—Scindia makes an Overture toward Peace—Battle of Argaum—Siege and Capture of the Fort of Gawilghur—Operations in Bundelcund—In Cuttack—in Guzerat—Negotiation with the Rajah of Berar—Treaty concluded—Negotiation with Scindia—Treaty concluded—Engagements with the minor Princes near the Jumna—Scindia enters into the defensive Alliance—Governor-General's Account of the Benefit derived from the defensive Alliances, and the Mahratta War—Investigation of that Account.

Chapter XIII is about Necessity inferred of curbing Holkar—Intercourse between Holkar and Scindia renewed—Governor-General resolves to take the Holkar Dominions, but to give them away to the Peshwa, Scindia, and the Nizam—Holkar retreats before the Commander-in-Chief, toward the South—The Commander-in-Chief withdraws the Army into Cantonments, leaving Colonel Monson with a Detachment in advance—Holkar turns upon Monson—Monson makes a disastrous Retreat to Agra—The British Army from Guzerat subdues Holkar's Dominions in Malwa—Holkar by a Stratagem attacks Delhi—Brave Defence of Delhi—The Holkar Dominions in Deccan subdued—Defeat of Holkar's Infantry at Deeg—Rout of his cavalry at Furruckabad—The Rajah of Bhurtpore, one of the allied Chieftains, joins with Holkar—Unsuccessful Attack upon the Fortress of Bhurtpore—Accommodation with the Rajah of Bhurtpore—Disputes with Scindia—Prospect of a War with Scindia—Holkar joins the Camp of Scindia—The British Resident ordered by the Commander-in-Chief to quit the Camp of Scindia—Scindia endeavours to prevent the Departure of the Resident—Marquis Wellesley succeeded by Marquis Cornwallis—Cornwallis's View of the State of the Government—Of Wellesley's System of subsidiary and defensive Alliance—Cornwallis resolves to avoid a War with Scindia, by yielding every Point in Dispute—To make Peace with Holkar by restoring all the Territories he had lost—To dissolve the Connexion of the British Government with the minor Princes on the Mahratta Frontier—Negotiations between Scindia and the Commander-in-Chief—Death of Lord Cornwallis—Sir G. Barlow adheres to the Plans of Lord Cornwallis—Holkar advances into the Country of the Seiks—Pursued by Lord Lake—A fresh Treaty concluded with Scindia—Treaty with Holkar—Financial Results.

Link Problem:
It should not be called a link problem. The chapter 5 is covered under the link of chapter 4. The chapter 6 is actually spread over link of chapter 5 and chapter 6.

Reference

Footnote 1:
(return)
http://sumir-history.blogspot.com/2005/06/who-desired-it-atleast-they-did-not.html In this article written in June 2005, I have given this opinion that the founding of America and later raising of America was never the actual motive of England. It came up as a serendipity result. All the efforts were directed to find the route to East India. J Mill has explained it in better manner.

First Post of a Successful Blog

2007-10-24T23:56:00.000+05:30

The Worldhistoryblog has by now more than three hundred thousand (three lakhs) visitors.

In India, the first step on a journey, the first brick in the foundation, the first look at a new born child are considered most auspicious and important. It is believed that it is the first step which decides the success.

In case of World History Blog, the first post was "Society History" which referred to an open directory for history. It was posted on December 31, 2003. December 31, was the date when the East India Company of Britain was established in 1600. It was the date when the first meeting of Indian National Congress ended in 1885. In case of Miland Brown, he has posted 1094 posts till date.

Today the Open Directory project suggested by Miland Brown has 12324 entries under the category of History. It has 4207 entries under the category of Region. The category of Time period is having 5664 entries. There are 1652 topics under the Topic category.

Further, it has 53 entries on the basis of language though Vietnamese has zero entry.

The open directory project is part of AOL. In one of my email I had sought advice from Miland Brown on how to get leads on the authentic sources. He had suggested about the directories and some other sources. He was quite open in admitting that such places were the sources of getting information.

Roy Rosenzweig, The Digital Historian Passes Away

2007-10-22T14:59:00.000+05:30

Roy Rosenzweig, an American Historian and the founding director of the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, died on October 11, 2007 due to lung Cancer.

I remember him for Digital History, a concept which I have learned from his essays.

The CHNM is recording remembrance at http://thanksroy.org/

Similarly one can record and read tributes to the American historian at History News Network

I had commented on one of his essay in November 2006 at History Writing and New Technologies.

On Receiving Ten Thousand Visitors

2007-10-01T08:47:00.000+05:30

By now, the site meter on this blog has recorded more than ten thousand visitors. Apart from that, the average visit is of 1.2 minutes. More than 19000 pages have been visited on this blog since March 2005. Many posts have received respectable comments on their contents.

Well, what is the big deal in giving above numbers? Does it matter much to anyone? Is there any need for such a self aggrandisement?

I do not think that there is any need of such a post here at all. Even then, I have taken time to put this in writing. I had been thinking of writing about this for a month by now. Why is it so that even then I am putting it up here?

While I was thinking of writing this post, many such questions also came up that directly questioned the very logic and meaning of spending time on blogging like this. Now take up some more figures. By now I have written more than hundred posts in two years on this blog only. I have been writing on my other blogs. I have been commenting on the contents of the blogs by others. I have written on Wikipedia. Most of my posts have references and cross links. Some of them are deeply researched statements substantiated by required facts and figures. There are long narrations which had taken up three to fours hours for writing. The question had come to mind that what was the need of doing all such activities. Somewhere, a hidden voice says that I have merely wasted time and money in pursuing such an activity. However, that will not be fair if I also go along with that judgement.

I must say in response to above statements, that in these two years, I have learned a lot. I believe that I have received a recognition also for my activity. I might have spent time which could have been utilized somewhere else. I could have saved some money also. But, I have learned a lot from this activity. I may not have received any recognition by people who matters for me, or who could promote my career or my place in the society but even then I have won many admirers and even critics. Secondly, when I started this activity, I was really happy. There was a different kind of feeling when I created this blog in hurry. I had been thinking of making a blog for more than six months. It was somewhere in the middle of 2004, I learned about blogging. I came on the cyberspace somewhere in the beginning of 2004 when I wrote on BBC/history site. I was well received there but soon BBC barred my entry to that portal. I lost whatever I had written there. But therein came a surprise. Some of the bloggers had picked my writings on BBC and placed it on their own blog. When I started blogging, I placed the copies of those postings on this very blog after giving due acknowledgement.

Before creating the blog, I came to realize about the significance of this device and activity through education forum. I must say that it was the teachers on the education forum discussing about e-learning, ICT and related topics which framed my understanding of the real core of this activity. I believe that in my success here, it is the success of education forum and to be precise of John Simkin who had virtually lifted me to the forum.

The format, contents, and display are also not my own creation. The template is given by the googles. But the contents are somewhere influenced by the activity as performed by Miland Brown on World History Blog. I have modified it and I believe that my blog is having its own character and shape but I must accept that somewhere, I am influenced by the activity as performed by Miland Brown on his blog. The idea of writing this post had been laid by him also. When I started blogging in February 2005, Miland Brown had already received more than six thousand visitors. Whenever I visited his blog and looked at the site meter and number on it, I became envious and jealous. I came across other blogs also which proudly displayed the number of visitors on their site. I had seen many respectable sites proudly displaying the number of visitors on their site. There was even a discussion on education forum on this issue. One thing is there that this particular number, that is number of visitors on the site is an important bench mark in the field of Information Technology, ITES and the very activity of blogging. There are sites like technorati which are totally devoted to maintaining such records. One can learn from there that there are sites and blogs which receive a huge rush of visitors to their site and people visit them every day. The advertisement decisions are based on figures generated by the number of visitors to a site. Hence, the very fact that a particular figure has been reached by a site has great value in the concerned field. Well, it was in those day, when I started blogging that one day Miland Brown announced proudly on his blog that he had crossed 10K mark. Presently his site meter is reading more than 2.8 million visitors. Now doubt, after that I came across many such bloggers, who had commemorated and celebrated the occasion when the number of visitors crossed a particular number on their site or blog. I believe that the decision of writing this post had been taken there and then and when I myself have reached this submit, though in two years, then I become authorized to write this post.

I am however not much happy with this figure. Firstly, I think that I should have crossed this figure within a year. Kenith Jones of Civil War Memory had reached this figure in less than a month. Secondly, the total is not created because of overall contents of the blog. It is three or four posts which have contributed to this number. I must reveal that it was in the month of June 2005, when I made a post on availability of short stories by Dhanpat Rai (Munshi Premchand). From that day onwards, the site meter had started galloping. Even now everyday, I receive visitors looking out for links for the short stories by Munshi Premchand. No doubt, It is quite surprising for me. There are many factors and figures which could be made out into a research paper which could be useful for publishers of hindi stories, hindi newspapers and cyber activity people. I even suggest to those who have read up to here that they may put a similar post on their blog and check the result on their own. The second post, which had become hyper activity around September 5, 2007, was a post on S. Radhakrishnan. The third most surprising post which regularly receive visitors are the posts on Teej. I am really amazed to learn that how much this festival is popular especially among the people living in other countries. Recently, the very first post on this blog which is about cell phones, which was not at all meant for this blog, had started receiving visitors. I think that use of cell phones in educational institution is definitely becoming a portent social issue.

I had desired to write on some issues in this posts. But I will not discuss it here. I believe that the rate at which I am receiving visitors, I will soon cross fifteen thousand mark before February 2008 which is the month of anniversary for this blog. I will like to discuss some important issues about which I have become aware through the experience of blogging at that time. Secondly, I believe that I must do some research and give some useful figures.

At the end, I would also like to declare that it is through blogging I have come to learn about using internet in the right manner. Here I will suggest to those who uses search engines for locating the desired information that they may use search engines for blogs also.

The Indra Gandhi National Centre for the Arts - IGNCA

2007-09-16T19:35:00.001+05:30

The site says:
The Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) was established in 1987 as an autonomous institution under the Department of Culture, and envisioned as a centre for research, academic pursuit and dissemination in the field of the arts. ‘The Arts’ as a wide spectrum, encompassing subjects from archaeology to dance and anthropology to the photographic art, enveloping them in a complementary and non-demarcated vision. In its functioning, the IGNCA has met its mandate and continues to work in this direction."

It is stated on the site that it has six functional units viz Kalanidhi, Kalakosa, Janapada Sampada, Kaladarsana, Cultural Informatics Lab, and Sutradhara. Apart from that, there is Digital Library in addition to Kalanidhi which is also library sources. Further, there is a link to Newsletter which in itself is storehouse of culture and heritage of India. One can find many reports on different festivals, rites and folk’s faith practices.

The site also has given links to some saleable items which are about the heritage and cultural activities of India. Then there are resources for learning Hindi. It contains links to additional sites.

I am exploring this site from time to time. I have found that it is one such online source on India which can be explored by the researchers interested in South Asian history. It contradicts my repeated groaning that there are very few and restricted online resources on internet. That is other thing, that while giving links to other sources, it has given links to the online activities of other countries, a thing which should have taken place in India also.

I hope those interested in research in South Asian History will not be disappointed as they would get many leads as well raw data ready for processing for their different questions.

Indian Academy of Sciences: A Part of Indian Heritage

2007-09-08T20:10:00.000+05:30

Indian Academy of Sciences was founded by Noble Prize winner in Physics Dr. C. V. Raman in year 1934. As a student of history, I find the years 1922 to 1936 as a period of heightened Indian Nationalism. I understand that some of the scholars would frown at my comment. The years from 1922 to 1928 is generally identified as the years of subdued activities by the Indian National Congress. However, I have found that if you adopt only that angle to study the Indian period of nationalism, then you do injustice to the Bhartiyata. This was the period, which the people of Subaltern group had tried to study for tribal movements. Secondly, it was the period of ‘organized revolutionary’ movement well represented by Hindustan Socialist Revolutionary Party identified with people by Chander Shekhar Azad, Bhagat Singh etc. No doubt, those who adopted this period (1919 to 1947) as Gandhian Era, they rather identify it as the period of heightened communalism. Anyhow, here I am just making post to emphasis the availability of the website of Indian Academy of Sciences. The rest of the issues which I have touched upon, are the main themes on which I have discussed on this blog upto this day. May be, whereas I have called my blog as discussing the philosophy and methodology of History, HNN blog Cleopatra has included it in the list of Regional History.

Coming back to the site of Indian Academy of Sciences, it introduces itself as

"The Academy, founded in 1934, aims at promoting the progress and upholding the cause of science in pure and applied branches. Major activities include publication of scientific journals and special volumes, organizing meetings of the Fellowship and discussions on important topics, recognizing scientific talent, improvement of science education and taking up other issues of concern to the scientific community."

Further, it is not only for this, it is being mentioned here. It is mentioned here, as it is been said on the site itself that:

"The Academy's journals are 'open access' and full text is available as PDF files on each journal's website. See the Publications page for links to the journals and other Academy publications (including the newsletter Patrika, annual reports, and documents)."

No doubt, the open sources available on the site are related to General Science, however, the Current Sciences Journal has many articles related to Indian research scenario, education policy and such related issues.

Hungary and History of Science

2007-09-06T13:59:00.000+05:30

History of Science is among the latest and well founded stream of history. I am not much conversant with the topics of the history of science. I know only this much that in the university syllabus there is one paper by that name. Secondly, I am made to prepare notes for the development of medicine, art and music for the social history paper which I have not developed even to my own satisfaction. It is other thing, that most of the training in history is in the field of the political history which is not being relegated to second place by established historians in post modernistic period. However, being the student of student or field of knowledge, if you come to learn about a new thing or development in the field of your own interest then you are bound to become attentive when you are laying the fundamental basis of learning that new stream. (No doubt, I am now more involved in learning about digital history. Should it be called digitization of history or hacking of history sources?)

Recently, I came across a new fact, (new at least for me) that how Hungary holds an important place in the development and history of science. For me, Hungary was always read as Austro Hungarian Empire. If any thing had to be said about it, then it was Habsburg family, their relation with other royal families of Europe and extend of their properties in different parts of Europe. In case of Hungary, the only thing which was learnt was that in the middle of nineteenth century, they took place a revolt for separate identity for this region.

Kindly read on the following facts given by Mr. Akshay Kumar and Ms. Seema Goswami in one of the course material of Indra Gandhi Open University, New Delhi.

" … some of the twentieth century most exceptional scientists and mathematicians – Theodor von Karman, George de Hevesy, Michael Polanyi, Leo Szilard, Eugene Wigner, John von Newmann, Edward Teller, Fejer, Haar, Riesz, Koing, Rado etc came from Hungary."

Further, the reason of such effloresce was the tradition of tradition of competition at high school graduate level. The main role was played by one competition named Eotvos Competition organised in honour of a physicist Baron Lorand Eotvos.

The second important institution instrumental in development of mathematicians in Hungary was "Journal" a mathematics problem magazine edited by Laszlo Racz.

Well, it is only this much for Hungary in the history of science. I was just overwhelmed by this fact while making some searches on the net for the names given above, I was just flabbergasted to learn that there is so much to learn about this field. All these facts, though they belong to different field of knowledge but it definitely form the part of historic evaluation wherein one tries to study the activity to man on the basis of the records. It had raised so many question about the actual definition of sources in the field of history.

I am writing down whatsoever is coming to my mind on the issue of the actual nature of the sources in history and the field of study in history but here I have only squeeze out a assemblage or rather an assortment of words which I hope will convey to the one who is interest in pure history the nature of inquiry in the field of history as well as history of science.

Just to wind up without reaching a conclusion, I was earlier highly impressed by the achievement of Leonardo da Vinci, Michaelangelo and Raphel who belonged to Florence (They were raised there and patronized there though they were born at different places.) in one country. However, I now find that it is not one place or Grecian or Roman lineage which is impressive but there are other places and institutions at different places which had added to the chapters of the achievement of humanity.

Seeking History for Understanding Present

2007-09-04T21:23:00.000+05:30

Prelude:
"Seeking History for Understanding Present" is what a teacher of the philosophy of history while explaining the aim of the history would tell his students while teaching his/her class.

Well, here, I would not this unexplainable proposition. It is matter of the premises and submit from where you evaluate the sources of history.

I am here is reference to one of the post titled "Sources on 1857" posted on November 16, 2006. It was a result of a set of emails on H-Asia List and in a way a remix of articles which had appeared elsewhere. However, it received very good response. Various websites even made comment on it and gave the post a link on their site. It had also received and still receiving regular visits which I learn from the site meter installed in the site. It has also received three very relevant comments. One of the comment was by a blogger Sachin who has not made his blog public. His comment was titled "How to read 1857 today: The Relevance of 1857." As he has denied visit to his site, I am not able to confirm about his identity. However, a large part of his exposition is in line with the historic facts and interpretation.

Apropos, now, I intend to comment on the contents of the comment of Sachin. Here I am just reproducing the comment as a separate post. There are two reasons behind it. Firstly, the comment by Sachin is too long in itself. Now if I add my views on his comments, the post will become too long. It will not sustain the casual reader. Secondly I believe that it may attract the attention of Sachin and he may like to come back again or at least contact me.

Hence, Firstly read through the comment of Sachin. I would like to add, that it can be useful for students or general public to carve out a speech out of his article. This comment is also available in the comment section of the above mentioned post.

How to read 1857 today: The Relevance of 1857 a comment by Sachin

2007 is the 150 anniversary of India’s First War of Independence and there is a flurry of activities on this issue. Several seminars and discussion panels are being organized and papers being presented on 1857, recorded as a turning point in Indian history. For most of the work being done on 1857, the underlying theme appears to be biased or limited in their scope and readings. Some, written by Eurocentric/British historians describe 1857 as a "Sepoy Mutiny" while those of the "Swadeshi and feudal mindset" tend to overplay the role of the feudal princely estates and "Rajwadas". Their heroes such as Jhansi ki Rani and Tatia Tope are often represented as front line heroes of 1857, such perceptions have been perpetuated by pop-history readings through sources such as "Amar Chitra Katha". Other wrong representations have been made by over playing the issue of greased cartridges, religion, caste and creed. The term, "National Rebellion" was used for the first time in the British Parliament debates where the attempts by the ruling parties to underplay the uprising as a simple "mutiny" were contested by the opposition parties, who wanted the rebellion to be put down with the severest possible means.

Though the exact events of 1857 are important to understand, it is even more important to contextualize 1857 in today's India. Right across different ruling class parties there has been a serious attempt to water down the relevance of the 1857 uprising, both in terms of its scope and relevance to our present times. The CPI (M) oriented camp of historians have even gone to absurd lengths to force down their own concepts of modern political thought by insisting that 1857 contained within it the idea of "Nation State". Nevertheless, all the ruling class parties seem to converge on one point that, 1857 was an anti imperialist struggle which was successfully concluded in the 1947 Independence of India.

The primary point of the thesis being outlined is that 1857 was definitely an anti-imperialist struggle, but its tasks have not been completed as yet, since 1947 was only a formal Independence and India is still in the grip of neo-colonialism and its policies are still being dictated by the imperialist powers and its agents. These current economic, social and political policies can clearly find their roots in the brutal suppression of the 1857 and the rise to power a class of Indians who aided the British in ruling India till 1947 and continue to aid and assist foreign imperialist interests even today.

In the first place: 1857 was largest ever armed uprising in the British colonial empire, and the impact of the uprising was such that it shook the foundations of the empire.1857 was a peasant rebellion, the underlying cause was the increasing land settlement laws being introduced by the British. In earlier times, before the British implemented the idea of land settlement; land was an inalienable right and the zamindar, feudal lords and the king had only rights over revenue collection. By introducing the principle of "Eminent Domain" the British had in one stroke reversed centuries of security over land tenure granted to the peasant. The principle of "eminent domain" declares the "ownership" of all land to reside in the crown, thereby allowing the eviction of rightful owners from their land, with only the need to pay due compensation. The growing insecurity of the peasantry over the probable loss of land quickly engulfed the regions of North India and even bringing the sepoys into the fray. Since the sepoys employed by the British army were peasants, they could directly relate to the issue of growing insecurity over land rights and took up the cause for armed resistance. In the second place: it was only after the initial success of the peasantry and the sepoys that the feudal estates such as Jhansi came into play, for most of the feudal estates, it was a struggle against the increasing strangle hold of the British and to retain their dominion and their alignment with the peasantry was taken after due thought and consideration. They assumed that the whole of British India would rebel successfully and after kicking the British out, they would continue to rule. These feudal estates did not enter the fight with any sense of any progressive values which would have led to the emancipation of the toiling peasantry. In the third place and most the important point, is to be able to understand and place 1857 within the context of our current era. There is little point in us celebrating 1857, if it does not carry some relevance for us today. The most important lesson that we can get from readings on 1857 is the "institutionalization of traitors". Traitors have always been the part and parcel of history, be it Jai Chand or Mir Jaffer, but eventually they get relegated to a foot note of history. It is only after 1857, we can clearly find, that those who sided with the British in defeating the Indians were felicitated, given appointments in administration, business contracts, judiciary, land, zamindari, princely tutelages, "Rai Sahib Titles, provided secure residences (the concept of "civil lines" came up only after 1857). The lesson to be learnt is that it is this class of traitors, who first of all took sides with the British in defeating our people, also took over as the rulers of India in 1947 and continue to rule over us even today. We can even directly trace numerous families such as the Scindias and many other "Maharajas" who continue to rule India today. All such families who claim the title "Maharaja" were those who either continued to sit quietly on the sidelines during the war or they actively supported the British in quelling the rebellion and for that favour, were bestowed with numerous privileges by the British. Not one among these traitors of the feudal brigade have had the courage to speak up against their ancestors or retune the land and estates bestowed upon them by the British. It is their tacit support of the imperialist powers that have ensured their retention in the current political arena even today. It is this class and their obvious alignment towards propagating and protecting the interest of western economy and politics, which has ensured that agents of foreign capital such as World Bank continue to dominate the political and economic agendas of our country. It is this class of traitors who enabled the British to rule over India for the next 90 years till 1947 and then were left to rule as British colonial agents till today. It is these very same families who continue to rule as Shaheed Bhagat Singh called them, "The Black British" (Kaale Angrez).

If we see the economic, social and political policies of our current times we can see that they favour the developed and nations at the cost of the Indian polity. In each and every point of intervention, whether it is the support for multi national corporations to find India a point of cheap labor, or the development of SEZs (tax and customs duty free zones), or recent shameful statements by Man Mohan Singh in Oxford, where he praised colonial rule over India! Is our PM blind or illiterate that he does not know about the devastation of Indian business and economy by British colonialism? The problem is not in incorrect assessment of the ills of the colonial rules, the point to note is that this class of people have aligned themselves with the ruling class interests of the developed nations and not with the toiling Indians.

Lets take a small case to explain: It is India's open door iron ore export policy which is enabling Mittals and TATAs to buy European steel mills. Since European mines are now almost depleted and will soon lead to a closure of the steel mills in Europe their mills are up for grabs. The terms of sale inset on the buyer showing a guaranteed supply of iron ore. So TATA and the Mittals have bought Corus and Arcelor, with the assurance given by the Indian government that they will be given captive mines for exporting ores in Orissa!! Great news, first the Europeans colonized us and raped us and our economy, now that their economy is facing a meltdown, here comes the native cavalry to their support. How are all these insane policies being implemented? Why must Delhi never be cleaned for its citizens, but more than 300000 slum dwellings be demolished for beautifying Delhi for the 2010 Common Wealth Games, it is a shame and a blot on the nation's people.

Traveling down U.P., Bihar, M.P., Haryana, A.P. and almost any other corner of India one has to only see the manner in which the policemen treat the "poorer natives" of this country, exactly as they did during the British Colonial era, the same goes for the administration and the Judiciary. It is quite common to see the police hanging working class people upside down and beating the soles of their feet, false encounters, custodial rape and deaths, false cases being framed.. These remnants of the Raj still continue and are being perpetuated by the same class of people who traditionally sided with the stronger side and oppressed the weak. An oppressive and arrogant administrative machinery acts as a very effective tool in suppression any form of dissent which directly affects their economic stakes and greed for more profits.

It is only in reading 1857 and contextualizing it within the current ills that plague India, that we can clearly see that the roots of this oppressive and anti-people administration, development policies and continuing poverty, lie within our current ruling classes who learnt to fear the strong and oppress the weak in 1857. It is only then, will we be able to understand the struggles in Kalinganagar, Nandigram, Sigur, Barnala, Gurgaon, Amritar, Narmada basin, Pen Tehsil, Telangana, Bajhera Khurd, where the peasantry is still fighting to complete the unfinished tasks of the martyrs of 1857.

Source:
Sources on 1857
Comment of Sachin in the Comment section of Sources on 1857 in fourth part.

Reference:
H-Asia of H-NET

J. F Richards Passes Away

2007-08-29T13:32:00.000+05:30

Sanjay Subramaniam of Los Angles reported on the H-Asia list of H-NET.org that John Folson Richards had expired on August 23, 2007. He suffered from the cancer of prostrate and breathed his last in Durham, North Carolina. Prof. Richards was born on November 8, 1938. He had retired in 2006 from Duke University of North Carolina.

In an obituary written by Frank Conlon, another established scholar on South Asian studies, gave an elaborate list of work of John F. Richards in a chronological order in which he had also incorporated the works mentioned by Sanjay Subramaniam.

The list of works by John F. Richards is reproduced below.

"The Islamic frontier in the East: expansion into South Asia" _South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies_ (Australia) 4 (Oct 1974) 91-109.

Mughal administration in Golconda_ (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975) ISBN: 0198215614

"The seventeenth century concentration of state power at Hyderabad", _Journal of the Pakistan Historical Society_ 23: 1 (Jan 1975) 1-35

"The Hyderabad Karnatik, 1687-1707", _Modern Asian Studies_9:2 (Apr 1975) 241-288

"Symposium: the contributions of Louis Dumont: Introduction by J.F. Richards and Ralph W. Nicholas _Journal of Asian Studies_35: 4 (Aug 1976) 579-650

"The imperial crisis in the Deccan," _Journal of Asian Studies_35:2 (Feb 1976) 237-256

_Kingship and authority in South Asia_ (Madison: University of Wisconsin, Department of South Asian Studies, 1978) Publication series (University of Wisconsin--Madison. Dept. of South Asian Studies) no. 3.

"Mughal retreat from coastal Andhra", _Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_ 1 (1978) 50-68

"Banditry in Mughal India: Historical and Folk Perceptions" [with Velchuru Narayana Rao]. _Indian Economic & Social History Review_ 17 (Jan. 1980) 95-120.

"The Indian empire and peasant production of opium in the nineteenth century", _Modern Asian Studies_15:1 (Feb 1981) 59-82

_Precious metals in the later medieval and early modern worlds_ (Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 1983). ISBN: 0890892245

_Global deforestation and the nineteenth-century world economy_ edited with (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1983) [Duke Press policy studies] ISBN: 0822304821

"Norms of comportment among Imperial Mughal officers" pp. 255-289 in Barbara Daly Metcalf, editor, _Moral conduct and authority: the place of adab in South Asian Islam_. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984) ISBN: 0520046609

"Kinship and pargana in eighteenth century Khandesh" [with Stewart Gordon] _Indian Economic & Social History Review_22 (Dec. 1985) 371-397

"Changes in the land and human productivity in northern India, 1870-1970" ,[with Edward Haynes and James Hagan], _Agricultural History_59: 4 (Oct 1985) 523-548

_Document forms for Official Orders of Appointment in the Mughal Empire / translation, notes, and text_, E.J.W. Gibb memorial" series. new ser., 29/ Cambridge: Trustees of the E. J. W. Gibb Memorial, 1986 ISBN: 0906094143

The Imperial monetary system of Mughal India_ (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1987). ISBN: 0195619536

"The Imperial capital" [concerning Fatehpur-Sikri] pp. 65-72 in Michael Brand and Glenn D. Lowry eds., _Fatehpur-Sikri_ [International Symposium on Fatehpur-Sikri, 1985: Harvard University]. (Bombay: Marg Publications, 1987)

"The Seventeenth-Century Crisis in South Asia," _Modern Asian Studies_24:4,(1990) 625-38

"Agricultural impacts in tropical wetlands: rice paddies for mangroves in South and Southeast Asia" [[. 217-233 in Michael Williams, ed, _Wetlands: A Threatened Landscape_ (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1991) ISBN: 0631166149

_The Mughal Empire: New Cambridge History of India_ Vol 1:6 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993). ISBN 0521251192

_Power, administration, and finance in Mughal India_, (Aldershot; Brookfield, VT: Variorum, 1993) [collected studies CS419. ISBN 0 860783669

"Historic land use and carbon estimates for South and Southeast Asia, 1880-1980" With Elizabeth Flint; edited by Richard C. Daniels (Oak Ridge, TN: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, 1994) Available on internet as part of CDIAC numeric data and computer model products ; NDP-046 AVAILABLE IN PRINT ALSO; Electronic access available at: [Initial link http://cdiac.ornl.gov/ftp/ndp046/] PDF Version at <http://cdiac.ornl.gov/ftp/ndp046/ndp046.pdf>.

"The Economic History of the Lodi Period: 1451-1526" in _Money and the market in India, 1100-1700_ edited by Sanjay Subrahmanyam, (Delhi; New York: Oxford University Press, 1994) ISBN 0195633032

"World Environmental History and Economic Development" in _A survey of ecological economics_ / edited by Rajaram Krishnan, Jonathan M. Harris and Neva Goodwin (Washington, DC : Island Press, 1995.) ISBN: 1559634103; 1559634111 (pbk).

"Early modern India and world history" _Journal of World History_8:2 (Fall 1997) 197-209

"Only a World Perspective Is Significant: Settlement Frontiers and Property Rights in Early Modern World History in" _Earth, air, fire, water: humanistic studies of the environment_ edited by Jill Ker Conway, Kenneth Keniston, and Leo Marx. (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, c1999). ISBN: 1558492208 (cloth); 1558492216 (pbk)

"Opium and the British Indian Empire: The Royal Commission of 1895" _Modern Asian Studies_36:2 (May 2002) 375-420

"The opium industry in British India" _Indian Economic & Social History Review_, 9:39 (2002)149-18

"The Mughal Empire" In _The magnificent Mughals_, Edited by Zeenut Ziad, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. ISBN: 0195794443

"Kinship and Pargana in Eighteenth-century Khandesh" [with Stewart Gordon] in _The eighteenth century in Indian history: evolution or revolution?_ / edited by P.J. Marshall, (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2003) ISBN 0195659813

_The Unending Frontier: An Environmental History of the Early Modern World_. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003) ISBN: 0520230752

"The opium industry in British India" in Sanjay Subrahmanyam, _Land, Politics and Trade in South Asia_ (New Delhi; New York: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN: 0195667077

"Warriors and the state in early modern India", _Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient_ (Leiden) 47:3 (2004) 390-400

Source/Acknowledgement:
H-NET Asia
Email dated August 25, 2007 of Sanjay Subrahmanyam.
Email dated August 27, 2007 of Frank Conlon.

IPTA: The People Theatre Group

2007-03-15T09:48:00.000+05:30

The form of history which a country generally administer to the citizens is mainly political history. However, there is a form of history, which is without politics. Such a history has two main genre viz. Social history and economic history. The sources of such histories are bit different from the usual form of sources. On feature is common among such sources. They are the form of the activities of the people without the support of the government or the motivating factor behind such activities of the people are the people themselves.

During the freedom struggle of India, it was not only the political parties like Congress party, Unionist Party, Muslim League, Communist groups et al, which undertook the awareness and mobilization among the people. The writers association and Indian People’s Theatre Association were such responses during the freedom struggle of India were not political in nature as such but they were goaded to participate in the freedom struggle under the urge of national spirit. After the Independence they continued with their existence. They are working for the uplifting the society and bringing out the vices of the society through the medium of performing arts.

Indian People’s Theater Association is quite active and pullulating with life. They have their own website. They have given a brief history of the origin of Indian People’s Theatre Association. Apart from that they have also given profile of the present generation befittingly nurtured by pioneers of the association. However, there is dominance of one group among them. Even then, such activities and their records are essential to understand the social, socio-religious and socio-economic perception of the contemporary times. It is being done through the literature. However, through the performing art, they touch the perception of the society in a more effective manner. No doubt, the medium of cinema and television are more effective because of the technological advances and reach. But the people of theatre are more sensitive and responsive to issues which the general public face in day to day life. The people associated with the theater with such issues which are definitely a major raw data for the historians and even for the administration.

The introduction to the IPTA activities is quite portent with meaning and tells about the matter with they deal and the goal which they try to achieve. The following lines are taken \ from the site itself.

"The Indian People's Theatre Association was formed during the Quit India Movement in 1942. Upon its formal inauguration in 1943-44, IPTA took upon itself the challenge to bring theatre to the people with the objective of building awareness about social responsibility and national integration. IPTA soon became a movement and swept the length and breadth of India with its socialistic and nationalistic fervour."

Apart from the added information, the schedule of regular activity, which constitutes of regular staging of the plays, is displayed on the main page of the site. There is additional links on poetry, gallery and reviews. The quantity of information and write ups are not substantial in nature but they can be used to form a contour of the social perception of the Indians in present day scenario. The literary figures like Javed Akhtar, Santosh Bajpai etc are associated with the organization. It seems that they have not given attention to provide good additional information on the site. They could enrich this site by providing authentic information about the past days and make it more useful for the people who can be benefited from them. May be, they are not yet taking cyber space more seriously. It is hoped that when they are already here on the cyberspace, they may come up with good essays on different aspect of the Indian society as well as information which has historic value.

Historical Sources Online by Spinning Clio

2007-03-11T18:19:00.000+05:30

Marc Comtois has prepared a weblography which I have been exploring for some time. I have already made a comment on him on the side bar of this blog. I had first come across his work at Introduction to Historical Methods: Index. It was back in 2005 when I first read this article. No doubt, it has been identified and well recognized by the rest of the world.

However it was only later I identified that the author of Spinning Clio was Marc Comtois.

No doubt, on his blog Spinning Clio, he has given a list of links on history related sources. In the Weblography, he has prepared a separate sheet on the links. It is done with great imagination. Some may find it too restricted. It is the interest of the author which has guided the compilation of the list. I find it quite exhaustive. I find it a good starting point for the beginners. It fulfills the need of main purpose of using Internet. The Internet is a vast place. The information is available on Internet. But where is it? How can one find the desired information and a dependable information? I believe these are the issues which come up when you start using Internet as a teaching and research tool. The list prepared by Marc Comtois is one of the best example, or rather a model, wherein the Internet can be effectively used as a teaching and research tool. No doubt, this is not the only list on the net. The HNN bloggers have prepared similar list. They regularly update it. Then there is example of Miland Brown. He has his own model which he executes with great commitment and consistency. Then, there is a group of Digital Historians who are also very effective in showing how the digital world can be useful for the scholars of social sciences. I have commented on them earlier. I have been using the list of Marc Comtois also but never commented on it. Here I fulfill it. I share with rest of the world the sources which I have been using for exploring the web for my subject History.

Sources:
For Picture of Muses of History:
Spinning Clio
The Nine Greek Muses by Heather Clegg-Haman. (Special note: The references given for links to the Muses is not correct on this site. It seems it is mere a clerical mistake while preparing the manuscript.)

World History view on ICHR Website

2007-02-09T20:44:00.000+05:30

World History Blog: Indian Council of Historical Research

Miland Brown has identified the website of the prestigious ICHR.

He has commented thus:
"Unfortunately, there is not a lot of full-text journals or books here. However, the site does have an index of several of the journals as well as a listing of books and conference proceedings from the organization. As such, this may prove to be a good starting point for researching Indian history."

Well it is true for most of similar sites being displayed by the India government. Same thing can be said about Digital History of India.

I have been pointing out this shortcoming. It was emphasized by pointing out the format of available sources on India on some foreign sites wherein in even Government of India has colloborated or sought assistance. It is really surprising to watch, that when it comes to launching of similar information and material on internet, the Indian Government always remain short of the desired standard. Why do they remain short of right planning and the right model?

Miland Brown has made such comments about the ICHR site. I have pointed out the similar thing while commenting on Microfiliming of Indian Publications wherein some of the sources were made available to general public. Then again, I pointed it out in case of Social Scientist Journal.

On the other hand some Indians on their own have done the better job while making blogs and Website about Historic research and making of the information available on cyberspace. The two examples which can be quotes here are of Arvind Gupta and Raman Kaul. (Both of them are engineers.)

If people remember, in July 2006, while blocking some sites, they blocked the whole domain. This is the way they work.

There is need that the expert from various fields should also be joined with the people who are deputed to use IT technology for the benefit of communication. There is need to visualize the actual aim of making the website and then displaying it on cyberspace. If some one points out that not enough sources are available, then it is

Remembering Shrada Ram at Phillaur.

2007-02-02T14:27:00.000+05:30

Here are photographs of bust of Shradha Ram Phillauri at crossing of Nawanshar Phillaur.

Shradha Ram was the writer of the most famous Hindu prayer "Om Jai Jagdhish Hare, ... Shradha Bhakti Badayia. However, the prayer has undergone numerous interpolations and now it is attributed to Shivananda. It is probably the first just prayer which was written in pure Hindi. Most of the prayers and Chalisas are written in Bruj Bhasha or Khaddi Boli. However, it is strongly contended by the Hindi scholars.

Shradha Ram was writer of the Hindi novel Bhagmati. It is probably the first novel to be written in Hindi. However, the Hindi scholars also deny this status to this work. This novel has shown the social and cultural scenario of India in nineteenth century colonial India.

Shradha Ram was the writer of Punjabi Vartak, titled "Punabi Batcheet", the Punjabi grammer which is still being taught in PSEB affiliated schools. However, nowhere, the name of this writer is projected in the text books of Punjab.

Shradha Ram was banned from entering Phillaur. This has been mentioned in the book by Kenneth W. Jones. It is believed that he was the first revolutionary of Punjab and probably of the whole India who tried to start an armed revolutionary movement. Later the similar movement was started by Bengalis in Post Wang Bang movement of 1905. However, there is no written record available. According to oral history, the CID had shadowed Shradha Ram for his activities. But it is not corroborated by established historians.

The name of wife of Shrada Ram was Mehtab Kaur. The name of his wife suggests that she was a non-Brahmin lady whereas, Shrada Ram was a Brahmin. It is recorded in book published by Arya Samaj Punjab late back in 1980 as per the records maintained by Ashwani Kaushik of Phillaur (Billa, son of Kalu Ram). He belonged to Marud Joshi of Brahmins. However, the author of this post is yet not able to counter check this information from any established source or record.

The temple where Shrada Ram lived in Phillaur is still there in Passian Chowk Phillaur. The author of this post will bring out more facts about Shrada Ram and the photograph of the Temple (Mandir) in his next post.

Editing Log:
March 15, 2007:
Added the title Punjabi Batcheet.
Added the gotra Marud Joshi। Refer to Kenneth Jones, Socio Religious Reform Movement in British India, page 106.
March 19, 2007:
Changed the spelling to 'bust' pointed out on Wikipedia wherein an article titled "Phillaur" has been substantiated by the blogger giving link to this site.

Term Paper Trial

2007-01-23T23:16:00.000+05:30

Sources on 1857 (H-Asia Discussion)

2006-11-16T19:41:00.000+05:30

The one hundred and fifty anniversary of Uprising of 1857 by Hindustanis (presently Bharta/India) falls in 2007. It is believed that the Indians celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the 1857 as the anniversary of the First War of Independence for India in the year 1907. That was the period of the heightened national urges of the Indian Middle Class. It started from 1905 with Wang Bang Movement. Later V. D. Sarvarkar had published the book in which he had declared it as the First War of Independence. In 1958, S. B. Chaudhari declared it as a Civil Revolt and it was included as such in the eleven volume history of India edited by R. C. Majumdar. He did not accept that it should be called the First War of Independence. However, Majumdar, accepted it as the greatest movement of the expression of Indian Nationalism. The Marxist historians also identified it as a turning point in the Indian history. They ideological frame work located in this event as a Social Revolution in the writings of P. C. Joshi.

On the whole, there is attentive interest in this event as the year 2007 is approaching. In India, ICHR has already announced a conference for this event. On H-Asia list, this event has been is topic of discussion, queries and comments. It seems that every year, one or the other scholar on the list, regardless of the continent where he or she is residing finds interest in it and seek the help of the community on the H-Asia list to settle his or her query or a requirement.

It is other thing, that when a movie on Mangal Pandey was about to be released in India as well as on other continents, a query came on the list and the professor Emeritus Franck Conlon commented "Just in case the name Mangal Pandey does not awaken immediate recognition in all H-ASIA readers' minds, it may be noted that he was a member of the 34th Native Infantry of the East India Company's Bengal Army and is often identified as having fired 'the first shot' of the mutinies and rebellion of 1857 in late March, 1857, although the primary outbreak of violent resistance did not occur until May of that year." It was his response as an editorial report to a query by Prof. Vincent K. Pollard who had been activitely commenting on the online sources especially on the history contents on Wikipedia.

I have been collecting the emails in a separate folder on the subject of 1857. This year a query came on H-World list which was borrowed by H-Asia editors. It elicited a great response. It fascinated Ian Welch from Canberra that he could not stop himself in remarking as follows:
"I was a bit surprised with the original enquiry but responses like this are a reminder, if we need one, just how valuable H-Net (and of course H-Asia) can be. This is a superb example of mutual help and assistance."
Well, that is an appreciation for H-Net activity which was nicely acknowledged by H-Asia. It, on the other hand, also suggests that there had taken place some really useful activity. Yeah, indeed, it had been a fine activity. That is other thing that my suggestions were not included but those which had been shared are worth sharing with the rest of the people who do not visit H-Net or are not on the list.

I will first like to reproduce the sources recommended by Jyoti Mohan, Ph. D Candidate with University of Maryland. He had classified his bibliography into three sections viz. General Resources which some of them are even available online (But he not given the links.), Views of Indians, Classical Novels and Movies. May be it forms the part of some research work being undertaken by Jyoti Mohan. The books, diaries, journals and articles as suggest by him are reproduced after bit pruning. Actually he has not rightly distributed the titles under the each section as some foreign authors are also included in the Indian View section.

The books as suggested by Jyoti Mohan are:

1. Ouvery, M. H.: A Lady’s Diary Before and During the Indian Mutiny. This book is available on Google Books.

2. Memorandum from Lieutenant-Colonel W. St. L. Mitchell (CO of the 19th BNI) to Major A. H. Ross about his troop's refusal to accept the Enfield cartridges, 27 February 1857, Archives of Project South Asia, South Dakota State University and Missouri Southern State University. (online). But the link is not given.

3. Raikes, Charles: Notes on the Revolt in the North-Western Provinces of India, Longman, London, 1858.

4. Russell, William Howard, My Diary in India in the years 1858-9, Routledge, London, 1860, (2 vols.)

5. Trevelyan, Sir George Otto, Cawnpore, Indus, Delhi, (first edition 1865), reprint 2002.

6. Innes, Lt. General McLeod: The Sepoy Revolt, A.D. Innes & Co., London, 1897. Fitchett, W.H., B.A.,LL.D., A Tale of the Great Mutiny, Smith, Elder & Co., London, 1911

7. Khan, Sir Syed Ahmad, Asbab-e Baghawat-e Hind 1859; Translated as The Causes of the Indian Revolt, Allahabad, 1873.

8. Pandey Sita Ram, From Sepoy to Subedar, Being the Life and Adventures of Subedar Sita Ram, a Native Officer of the Bengal Native Army, Written and Related by Himself, trans. Lt. Col. Norgate, (Lahore: Bengal Staff Corps, 1873), ed. James Lunt, (Delhi: Vikas Publications, 1970).

9. Sen, Surendra Nath, Eighteen fifty-seven, (with a foreword by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad), Indian Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Delhi, 1957.

10. Barter, Captain Richard The Siege of Delhi. Mutiny memories of an old officer, London, The Folio Society, 1984.

11. Wilberforce, Reginald G, An Unrecorded Chapter of the Indian Mutiny, Being the Personal Reminiscences of Reginald G. WIlberforce, Late 52nd Infantry, Compiled from a Diary and Letters Written on the Spot London: John Murray 1884, facsimile reprint: Gurgaon: The Academic Press, 1976.

12. Sir John Kaye and G. Malleson, History of the Indian Mutiny (6 vol., 1896)- stated the official view. It can also be identified as the traditional primary source.

13. T. P. Holmes, History of the Indian Mutiny (3 vol., 1904-12).

14. Christopher Hibbert The Great Mutiny (London: Allen Lane) 1978- classic history

15. Taylor, P. J. O., What really happened during the mutiny : a day-by-day account of the major events of 1857 - 1859 in India, Delhi, for the Oxford University Press, 1999. This book has been included in the bibliography of many courses as displayed on the net by different universities.

16. Seema Alavi The Sepoys and the Company (Delhi: Oxford University Press) 1998

17. Nancy Paxton's Writing under the Raj: Gender, Race, and Rape in the British Colonial Imagination, 1830-1947 (Rutgers, 1999) has a section on Mutiny writings. This another book which have found regular mention on the courses displayed online.

18. Farrell, J.G. "The Siege of Krishnapur", New York Review of Books, 2004. The only novel suggested by Jyoti Mohan.

The next book which was mentioned by Lakhshami Subramaniam was a book by Rudrangshu Mukherjee on Mangal Pandey. I have read this book. However, an interview of Mukherjee is available on the net in which he passed a scathing judgement on the status of Mangal Pandey as a hero of the revolution. He arguments are not convincing. I have written few articles on Bindee Tiwari. During the course of the research on Bindee Tiwari, I had come across many sources now available online, in which the role of the sepoys of 34 Native Infantry had been shown in contemporary records. The contents of those sources do not vouch for the conclusion of Mukherjee.

Another sources which had been brought the attention of the List members was an online sources by Adam Mathew Publishers at http://www.adam-matthew-publications.co.uk/index.aspx. This seems to be a paid site. I made two or three attempts to enter into the sources which are claimed to be the reports, letters, diaries etc under a title India during The Raj: Eyewitness Account. I was not successful. It was suggested by Raymond Lum of Harvard University Library.

The next seemingly quite useful sources are suggested by William Pinch who signs as Vijay Pinch and belongs to Wesley University!! He suggests following sources:

1. Selections from the letters, despatches and other state papers preserved in the Military department of the government of India, 1857-58_. 4 vols. Edited by Sir George Forrest. Calcutta: Military Dept. Press, 1893-1912.

2. Freedom struggle in Uttar Pradesh_. Ed. S. A. A. Rizvi and Moti Lal Bhargava. 6 vols. Lucknow: Publications Bureau, Information Dept., Uttar Pradesh, 1957-1961. [Contents: v. 1. 1857-59; nature and origin.--v. 2. Awadh: 1857-59.--v. 3. Bundelkhand and adjoining territories, 1857-59.--v. 4. Eastern and adjoining districts, 1857-59.--v. 5. Western districts and Rohilkhand, 1857-59.--v. 6. Consolidated index and chronology

3. Annals of the Indian rebellion, 1857-58; containing narratives of the outbreaks and eventful occurences and stories of personal adventures, compiled by N. A. Chick.

Then comes the name of Jason Freitag of Ihaca College. He has mentioned the latest by titled "The Last Emperor" by William Dalrymple. I have already written some observation on the interview by the author and the reviews which he is receiving for his work. However, I have yet to read that book. However, Freitag suggests following sources:

1. Barbara Harlow and Mia Carter (eds) Archives of Empire, Volume 1: From the East India Company to the Suez Canal, Duke Univ. Press (2003).

2. He has given online link Western Intrusion available at URL: Internet Indian History Source Book (Quite popular)

Sumit Guha, presently the Director of South Asian Studies Program, New Jersey, who is regular contributor to the list especially in the Review section has given equally elaborate list. The list makes more sense as most of the book mentioned there are readily available in major libraries in India as well as some of them are available on bookstores. The list is quite long and kindly read it below.

1.S.A.A. Rizvi ed. _Freedom Struggle in Uttar Pradesh - Source Materials_ Kanpur: Uttar Pradesh government 1957. Six volumes of very valuable records, with photos of proclamations and farmans in Persian and Urdu.

2. G.W. Forrrest ed. _Selections from the Letters Despatches and Other Records in the Military Department of the Government of India 1857-58_ Calcutta: Military Department Press 1902 4 vols. Very valuable including intelligence reports, depositions, diaries and court records.
3. N.A. Chick _Annals of the Indian Rebellion 1857-58; cotnaining narratives of the outbreaks and eventful occurrences and stories of personal adventures_ Reprint, London: Charles Knight 1974.

4. [British parliamentary papers] _Accounts and Papers, Session 2 1859, vol XXV East India: The King of Delhi_ This contains the English record of the proceedings at the month-long trial of the Mughal Emperor, Bahadur Shah, including documents and writtena nd oral testimony of witnesses.

5. Godse, Vishnubhat _Majha Pravas_ reprint Pune: Venus PrakashanMarathi narrative written 1885-6 by a Maratha Brahman who was in Kanpur and Jhansi in 1857-59 and narrowly escaped with his life. To my (Sumit Guha’s) knowledge the only voluntarily-written full-length account from the defeated side.

Sumit Guha had further made a remark that Dr. Joseph Coohill had placed another list. However, I have not been able to locate that list. May be, I have missed that list during problem which the H-Net faced during the month of October and flood of Review entries.

Kama Maclean of University of New South Wales has tried to substantiate the list of Sumit Guha by suggesting the title Muir William _Records of the Intelligence Department of the Government of the North Western Provinces of India during the Mutiny of 1857 -, (Edinburgh, Clark, 1902). I am personally very much interested in looking in this source because it is said that these reports contain some references to "Lotus" and "Chapati" Saints. These references are important because there is a theory that this event was not a sudden occurrence. There was some secret plot behind this uprising.

Then there was a collective mail of four responses. That mail consisted of following references.

1. Jeremy Neil of Menlo College suggested Samson’s "The British Empire". It has been suggested as a primary source.

2. Marc Gilbert of Hawaii Pacific University had tried to touch actual verve of this whole issue by ending his recommendations by the call "Challo Delhi". The list provided is long and reproduced in its original diction.

"Ainslee Embree, The War of 1857 is the standard indispensable collection for historiographical study. No South Asian historian is without it, and it is useful."

I am afraid that I have never head about this source and so I have not read anything about it. May be, I have yet to learn more about 1857.

Apart from that Gilbert had suggested Stokes Eric’s "The Peasant Armed: The Indian Revolt of 1857".

In addition to that he had given some online links which are as follows:

Sepoy War of 1857 (Contains sections covering all the counter arguments)

Topic 4, The Indian Mutiny of 1857 (some thing similar to previous link)

3. Tania Boster, a Ph. D Candidate of University of Pittsburgh "Patrick Tuck, ed. _The East India Company:1600-1858_ (London: Routledge, 1998)" and bibliography of Sudipta Sen's _Empire of Free Trade: The East India Company and the Making of the Colonial Marketplace_ (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998.

4. The fourth one of Jason Freitag had already appeared as separate mail and here it had again reappeared. It seems it creeped in somehow.

Finally I have also provide further information as follows:

I have posted some write ups on my blog wherein I have given links of the online sources also. Well, there is no write up directly related to 1857.However, in some articles there are reference or relation to 1857. Whilewriting those articles I have used many online sources which are given links there. If permitted, I will like to present following details.

Recently, a new book is published by Darlymple titled "The Last Mughal". In an interview to BBC, he claimed that he had based his research on 20000 original documents written by sepoys and available in National Archives of India. There in he had talked about Jihad by Muslim during the Uprising, the killing of Christian converts during the May 1857 killing in Delhi and use of Din and Dharma views by the sepoys in the letters as well as before the various inquiry committees. The review of this book has been published in Independent and also available at Fall of a Chessboard King. Another comment is at The Latest Last Mughal Arriving in India in October. Further the comment on Vellore Revolt also contains some links at Looking at Indian History through Vellore Revolt. Similarly on 1824, some online sources for period before 1857 is used at Quasi Mutiny of 1824. On this very link, there is link to Barrackpore Cantonment wherein original Municipal Board Meetings Minutes are given. They are from 1876. However, there is reference to Prostitution in Barrackpore and the concern of Calcutta about it. It makes an interesting reading because the revolt at Barrackpore has reference to the participation of the prostitutes of Barrackpore in the revolt. This is actually placed on my blog but not directly related to 1857 but the theme is same.

Here, I will like to mention a movie released in 2005 titled The Rising:Ballad of Mangal Pandey at Mangal Pandey at IMDB. It has also touched upon the issue of Chappatti and Lotus Mystery.

Some of the Social Scientist Journals available online at Social Scientist online can also be useful. But for that, one has to check each copy available online.

Similarly there is another review by V. N. Datta about a book with same title "The Last Mughal" given which is commented at Using Historiography to emphasis an Ideological Stand.

One can also check Digital Colonial Documents. It has links to some of the reports before and after 1857.

Another good book on Guttenberg Guttenburg Link HERE Forty One Years in India by Field Marshal Lord Roberts, Richard Bentely, London, 1897. It gives good picture of Calcutta before 1857.

One can also check the link of University of California at

South Asian History: Colonial India (A UC Berkeley Library source).

Another book at India New and Old by Chirol can also be considered.

There are some original sources on inquiries committees. While collecting it from my dump, I am not able to locate it. But if I remember it right, then it is one of the University of UK with separate section of on South Asia, that has placed some original archival sources dealing with inquiries committees on different Infantry Battalions. It can be located.

Well, I will like to mention British Paramountcy and Indian Renaissance Part I V IX by R. C. Majumdar as good source for it. Another book is Other Side of the Medal by Thompson, which can be included in the list. More sources can also be located and they are available online.

However, I will like to suggest that Vellore Revolt and 1824 Revolt should also be included in order to study 1857 as Professor Taylor suggested that they want to pick topics with which the students are not familiar. One topic, that is prostitution in Barrackpore in sixties and seventies as mentioned above can be quite useful.

Before signing off, I must add that the list given above along with online links may suggest that there are enough sources available on Indian history. However, this will be a wrong judgement. There is no doubt, that there are many sources available online. But incase of Indian history, the Universities and organization which are outside India make all such sources available. There are some sources on Ancient literature like Veda, Upnishadas, Puranas and various tikkas made available by Indian based institution. However, such sources have not found any attention from the people of history. In future, I will bring a list of such sources on this very blog.

Source Acknowledgement:
Email List H-Net at

H-Asia

History Writing and New Technologies: A Comment

2006-11-08T13:51:00.000+05:30

The credibility of Wikipedia as a source of information and knowledge has been debated again and again for the last five years. On H-Net email listing this issue comes again and again. The editors of the different lists had allowed this debate to continue on their list whenever it is revived.

Being on the list of H-Asia, I have collected the emails concerning the Wikipedia and related issues in a separate folder. I have lost many of the emails but even then, there is a good count available in the folder. From time to time, I pick up some emails and try to check the contents and references given in them. It has also directed my attention to such posts on different web sites and blogs which are about the Wikipedia and controversies related its contents. After a long time, I have taken up an article by Roy Roxenzweig titled is Can History be Open Source? Wikipedia and the Future of the Past in June 2006. It is a long essay. It has been written as an article as it is presented in seminars and conferences. It has taken up a large number of conceivable issues which has cropped up with the success and related controversies of Wikipedia. During the process of pondering over the issues in there, he has taken up the issue of methodology in history when a new technology is absorbed in the methodology of research and writing of history. The essay is quite long but in the body of the essay, the author has been able to address the issue of writing of history which makes one to think about the future direction of the researching and writing of history.

Two issues have attracted my attention. One is the issue of present work on the history of America and second is the issue of "Popular History Writing" and Indian history. The comments on them follow.

It has discussed the issue of Spanish War and Philippines war and their relative place in the general text books. In the history books, the Spanish war is given more place and described extensively. However, on the Wikipedia as per this article, it is Philippines war which is described more extensively and the Spanish War has found lesser number of words to describe it. It is true, if you read a general text book on American History, the issue is generally discussed under the Spanish War. The authors tend to shift to the issue of rise of America as an imperial power. They do not describe the Philippines war more extensively. The theme which they adopt after that is mostly the American policy towards the economic imperialism. That leaves the analysis of Philippines war incomplete. Here, the reverse has taken place in Wikipedia.

Well, here, the issue is not that what aspect of American history finds lesser attention by the professional historians. The issue is that how community work can emphasis a gap in the overall perception about a period in case of professional historians on one hand and rest of the community on the other.

The second comment is about "Popular History Writing". I hope, I have understood it with the same meaning with which has been done in the essay. I propose to make following observations.

The article has also taken up the issue of the "popular History writing" which is now a big issue in India. As I understand, the term "popular History writing" suggests that the historians should write as per the demand of the audience. In India, there is great pressure on historians to rewrite the history of India. The most controversial issue is the chapterization from the earlier times. Under this issue, there is demand from a section of a society that the first chapter of Indian history should be Sarasvati Civilization than the Indus Valley Civilization. Similarly, in Punjab, there is always a pressure from the Sikh community to adopt a particular theme while writing the History of Punjab. The professional historians find their work hindered by such interference. They pass through a rigor of collecting and sifting before they put anything in writing. The interpretation comes at a very later stage. Their interpretation is defined by the contents of the sources which are taken as the facts. However, if a conflict emerges between their interpretation and the popular consciousness on a fact, then it is historians who are made to bend. They do not feel happy in such a situation. They feel highly constrained in doing justice to their field of knowledge. In the article mentioned, the author has taken this issue in light of the form in which Wikipedia has developed over last five years. He has argued and presented his views which deserves some consideration by the rest of the historian community. He has presented his view in reference to the issue of absorbing technology in the field of methodology of research in history.

On the whole, it will be good that if a debate starts on the issues taken by Roy with regard to the methodology of research and writing history.

Source: Resources on CHNM

Punjab History finding its place on cyberspace

2006-11-08T01:01:00.000+05:30

On October 30 and 31, Prof. R. K. Khanna had posted two articles about the Punjab History. They are "Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s relations with Kangra" and "Lord Hardinge’s Policy towards the Punjab".

I believe that these two articles augur good for the History of Punjab. There is a general complaint that there are no good sources on Indian history available online. There is truth in this contention. One does not find material especially primary sources on Indian history online. There are many articles on Indian history, but there are reservations about the nature of their contents from the historic perspective. However, now there are two more articles on Indian history and regional history of India.

I showed my happiness when Prof. Khanna started posting his articles. Here I stand justified in my stand. I now hope that he will continue to bring similar write ups on regular basis in spite of his physical ailments.

Khanna has not quoted the sources while writing these articles. He had done it earlier but not this time. On the other hand, his article on relation between Lahore Darbar and Hill Kings is more important. It justifies my stand of rewriting the history of India. During the 1800s there were three main powers which could have given a fight to British power. The first one was the Mysore Kingdom. Then it was the Peshwas and the third one was Maharaja Ranjit Singh. However, in the history books, Lahore Darbar had been shown as an upstart. It is an interpretation which had been presented by the British historians. They had already decided a story line and argument sequence from which the latter historians had never tried to break themselves away. I am unable to understand and accept the argument that the British were using Ranjit Singh as a bulwark firstly against Napoleon and latter against Russia. This line of argument has tried to suggest that the British could have easily gulped the Lahore Darbar. But they feared the advance of French and then Russians towards East. Therefore, they found Maharaja Ranjit Singh as a good and enough strong wall against them. On the other hand, for them, he was nothing. Such an argument lacks on many grounds. But this is how this argument is being preserved and nurtured throughout.

In the above mentioned article, Prof. Khanna has rightly studied the relations between the Lahore and Hill rulers on one hand and between Hill rulers and the Nepal on the other. These forces were such that the East India Company could have not beaten them easily had they made even a single confederacy. The company knew it. However, it goes to the credit of the company that they took time to design and decide their strategies before taking over the rule of this area. The history of India as they wrote then, was what they saw and desired to achieve and finally got it done in reality. They had never told that what they feared. They had always what they desired to to do and how they had done. Why explaining that, they talked about the weakness of the Indians only. Similarly, the role of Awadh, Hyderabad and Bengal had never been studied from Indian perspective. Whatsoever had been presented by the British historians, that had been taken as the debating point and then the debate had been given the status of a nationalist version of history. This is the main shortcoming of the history of India. Different scholars and historians had presented this contention in different words but the actual truth is that the history of India is never written as it should have written for India as a country and a nation. The articles similar to these ones, appear only as research papers. Sometime, they get printed as a compilation in form of an edited book. But they have never left their impact on the established narration of history of India as such. If one reads such articles, he develops different perspectives. The readers of such articles undergo the sensation of understanding the India of present. But when such readers read the history of India as such, they feel the shock. They feel that there are many threads which remain untied. There are many gray areas which demand explanation because the present does not vouch for the history as being told about India. The insistence upon presenting a peculiar definition of secularism in India has left a highly mutilated version of India as a whole.

Anyhow, let us hope that Prof. Khanna may continue to bring out on the cyberspace similar type of articles and present a fresh view of the Indian history in the manner in which he had presented in the two articles. Secondly, he may also bring out the sources referred and cited in his article. That would make this exercise more useful. He is already the author of seven books by now. He may later bring his work in the print. Here, he can share his findings and views with the online community which luckily consists of many established historian as well as teachers and also many amateur historian and interested readers of historians like Siddhartha Shome, an engineer.

Defining Americanism in the 21st Century

2006-11-03T23:59:00.000+05:30

It is not an essay. It is mainly an introduction to a web site. It is rather a link on a web site. The main web site is Unites States Information or International Information Programs of US Department of State, as the site is being desired to be called. The link site is Writers on America.

The motive of the site can be well expressed in the words as given on the web site itself. It follows.

"This book originated as an intriguing suggestion by Mark Jacobs, a U.S.
foreign service officer with our State Department staff who also happens to be a
working novelist. If we were to ask a contemporary group of American poets,
novelists, critics, and historians what it means to be an American writer,
Jacobs proposed, the results could illuminate in an interesting way certain
America values -- freedom, diversity, democracy -- that may not be well
understood in all parts of the world.

In the spirit of trying an
experiment, that is what we did. Choosing 15 writers who have attained a certain
stature for their work, with the group as a whole reflecting the considerable
diversity of American writing today, we commissioned each to write an essay. The
assignment: In what sense do you see yourself as an American writer?"

The way it is presented, even a casual looker may not escape from getting attracted to its contents. However, it is depicted in a very innocuous manner in the list of the products of its mother site. It is titled as the Writers on America. It may escape the attention of the visitor to the main site. In case, the visitor activates the link, he will never move away without reading the contents.

I was looking for the original documents on American history. The American government as well as American universities have used Internet in a more meaningful manner. They have understood the real meaning of Information and Communication Technology and every now and then, they are bringing new models to exploit the potential of this technology for the benefit of the humanity. Without such efforts, this technology seems to be a mere toy. Without such experiments, it may be reduced to a place where you see some sign boards of some companies as you see them on the road. You may be using it for online registration, online booking of tickets, online banking, online trading, online news and similar works but that may not continue to bind the users for a longer period. Soon something more will come and the visitors will move on. But, by making it a store house of authenticated information and documents, a true democratization of knowledge, a real freedom through dispersion of knowledge and information, and a continuous medium of learning, the medium is made meaningful for humanity for all times to come. It is not only Americans who are realizing the potential of this medium in a true manner. The similar activities are also seen in case of European countries also. If an impression can be taken for established fact, then whatsoever can be discerned by the email listing of H-Net, even the Japanese and Chinese are also doing this.

Anyhow, it was when I was looking out for the original documents on American history, I stumbled upon this site. As the quoted lines above, as taken from the site itself, can convey, it attracted my attention. It was really a novel experiment. The result is also really amazing. This experiment is there since December 2002. There are 15 stalwarts of American literature of present times and all have different origins but now a common place of residence. They have spoken out with freedom and in the process defined the America of the twenty first century. They are 15 Reflections on the America as it is being felt and lived in 21st century.

I have read the essays only by three writers by now. It has left me with highly ennobling feelings. I have written on each of these three writers. I have picked lines from their essays. I here reproduce the lines by Bharati Mukherjee.

"I'm far more impatient with hostility from Indian and India-born American scholars in "post-colonial" disciplines who instinctively disparage anything with an American provenance. (Their mantra seems to be that if America or the West in general set themselves up as the pinnacle in social and political evolution, then it is the duty of all children of colonialism to oppose them "asymmetrically," that is, in any way they can.)" Bharati Mukherjee

The lines may not convey much to a non-Bharati (Indian) but if an Indian can come out of his complexes and biases, he can appreciate and admire the truth conveyed in the lines of Ms Bharati Mukherjee. I have written my impressions on reading such lines. But I am not able to weave them into a good essay. The introduction to the Web site is rather more effective essay on the content matter of this experiment which has given birth to this site. I have kept back all those lines which I have written but I have given it a title as "Defining Americanism in the 21st Century". I believe that sums up the true theme of this site. Or to quote from the introduction, "America refracted through these writers' minds is not one place but many."

I hope and believe that other readers would also find it interesting.

Talking to a Doyen

2006-10-23T06:52:00.000+05:30

It is more profitable to listen to a doyen than to read a book. It may be a sweeping statement. It is used here to start a talk.

When you read a book, it may take four to five days. After you complete a reading, you just receive a scratch on your mind. You receive an impression about the subject matter on which a book is written. However, you take more than forty to fifty hours to complete a book. The final result is that you develop a scanty idea about a concept or theme. If you like to keep the book or buy a personal copy, mostly it is because there is good bank of data on an event, a personality or a trend.

When you talk to a doyen, you learn more than you can learn from a book. The doyen delivers to you a refined content and final verdict. He gives more than what you can learn from a reading of a book.

I talked to Prof. J. K. Sharma, an expert on Buddhism and Ancient History with Panjab University, Chandigarh. It was a general talk. However, even during the talk, I learnt more than I could have learnt by reading three to four books. We talked on a telephone for merely 29 minutes. There was lost of personal talks. Even then, I am left with more learning than what I could have done by reading a book for 29 hours. Let me share it with rest of the world.

D. D. Kosambi is considered as a leading historian of India and pioneer of many trends in Indian historiography. However, he was an amateur historian. He was a mathematician by training and received his degree from Harvard University. He desired to undertake a specializing but failed to receive scholarship. He remained back in India and ventured in to field of History.

In history, he introduced the device of statistical conclusions. He became the first Marxist Historian in true sense. He used his understanding of mathematics in using statistical devices to present his conclusions in the subject of history. On the basis of his study of history, he gave the thesis of thematic periodization. He criticized the dynastic periodization of Indian history. The trend he started him later became the dominating theme of historic research in India.

He was a polyglot. He knew nearly eleven languages.

He had written four books and nearly fifty plus research papers. The OUP has published a combined book on Kosambi which includes all his works.

Meera Kosambi is her daughter. She is an expert in Sociology. She had contributed to the historiography of gender studies.

Finally, the trend of transporting the foreign models to Indian history and history study is still going on. The Chola period is being study with different perspective only because a theory of fragmentary empire is being borrowed from African history and fixed over the achievements of the Chola period in Indian history. This is the bane of Indian history. The Indians have not be able to develop any authoritative theory in the field of history. As I understand, it is also true in case of Indian Economy and Indian Sociology. The Gandhian Trusteeship is considered non-feasible option. Nehru brought mixed economy model. The experts in the field tried to convince every that it was the best answer at that time. Nehru framed his Public Private Sector economic planning on the basis of his socialism. The Indians were taught the lessons of saving and spending less. But nineties brought the open economy model. The expert now changed the tone of their ragas. They convinced us that it is the panacea for the health of the country. The mixed economy and license raj was the bane of Indian economy. The world is changing so we have to change. But what about the basic ratios of Indian economy and society. The class and caste divide is still. The people suffers due to illiteracy, lack of health services and poverty surrounded by rising malls and extending flyovers. This is all due to importing of intellectual models and weakness of Indian intellectual to bring out Indian models built on Indian given ground realities. One or two D. D. Kosambis are not enough. We need more Kosambis in field of social sciences.

The above impression received as scratches after merely talking for 29 minutes with a doyen.

Edited: Date: October 23, 2006: Added information.

Note: I stand responsible for the above views.

Additional sources on D. D. Kosambi:

Added on October 23, 2006:

Read the books by D. D. Kosambi online at Arvind Gupta Toys and his team. (Move Down the list to locate the books which are in PDF.)

Bhupinder Singh has also collected online sources on Blogspot site and Geocities Sites (They actually take you to Arvind Gupta work. Here it is acknowledged that the online books as given by Arvind Gupta was located through the posting of Bhupinder Singh.

K. M. Shrimali, another noted historian writes a review on the OUP book on D. D. Kosambi on Frontline

A. L. Basham had paid a personal Tribute to Baba in R. S. Sharma Edited ICHR Journal.

Dr. (Mrs.) Jyotsna Kamat write about Acharaya Kosambi the father of D. D. Kosambi on the family portal Kamat Potpurri.

Neutral Observer had recently reviewed the book "An Introduction to the Study of Indian History" a classic book by D. D. Kosambi.

Wikipedia has nothing much over an above than that could be collected from above sources. The article writer has used the online resources only to write it, something which I have done in many articles posted here.

A Case Study on Development of Functional Meaning of the Gazetteer

2006-10-22T13:03:00.000+05:30

The Gazetteer literally means a geographical index or at the most a geographical dictionary. However, gradually, it acquired a character, that imparted it a status of an important recorded source in the field of history. Herein, the meaning of gazetteer is studied as it developed in colonial British India and post Independence India. It is not an exhaustive work. It is merely a commentary on a preface of a gazetteer which is made available online. However, the contents as extracted from there, make a good essay and qualify the title of this write up. The source is the activity undertaken by the Gazetteers Department of the Government of Maharashtra, and reported online. Therefore, it is mere a case study and not a complete analysis as such.

British Administrative Motive:

This is an extract from a circular of 1843, issued in the Bombay Presidency to the collectors of the districts. It reads as follows:
"Government called on the Revenue Commissioner to obtain from all the Collectors as part of their next Annual Report the fullest available information regarding their districts….. ….Government remarked that, as Collectors and their Assistants during a large portion of the year moved about the district in constant and intimate communication with all classes they possessed advantages which no other public officers enjoyed of acquiring a full knowledge of the condition of the country, the causes of progress or retrogradation, the good measures which require to be fostered and extended, the evil measures which call for abandonment, the defects in existing institutions which require to be remedied, and the nature of the remedies to be applied. Collectors also, it was observed, have an opportunity of judging of the effect of British rule on the condition and character of the people, on their caste prejudices, and on their superstitious observances. They can trace any alteration for the better or worse in dwellings, clothing and diet, and can observe the use of improved implements of husbandry or other crafts, the habits of locomotion, the state of education, particularly among the higher classes whose decaying means and energy under our most levelling system compared with that of preceding governments will attract their attention. Finally they can learn how far existing village institutions are effectual to their end, and may be made available for self-government and in the management of local taxation for local purposes."
(Extract quoted in Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, vol. I, Part I (History of Gujarat), pp. iii. and iv.)

It is further reported there that "In obedience to these orders reports were received from the Collectors of Ahmedabad, Broach, Kaira, Thana and Khandesh. Some of the reports contained much interesting information. These five northern reports were practically the only result of the Circular Letter of 1843."

It is further reported there that nothing further seems to have taken place after the above mentioned activity. On the whole, in the year 1843, it was believed that the main source of the information were the district administration officers who moved around among the people in the region. They were identified as the right people to report the data and then that data had to be processed and provided to the next future officers.

In the meantime the Gazetteer for the Central Provinces of British Indian Empire was completed in the year 1867.

The Secretary of State of India desired in 1867 that the Presidency of Bombay should also prepare the Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency as a similar record had been prepared for Central Indian Provinces. The Bombay Presidency appointed a Bombay Gazetteer Committee in year 1868. It was directed to ‘supervise and direct the preparation of the Gazetteer’. Finally, Mr. James M. Campbell of Bombay Civil Services was entrusted the responsibility of the Bombay Gazetteer Committee. Mr. Campbell started the work of compilation in 1874. He completed the work of compilation by the year 1884. The work of the publication of the compilation started in year 1877 and continued up to the year 1904. It took 27 years to complete the work of the publication. In the year 1904, the General Index volume was published. It had 27 volumes and on the whole 35 books including the General Index Volume. The number of books increased over the number of volumes because some of the volumes had more than one book.

Definition of Gazetteer

The Gazetteer literally means a geographical dictionary or a geographical index. However, in practice, the contents of a Gazetteer underwent a tremendous change. A study of development of the change of the actual meaning and contents of a gazetteer makes a good story and a case.

The British Imperial administrators grappled with the problem of providing the right information to the people whom they entrusted with the responsibility of running the administration of a districts as the collectors of the administrative unit in the Bombay Presidency. The authorities sought the solution in getting a gazetteer ready for that purpose. It raised the demand on their part to understand the actual importance and usability of such a compilation. They sought the opinion of the their expert. The opinion and practical advice was given by Sir William Hunter, Director General of Statistics to the Government of India. His guidance and opinion was sought in case of preparation of Gazetteer for Dharwar District in year 1871. It was sought to get into the core understanding on the purpose which a gazetteer was intended to service. Sir William Hunter gave the following opinion.

"My own conception of the work is that, in return for a couple of days’ reading, the Account should give a new Collector a comprehensive, and, at the same time, a distinct idea of the district which he has been sent to administer. Mere reading can never supersede practical experience in the district administration. But a succinct and well conceived district account is capable of antendating the acquisition of such personal experience by many months and of both facilitating and systematising a Collector’s personal enquiries………But in all cases a District Account besides dealing with the local specialities should furnish a historical narration of its revenue and expenditure since it passed under the British rule, of the sums which we have taken from it in taxes, and of the amount which we have returned to it in the protection of property and person and the other charges of civil government." (quoted in Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, vol. I, Part I, (History of Gujarat), pp. vii.)

Hence, it was just a reversal of the meaning of the purpose of the collection of a required data to be compiled as a gazetteer. In the circular of 1843, it was deemed right to collect the data from the collectors themselves, because they had the first hand information about the area. They were considered right people for the source of such information because of the requirement of the services required them to move around the district and come across the reality at ground level. They were the people at the front. Hence, the data collected thus was meant for the use of the government and for the future district administration. Now, when the gazetteer was being prepared in 1868, firstly the meaning of the term was modified and altered. Secondly, it was also identified that it should only be such document which would gave a distinct idea of the districts and nothing more than that. It is quite an understandable conclusion. The district collectors had to work on the day to day basis and by the time he reached his posted place, the new changes took place. For the colonial government, there were other restrains also.

Post Independence Activity:

In 1949, the Government of Bombay, (at that time, reorganization of the states had not taken place.) felt the need of up to date gazetteer. Therefore, it was decided that the old Gazetteer of Bombay Presidency should be revised and republished by making it up to date. An Editorial Board was established for that purpose. The Editorial Board completed its works in year 1854 under Mr. M. R. Palande, Executive Editor and Secretary, Editorial Board.

The Editorial Board of the Government of Bombay contributed to the nature of the Gazetteer after they acquired it in their hands. The Editorial had its own opinion and views. The Board was now an office of the Government of the Republic of India which is a secular country. This was reflected in the opinions and views of the Board while undertaking the activity of the work of the revision.

The board found that in the older gazetteer that "There are portions in the old Gazetteer bearing on archaeology and history which have the impress of profound scholarship and learning and their worth has not diminished by the mere passage of time. Even in their case, however, some restatement is occasionally necessary in view of later investigations and new archaeological finds by scholars, and an attempt has been made to incorporate in this edition the results of such subsequent research."

Then Board was also fully aware of the its own status in 1949. It wrote, "In a dynamic world, circumstances and facts of life change, and so do national requirements and social values. Such significant changes have taken place in India as in other countries during the last half a century, and more so after the advent of Independence in 1947. The general scheme and contents of this revised series of the Gazetteer have been adapted to the needs of the altered conditions. There is inevitably some shift in emphasis in the presentation and interpretation of certain phenomena. For example, the weighted importance given to caste and community in the old Gazetteer cannot obviously accord with the ideological concepts of a secular democracy, though much of that data may have considerable interest from the functional, sociological or cultural point of view. What is necessary is a change in perspective in presenting that account so that it could be viewed against the background of a broad nationalism and the synthesis of a larger social life. It is also necessary to abridge and even to eliminate elaborate details about customs and practices which no longer obtain on any extensive scale or which are too insignificant to need any elaboration. In the revised Gazetteer, therefore, only a general outline of the practices and customs of the main sections of the population has been given."

Finally, it added a new dimension to the fresh volumes by adding separate sections on the each village and town in a district. It only provided information in tabulation form. Thus the fresh gazetteers came up.

But the Question arises, does the District Collectors or Deputy Commissioners (as the case may be as per the States Governments’ Public Administration Structure.) use a gazetteer of a district as such to develop
a historic perspective for running the administration? Do they form their administrative acts keeping in view the contents of the document? Well Sir Hunter has already given an opinion that ‘mere reading could never supersede practical experience in the district administration.’

Source: The Gazetteers Department of Maharashtra Government, Pune District Gazetteer.

Puranics: Altered or Forgotten Tradition

2006-10-20T23:26:00.000+05:30

The readers of Puranas (mainly Bhagvat Purana) in public with motive of earning of merit for self and the merits for the listeners were called Puranics.

Here is an eyewitness account of the description of a Puranic family of ninteenth century of India. It is a part of autobiographical note of Saraswati Pandita Ramabai (1858 – 1922) as per the site of International Christian Women’s History Project (ICWHP) .

"Ever since I remember anything, my father and mother were always traveling from
one sacred place to another, staying in each place for some months, bathing in
the sacred river or tank, visiting temples, worshipping household gods and the
images of gods in the temples, and reading Puranas in temples or in some
convenient places.

The reading of the Puranas served a double purpose.
The first and the foremost was that of getting rid of sin, and of earning merit
in order to obtain Moksha. The other purpose was to earn an honest living,
without begging.

The readers of Puranas. Puranikas as they are called-
are the popular and public preachers of religion among the Hindus. They sit in
some prominent place, in temple halls or under the trees, or on the banks of
rivers and tanks, with their manuscript books in their hands, and read the
Puranas in a loud voice with intonation, so that the passers-by, or visitors of
the temple might hear. The text, being in the Sanskrit language, is not
understood by the hearers. The Puranikas are not obliged to explain it to them.
They may or may not explain it as they choose. And sometimes when it is
translated and explained, the Puranika takes great pains to make his speech as
popular as he can by telling greatly exaggerated or untrue stories. This is not
considered sin, since it is done to attract common people's attention, that they
may hear the sacred sound, the names of the gods, and some of their deeds, and
be purified by this means. When the Puranika reads Puranas, the hearers, who are
sure to come and sit
around him for a few moments at least, generally give
him presents. The Puranika continues to read, paying no attention to what the
hearers do or say. They come and go at their choice.

When they come, the
religious ones among them prostrate themselves before him and worship him and
the book, offering flowers, fruits, sweetmeats, garments, money, and other
things. It is supposed that this act brings a great deal of merit to the giver,
and the person who receives does not incur any sin. If a hearer does not give
presents to the Puranika, he loses all the merit which he may have earned by
good acts. The presents need not be very expensive ones, a handful of rice or
other grains, a pice, or even a few cowries, which are used as an invitation."

By Pandita Ramabai, Dated: March, 1907.

A General Comment:

In present days in India, you do not come across a pilgrim, who performs the work of a Puranic. However, on the other hand, there many Kathakars, Elucidators on Bhagvat Gita and other religious books like Ramayana etc. There are television channels exclusively dedicated to such speakers who address to their audience in different robes. In Sikh religion also, there are Patthis and Raagis who have taken up similar activity and enjoying a good audience. Whenever such people visit a city, there are big hoarding, showing their oversized faces produced with the latest technology in printing. They come to the stage in a grand manner. They are surrounded by such followers who readily give large amounts in charity. There are people who sponsor their visits to their cities. They put in to practice all the successful marketing and event organising skills and models when they perform their act of elucidation. They do not use Sanskrit much in their elaboration. They talk in a dialect which their audience can understand. Can they be called the present day Puranics???

Sources:
http://www.icwhp.org/ramabai.htm
The source claim that the writing has been borrowed from the official document issued by the Government of India in the year 1989, when the Indian Government issued a commemorative stamp on Pandita Ramabai and had also declared her the women of the millenium. Philatelic officer of Department of Post might have issued it. However, there is no counter proof to establish the authenticity of the account. Similarly, as per the account given there, the death of Pandita Ramabai is given as 1920. However, on numerous other sites, it is given as 1922. It creates some doubts. A review of the book of Pandita Ramabai by Meera Kosambi given on Vedams Books, the last year of her life is given as 1922. It is only that the description given about the Puranic seems to near to the truth, that the relevant description is reproduced above.

Photograph Source:
Wikipedia and Indian Post. On the India Post site, the details provided about the stamp does not contain the autobiographical essay as claimed by International Christian Women’s History Project (ICWHP).

Revised list of History Blogs on HNN

2006-10-19T05:14:00.000+05:30

Ralph E. Luker has updated the blogroll on History News Network. It now contains around 500 blogs nicely grouped into categories. No doubt, Ralph E. Luker has imaginatively titled his revised list information as "You can’t Eat a Blogroll". However, there is need to comment that in this manner, one may get at one place the material for one own interest. The bonus is that it is being done intelligently and there are pertinent comments and there will be such citations and references which make it more useful.

I for the one have learnt a lot from the people who are online. I remember here John Simkin through whom I ventured on this method of communication. Soon I found that Internet was not all that easy place. Then came new devices like Wikis and Directories where you can find the relevant source material to substantiate your understanding or just read the opposite version. In addition to that you learn about other issues, topics and activities about which you could have not learnt because of limitation of your milieu.

Ralph has given a note on the latest addition. Apart from reference to AHA, a portal which I visited earlier but forgot to remember the exact name and groped with different phrases on search engines to locate it, there is reference to Digital Historians. Now apart from W Turkel blog, which already includes some highly heavy reference to fellow workers, I have new blogs to look at.

Further, he has added four blogs from Asia wherein this blog has found place. At the end of Cliopatria’s Appendices, it is stated as "Categories are an abstraction. Many blogs do not categorize well. We've done the best we can. Neither category, order or position are intended as value or quality judgements." It is quite an understandable noting on the work done by Cliopatria. My blog has been placed in the category of region. I have never intended to make it as blog of regional history. I had named it hurriedly because there was such exuberance at the time of making the blog that I never thought for why I am naming it as it is today. It was later, I specified that it would deal with philosophy of history, methodology and online resources. I consider historian a person without a nation. Rather, for a historian, the humanity is his nation. It is the time and space function as watched through records or sources which makes the historian. Thus the motive was specified in the header. However, the blog has found the place under a region category and specified as an Asian region blog. Well as far as my origin is concerned, I am an Asian. Secondly, after looking at the category and inclusion of the blog, I was made to review the overall character of my blog. I found that though I profess lofty ideas about my understanding of history, I have made more pertinent observation about one country, one place and a specific time period. In case of time period, I have remained true to my liking for eighteen and nineteenth century. No doubt, I have made comments about Gandhi Era and referred to Subhash Chandra Bose, Rabindranath Tagore, Mohd. Ali Jinnah and historiography on that period, but, calendars do not decide that a phase ends with the printed date. For India, 1947 has remained a nineteenth century. The calendar date may be a convenient reference but history makes it own time periods. It has made eighteen and nineteenth century interesting for me. It may not be same with others. As far as region is concerned, I think, now even the space time paradigm will change. Shooting off the tangent!! Ok, Let me break away at this point.

Anyhow, I will continue with my activity as such. I am coming up with more postings. I have completed reading of one of the book. (I make three to four reading of a book then I start making points. May be cognition and comprehension not all that good? But it is how I do it.) Now, I have a list of blogs through an authoritative source. It will help to remain in touch with the direction of new trends.

Percolation Through Blogging: Watched Two Approaches to History

2006-09-30T02:46:00.000+05:30

While reading the comments of Kevin M Levin on the article of Manning, I observed with great amazement that how the topics of history are being debated and researched in America. They are taking the topic of Civil War quite seriously. They are debating and exploring different sources and methods to define and identify the cause of the event which is now popular as Civil War. Civil War is a chapter in American history, which is given great respect by the Americans. They are not ready to accept that it had actually taken place in America. They are debating that why it had actually happened at all. They are debating the issues which concerned the Southern states. They are trying to find out the reasons behind the various stands of Confederates. They are not satisfied with one or two observations. They want to explore all the issues from every possible angle. They are also trying to understand the responses of the Unionist approach to the contentions of the group which was definitely a part of America. They want to reason out for the course of the events as it had taken place.

I have located the blog of Kevin when he blogged on the blogger. Then he shifted to typepad because he did not find blogger quite comfortable or may be it did not live up to the expectations of a blogger who is a "a High School History Teacher and Civil War Historian -- Blogged Daily." It is from his blog that I have come across many other blogs which had taken the civil war as one of their main topic. Earlier, I was confined to Education Forum. Therein, mostly European teachers and research scholars debate on some selective issues. No doubt, many of the topics are concerned with American history. Their debate on assassination of JFK is quite popular. It was there, that I learnt that there were very few sources on Civil War. I was not satisfied with the observation. In their resource section, there were some links to many original sources for the period 1860 onwards. However, later I graduated and explored the web further. I myself started blogging in February 2005. During the course of blogging, I had come across many blogs which discussed the American history. It was through such blogs that I located many sources on American history.

Anyhow, the comments on the article picked by Kevin which he has assured will continue for sometime, has left me with different feelings. I am wondering that why similar type activity is not being taken in India. In India, it seems, that the history of India is settled and it is felt and assumed that there is no need for any such debate. There are many time periods in India which require lot of research and debate. It is in that debate that India can find the real definition of India. During 19th century, there are many such events which require deeper probe. If I try to make a list of such events, then I would like to begin with Anlgo Maratha War, treaty with Baji Rao II, English relations with Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the war activities of English in Burma and Afghanistan, the Sindh Occupation, the proverbial Uprising of 1857, the occupation of Punjab in 1849. I may pick some more events and add to the list. However, the year 1857 definitely stands out as the most important event. Recently, BBC carried out an interview with one William Darlymple. It is about his forthcoming book "The Last Emperor". There are three books by the same title which had already appeared. The interview of Darlymple had been greedily lapped up by the Pakistani bloggers. On the other hand, the Indian bloggers had adopted the same old Indian response of criticizing it. The author of the forthcoming Later Mughal had definitely passed some comments which are not appealing. He had come with the concept of Jihad in 1857. He had based his observation pointing out the number of times the words din and dharama had appeared in the archival material in India. The thesis of Manning is also a result of such discovery. She had studied the soldiers of both sections from the material discovered from archives. The topic and the construct which she had adopted was first mooted somewhere in 1940s as per the web site of the institution where she is working. However, her work is not criticised on the basis of the fixed notions based on the observations of one or two historians. There are strong reactions to what she had earlier told in her research as mentioned by Kevin. However, whatsoever, she is able to explore, it is being studied by the rest of the Americans with a balanced approach. However, such an approach is not undertaken in India.

In India, 1857 is cherished because it is called the first war of independence. The people seem to be satisfied with that much only. They are not ready to study in detail the event of 1857. I know that you can find number of titles in Libararies which are exclusively devoted 1857. I have explored them but none of them had even attracted me. They contain the same material and presented as per the ideology of the writer. The Indians are not ready to learn that what prompted the different sections of the society to participate in the uprising even if it had remained confined to North of Vindhyas. They are not ready to study the various streams of thoughts, push and pressures, constrains and expectations which moved the people to rise against the firangies. A set of historians had decided for them that the idea of nation had grown on 1870s. No body is trying to evaluate that how far it is true. They are not ready to define the idea of nation among the Indians. They are happy that it was there in 1870s and that is enough. But they are ready to accept that 1857 was the first war of Independence which was undertaken by the elite group and 1870s was the period of Middle Class which discovered and then consolidated the idea of Indian nationalism. Was there any chappati and Lotus mystery? You touch the point, you will be just snubbed. You will be told that it was a mere rumour and there were no proofs for that. Well, if Manning had not found the unattended letters of soldiers in archives, then even Americans would have said similar thing for the main motives of the Confederate Soldiers. Bill Wiley, an historian had told in 1843 that there was not enough material for such a type of study. Would the Americans have adopted that type of attitude and taken such a stand? I doubt. They would have found some other source to explore that what actually had happened in 1860. They are not satisfied by merely criticizing Bush and his Iraq policy. They are actually trying to study what they are and they do it by studying their history. However, in India, it is not so.

The Partition of India is also another such event in history of India which requires immediate and piercing attention of historians. It should be rather called the most important event which should be immediately taken up by the Indian historians. There are many constraints on undertaking such an activity because of the rigid or rather unconcerned approach of the government of India itself. The other reason may be the foreign relations with two immediate countries namely Pakistan and Bangladesh. However, the event of 1947 is old enough to qualify for the scrutiny of historic evaluation. There are many problems which have their root in 1947. However, we do not find that zeal and tenacity to deal with the study of 1947 from historic angle. Recently, there was an excerpt from the book of Kuldip Nayyar. Each line of the excerpt was a topic in itself that demands historic evaluation. Well that is not to be. Or shall we wait till the date when some foreign scholar come to our archives and then declare a theory about Indian Partition so that we may start are tirade against him and ultimately by commenting on him produce our own version of history of partition?

Born in San Francisco Memorial in Jalandhar

2006-09-22T19:26:00.000+05:30

This post is about the web site of Ghadhar Party Martyrs Memorial. It is called Desh Bhagat Yaadgar.

Coming from Ludhiana, do not take turn to right from PAP. Remain straight. Pass by Lyallpur Khalsa College and cross the Railway Crossing. You are on the Sher Shah Suri Grant Trunk Road which is also National Highway no. 1. You have entered Jalandhar. Remain on the road and soon you will reach the traffic lights which was once a British Motors Company Chownk. It is not there now. Remain straight on the road. There will be a bend in the road and soon you will locate a Petrol Pump on the right hand side and a row of small shops which deals in second hand cars on your left hand side. That is the boundary of Desh Bhagar Yaadgar Hall. It is on your left hand side. The entrance is quite un-descriptive. Well, you can locate a two story building in rusty red colour on which ‘Desh Bhagat Yaadgar Hall’ is painted. However, if you look towards further on the left side of the building, you may find a stadium.

Enter from the gate before the row of second hand cars shops begins. You have to walk a distance of nearly ten meters and you will enter a hall. In the hall you will find nearly 212 photographs as claimed by the web site Desh Bhagat Yaadgar.

Well, do not expect any air conditioning. Being a big hall, it quite airy. On the left hand side, there is an office, where you may find an attendant. However, If you are adventurous enough to see the photographs on your own then it is really an experience of life. There are photographs. Some of them are well annotated but many of them are without any caption or name of the person whose photograph is displayed.

Who were they? Who were the people who are shown in those photographs? Well, they were the Ghadarits. They were the members of an organization or if one is not pleased to say it like this then a party which was founded in San Francisco. It was formed by Sohan Singh Bhakhna and Lala Hardyal. It was the next response of the Indian nation after Swadeshi Movement of 1905. It was not a single response. It was culmination of the responses of Indians who had left the shores of India due to different reasons. In 1907, Ramnath Puri issued a Cirular-e-Azadi. In 1908, Tarak Nath Das had come out with a paper Free Hindustan. The same year, G. D. Kumar started a paper Swadesh Sevak from Vancouver in Gurmukhi. In 1910, Tarak Nath Das and G. D. Kumar set up the United India House in Seattle in U. S. In 1913, they joined with Khalsa Diwan Society to start a combined efforts to fight for the rights of Indians who had reached the Pacific Coast in North America. Later, they were given a common war cry by a Sikh priest, Bhagwan Singh who taught them the slogan of Bande Mataram. Lala Hardayal further ignited a revolutionary streak among the Indians through his Yugantar Circular. Finally, all these efforts culminated into the "Hindi Association of the Pacific Coast" in Portland in May 1913. A Working Committee was established under the guidance of Bhai Parmanand, Sohan Singh Bhakhna, Kanshi Ram, Lala Hardyal and Harnam Singh ‘Tundilat’. That committee started the weekly paper called ‘The Ghadar’ and established a headquarter called ‘Yugantar Ashram’ in San Francisco. This group became more popular as the Ghadarist after the name of the newspaper which they published.

What did the Ghadarist achieve? Well, it is suffice to say that after Swadeshi Movement of 1905, and revolutionary activities of Bengalis, it was the revolutionary response of Punjabis. They finally ended up in Kalapani (Andaman Jails). The memorial is about those people who ended in Kalapani and returned from there, back to Punjab of pre-partition years. In order to preserve their memory and to help the members of their group, they founded a Desh Bhagat Parivar Sahyak Committee. After the partition of 1947, the committee registered itself under a fresh name called Desh Bhagat Yaadgar Committee. Sohan Singh Bhakhna became its founder president. They then desired to raise a memorial for their efforts for getting independence. They bought a land spread over 3 acres in Jalandhar in 1955. Now a building stands there with the photograph of their members who had come to India in February 1914 to free it from British Imperial Rule.

It is hoped that a visit to the site by research scholars, student of history and the general netizens will be a rewarding experience.

Source:

Additional notes are taken from Bipin Chandra and five authors, "India’s Stuggle For Independence", Penguin India, 1989, pp 146-149.

Photographs source: Web site of "Desh Bhagat Yadgaar Hall, Ghadar Party Martyrs Memorial at Jalandhar, Punjab, India at http://www.ghadarmemorial.com/index.html

Single History Department in India

2006-09-21T16:43:00.000+05:30

WAIT!!

Do not React Sharply.

Kindly read what I write below.

Center of History and New Media on its Resource page claims a "Searchable database linking to roughly 1,200 history departments around the world. If a department has a web site, it’s here."(Lines in original taken from <http://chnm.gmu.edu/resources/> retrieved on September 21, 2006.)

In the above mentioned data base of 1200 sites of History Departments; and mind it that the CHNM claims that if there is a web site of a history department then it is there, there are 351 sites of History Departments from non-US location. These 351 sites are from rest of the world and every other continent is represent in that set. It also shows that there are 849 web sites of History Departments from within United States.

Out of 351 sites from non-US area there is only one site from India. It is a site of Department of History, School of Social Science of University of Hyderabad .

The site is maintained by Dr. Rekha Pande and Dr. MN Rajesh .

There are thirteen links on the site providing information on the Department, Faculty, Alumni, Funding etc. Among various facilities, the department claims to use computer based technologies as well as the Information Technology. In its future plans, the department proposes to start new courses like History of Information and Aesthetics, Gender History and such more programmes. In the link on "Recent Activities" they have displayed their activities. They may also start the digitization of rare sources and archives. However, there is nothing like original resources, display of original work by the department and digital sources on the line of democratization of Knowledge as it is being practiced by various history departments from US and many other countries.

On the whole, it was heartening to find that India is represented in the list of 1200 sites. The Hyderabad site is using ERNET resources, which is part of the project of EDUSAT in India that promotes the e-learning. But on the other hand, it is depressing to note that there is only one university in India and one Department of History who are able to understand the real meaning of the new technology and ICT. I have been writing about this aspect after deriving ideas and models from other universities. However, I was pained to learn that there are mere talks about e-learning and digitization of resources in India. I have browsed the sites of Punjabi University, Patiala, Punjab University, Chandigarh in its latest form, PTU Jalandhar, Kurushetra University, Thanesar, Gurukul Kangadi University and some more universities. They have made a link each on department of history. However, there is no separate site of the Department. I have made similar comments on Digital Library of India. In case of Delhi University, you find good material on the courses being run in the department of history. But this is no separate site of the department.

On the whole, I congratulate the University of Hyderabad as well as the Department of History of the University of Hyderabad for their vision and ability to learn and practice the real dimensions of the new technology. They have fulfilled an important requirement of EDUSAT programme and NAAC. I hope that they may soon improve upon their effort and bring some original work done by the department in digital form on the site itself which is an essential feature of the department sites of foreign university. This feature of digitization has imparted a concrete meaning to the activity of maintaining the site so that it can be made useful for the rest of the society. A simple web site does not fulfill any substantial purpose. It merely becomes an additional source of information about the existence of an identity. It does not achieve much by a mere display of a site. It becomes a ritual then and Indians are good in performing rituals and forgetting the real purpose of an act. It is then counted as a mere fad and commercial act of promoting oneself on cyberspace which profit seeking identities are undertaking in far better manner. I borrow the motive of the site of the History Department Around the World of CHNM and quote, "We hope that this list will help you find ideas for creating departmental web pages, let you look in on or locate colleagues, conduct historical research, or help out with a graduate or undergraduate application." (Retrived in original from <http://chnm.gmu.edu/resources/departments/>on September 21, 2006.) This quote can convey the real purpose of such activities. In addition to that they may also encourage their illustrious faculty to write regularly on the site or through their own blogs about the projects they are undertaking and give the links to their weblog on the site itself. It will make the site more useful and popular.

Sources:

Photograph source: Web site of Department of History, School of Social Sciences at http://www.uohyd.ernet.in/sss/dhistory/newindex.htm of University of Hyderabad at http://www.uohyd.ernet.in/uohyd.htm

Delineating Gandhi Influence in Forming India – A Case in Gender Studies

2006-09-18T00:22:00.001+05:30

I have posted on this blog two posts directly referring to the place of Gandhi in Indian History. I have written an essay titled "Why Was Gandhi not Given Noble Prize" and then other one titled, "Need of Rewriting the Gandhi Era".

My main argument is that there is need of rewriting the Indian history. Somewhere, J Mills model has taken hold of the interpretation of Indian history which was later molded for the benefit of the group which took over the reigns of the government after the independence of India. The three stages of Indian History as described by J Mills History of India did not go away even after adopting the new nomenclature of Ancient, Medieval and Modern. The idea of nationalism, right and left wing groups, the Marxist, then Lenin, Gramasci and followed by Economic history interpretations thrown in, the overall shape of the history as it has emerged in present day India, is not serving the country called Republic of India. It becomes really a bad episode with highly ominous ramifications when one socio-political group that latter emerged as a strong sect followed by their claim to be a separate religion is termed as a terrorist organisation in the books by NCERT (A typical case of faulty interpretation wherein twenty century concepts were imported to seventeenth century.). The cause of such stupefying acts is that somewhere we need a fresh interpretation of Indian History because there is no such interpretation which was meant for the people of India. It should not be called rewriting. Rather it will be the first attempt in writing the history of India.

Anyhow, I am here with a small noting on the role of Gandhi in defining the role of a group in the life of India borrowed from a book written on that very group or the section of the Indian society. However, I am afraid, that such comments, wherein in the word "Gandhi" is appearing again and again may not be taken as Gandhi Bashing. That is definitely not the aim of all such writings. The main theme is that India should look at the records of her past now, that is, after getting independence in 1947 when she has established herself a nation with a reckoning. Now, this should also not be taken as a revisionist history. For me, there is no question of revisionist history because the history of India as being in existence today was never written for the Indians. The theory of history with which India has preserved her past was rejected because the history based on the function of time and space was based on definition of history brought by western schools. I am not against the western schools. I am rather bred and taught as per the guidelines of the western schools of history. For me that was a new learning. It was that learning that told me that there exists another theory also by which the history can be recorded. In addition to that, if we have to write history as per the western schools of history, then it is not there at all.

In short, I am definitely not indulging in Gandhi Bashing. No. Not at all.

I propose that the Indian history has to be written and the history of India as it exists today is what has been written by non-Indians for a particular period and with a particular purpose. It was not written with the purpose of writing history of India for the subject History.

British authors had written history of America for the understanding of the people of Britain. But the Americans had written history of America for the Americans. If that makes my point clear, then I continue with purpose with which I am writing this post.

The main theme of this post is an observation by Geraldine Forbes on the role of Gandhi in defining the Women participation in Indian history in her book ‘Women in Modern India'.

The relevant lines has been taken from her book titled ‘Women in Modern India'

The lines are as follows.

" …, Women began asking for their rights before they were brought into the nationalist agitation. The women involved in the women’s movement justified their new roles with the ideology of social feminism, that, they tied their arguments about women’s right to women’s obligation to perform traditional roles and serve the needs of the family. Although conventional wisdom credits Gandhi with bringing women into public life, I would argue that they were already there. Gandhi gave them a blueprint for action. Equally important, Gandhi assured their husbands and gathers that these politically active women would not rebel against the family."

Well, first of all, the fact which is emphasised here is that women had already defined their role in relation to political power even before Gandhi had given his "blueprint" to them. This is not evaluated in Indian history. The author of the book has already written about the problem of getting the material for the women in India whereas there were enough evidences that the Indian women had been influenced by the social policy of British company and then the Crown. She has differentiated between the aim of the British policies and the role which the women played in the colonial milieu. One has to just remember the name of Rani Lakshmi Bai and then recollect the role of different women before 1919. The only problem is that their role has not been studied and also due to patriarchal social setup, the desired sources are not available. It can be best explained by a case of Raja Rammohan Rai and his legal battle with his mother Tarini Devi.

The second important point which has been emphasised is that it is a conventional wisdom that it was Gandhi who brought the women in the nationalist movement. The author has proved in her book, that this role of Gandhi, which is already an established fact, requires right wordings to describe it because the participation of women before Gandhi is also a fact.

As far as the view of the historian on the role of Gandhi in convincing the patriarchal leaders of the society is concerned, the author has explained it in the book but there is need to evaluate it further. I will just refer to an incidence from the Rani Jhansi. When she was faced by controversy over the issue of legal heir with her in-laws on one hand and the Britishers on the other, she had declared that "Mein Jhansi Nahin Doongee". There is no doubt, that there was strong control of the male members on the Indian women. There were social restrictions which could never be broken by a common woman. But this is one side of the story. The fact is that it is not only the male mind set which has to be changed while researching in sphere of gender studies, even the mind set of the women researchers also requires a reformatting of their mind set so that they can rightly evaluate the role of other different women. No doubt, the problem is big because there is lack of right historic sources, which increases this problem. But on the whole, we have to break some of the conventional wisdom which now we are carrying about the Indian history.

Blog Ban Revisits

2006-09-15T15:43:00.000+05:30

It is nearly 3.30 pm in India. I am trying to access blogger blogs and typepad blogs. I am not able to access them.

It seems that the incidence of July 14, 2006 is being repeated. If the other bloggers are also encountering the same problem in India, then kindly raise your voice again. It seems that the people who matter, have not learnt the right lessons.

The Follow Up Reporting is made at Jitters.