Lakshmi Subramanian

The reinvention of a tradition: Nationalism, Carnatic music and the Madras Music Academy, 1900-1947:

Historical studies on the development of the Indian musical tradition have, with a few exceptions, tended to remain rather restrictive in scope. The emphasis has been almost exclusively on the structural and systemic aspects of the tradition, on the evolution of styles and genres articulated through the agency of the gharana in the north and pani in the south, rather than on the social context of the tradition and its practice. More recent works, notably those of Raymond E. Reiss, Daniel Neuman, Jon B. Higgins and James Kippen have, however, focused on the social milieu in which Indian music, particularly Hindustani music, developed over time. Their analyses of the social organisation of the musical tradition’ have raised

The Eighteenth-Century Social Order in Surat: A Reply and an Excursus on the Riots of 1788 and 1795

The Banias of eighteenth-century Surat, whom Michelguglielmo Torri earlier treated with indifference if not innocence, have invited his wrath since they were brought into focus by the publication of my essay on the Banias and the Surat riot of 1795. In his ‘rejoinder’ to my article, he seeks to wish away their existence altogether (to him there was no specific Bania community, the term merely signifying traders of all communities engaged in the profession of brokerage), and seeks to provide what he regards as an ‘alternative’ explanation of the Muslim–Bania riot of 1795. the Muslim-Bania riot of 1795. It shall be my purpose in this reply to show that his alternative explanation is neither an alternative nor even an explanation, and is based on a basic confusion in his mind about the Banias as well as the principal sources of tension in the social structure of Surat. I shall treat two main subjects in this reply to his misdirected criticisms. First, I shall present some original indigenous material as well as European documentation to further clarify the identity, position and role of the Banias, whom Irfan Habib in a recent article has identified as the most important trading group in the trading world of seventeenth and eighteenth-century India. It is also my purpose to show how the social order of Surat operated under stress by presenting some archival material, the existence of which Torri seems to be completely unaware of, on the Parsi-Muslim riot of 1788.

Bombay and the West Coast in the 1740's

as compared to her status in the early years of the 18th century, how perceptible was the growth and development of Bombay’s political influence, and what were the responses that were being registered to this development. Answering these questions would help to evaluate the impact of the English settlement in Bombay on the politics of the coast and the implications this would have had on the trading structure of the

Book Reviews : SUMATHI RAMASWAMY, Passions of the Tongue: Language Devotion in Tamil India, 1891-1970, California, University of California Press, 1997, pp. 303

The emergence and development of Tamil nationalism from the closing decades of the nineteenth century, and its unique texture and trajectory has formed the subject of considerable inquiry and critical research. The polarisation of Brahmin and non-Brahmin identities, the assertion of Dravidian self-respect articulated through language, passions for which reached unprecedented heights leading to instances of individual self-immolation, and the later shifts in the ideological posture of the DMK government have been analysed from multiple perspectives. Anglo-American scholarship of the late 1960s and 1970s, notably the works of David Washbrook and Christopher Baker, locates the roots of non-Brahmin dissent and alienation in the context of structural changes in the economy and transformation in the administrative complex of the colonial state. Thus the emergence of a non-Brahmin movement is seen essentially in terms of competing claims for power and status and factional rivalries that worked themselves out in various sites including within the early Congress. Eugene Irschik’s work attempted in part

Book Reviews : SUSHIL CHAUDHURY, From Prosperity to Decline: Eighteenth-Century Bengal, Manohar, Delhi,1995, 377 pp. , Rs 500

This book is a collection of articles which have earlier appeared in different places, the first being in 1967. They are arranged into three partsr-historiography, religion and politics and state. In the historiographical section the author starts with a strong statement against Eurocentric perceptions, even though he himself suffers from this problem at many places. He then presents an analysis of historiographical developments in the Indian subcontinent. But this article was written 24 years ago and its scope could have been broadened by mentioning new trends and views, such as the Chicago School of History, that have contributed a lot to Islamic and Medieval Indian History. Articles such as the ’Use of History’, ’Nehru the Historian’ and ’Growth of Secularism with National Movement’ are interesting for a general overview of the recent past. In the second section, on ’Religion and Politics’, the roots of the Bhakti Movement in northern India are seen as a result of multi-class aspirations. The latent radicalism of cities and the triumphs of saguna Bhakti are explained as the rise of conservatism in the countryside, but too much

Book Reviews : KUMKUM CHATTERJEE, Merchants, Politics and Society in Early Modern India Bihar: 1733-1820, E.J. Brill, Leiden, 1996, pp. 273

The heroes of Chatterjee’s book are the merchants and magnates of Bihar, while the story that she tells is the coming of the apocalypse that the aftermath of Plassey constituted for most of them. The choice of the merchant as the principal actor and spectator of eighteenth century politics is, in a sense, an inevitable one given the trajectory of political developments that marked out the region in the half-century following the death of Emperor Aurangzeb. That Bengal of all Mughal subahs escaped the tyranny of Mughal decline in the first-half of the century and that a combination of

Book Reviews : RODERICH PLAK and DIETMAR ROTHERMUND eds., Emporia, Commodities and Entrepreneurs in Asian Maritime Trade c. 1400-1750, STEINER VERLAG, 1991, 509 pp

an important part in the nationalist movement. But readers should not look to this volume for a satisfactory treatment of these aspects. It is instead a rather bureaucratic account of the High Court rules, distinctions between advocates, attorneys and vakils and the development of professional associations. The sources the author uses are mainly official archives, supplemented by personal interviews; he has also drawn upon Madras newspapers. But his account is bloodless; analysis of actual cases might have improved matters. Films and novels both show that the law provides a great deal of drama. There is no discussion of the evolution of a legal culture, apart from some cursory remarks about the snobbery and vanity of Brahmin lawyers; there is hardly any analysis of changes in the process of dispute settlement, and indeed in the nature of disputes themselves, which in turn led to changes in the legal profession; there is no attempt to estimate earnings, though some figures are cited. There is still need for