Modern India Research Articles

Important role of Art Organizations in Indian Modern Painting

Art organizations play an important role in the development and dissemination of Indian modern painting. They provide a platform for artists to showcase their work, provide training and resources, and promote their art. Major organizations such as Gallery Art India and Lalit Kala Akademi have played an important role in the development of Indian modern painting. Established in 1947, Gallery Art India organizes exhibitions, competitions and workshops. The Lalit Kala Akademi, established in 1954, promotes Indian art through exhibitions, publications and awards. It aims to inspire young painters to improve their creativity and art skills, increase awareness of the field and improve their skills. The academy promotes various art disciplines like painting, craftsmanship, architecture and graphic design. It also organizes art exhibitions, organizations and competitions, thereby giving recognition and prestige to painters. Lalit Kala Akademi has played an important role in promoting the uniqueness and diversity of Indian painting, inspiring young painters to turn their dreams into reality.

When extractive and racial capitalism combine – Indigenous and caste based struggles with land, labour and law in India

While the Government of India has made numerous statements about its ‘green’ credentials, extractive capitalism continues at an escalating pace across the country under increasingly brutal authoritarianism. This paper provides a case study of extractive capitalism in Adivasi and Dalit communities in Birbhum, West Bengal, in an area dominated by stone crusher industries. Through this example, this article argues that extractive capitalism combines with racial capitalism, resulting in devastating consequences in modern India. These effects can be seen in the concurrent violence enacted against Adivasi and Dalit land and labour under a law which is discriminatory and disciplinary. Drawing on Dalit feminist literature and the work of scholars on caste and racial capitalism, this paper illustrates that exploitation can only occur through mainstream disgust for Adivasis and Dalits – attempting to extract not only from their land, but from their bodies also. Yet these findings show that Adivasis and Dalits also clearly demonstrate resistance to psychological subjugation. This paper thus provides unique insights into the way that racial and extractive capitalism intersect in India.

Hospitals and Medicine in Medieval and Early Modern India

Hospitals and the practice of medicine have been known in India since long. This paper focuses on hospitals (bīmāristān, dārush shifā’ and shifā’-khāna) that were established during the fourteenth to seventeenth centuries in the Indian subcontinent. This is a theme that needs to be studied, for our primary sources do reveal some information about these institutions. The help of a miniature from Bāburnāma, illustrated during the reign of Akbar, is taken to demonstrate how imperial shifā’-khānas were organised.

Fashioning a Persianate Offspring for a Modern India: Urdu Visions of Persian Pasts, 1890s–1950s

Abstract This article addresses how some influential Indian Muslim intellectuals conceptualized and imagined the Urdu language as the linguistic offspring and heir of the Persian language and Persianate textual cultures from the late nineteenth century through the early 1950s. As the symbolic and material value of Persian gradually declined in India, select Persianate idioms, genres, and histories were drafted for Urdu’s modernity. This article considers the significance of Persian as it was variously construed as either a burden or a model by Urdu scholars and as either a worthy or unworthy predecessor for Urdu from the 1890s to the 1950s. It traces the shifting textual processes by which three prominent Indian Muslim intellectuals constructed a parent-offspring relationship between Persian and Urdu in response to colonial education reforms, competing national projects, and pan-Islamic intellectual currents. In summary, this article excavates the many uses that Persian served as it was simultaneously erased from and encoded into Urdu’s anticipated futures.

Dr. Ambedkar’s Thoughts on Nationalism

The psychological concept of nationalism establishes a sense of fraternity in the society on cultural, ethnic, racial, religious and linguistic basis. One of the nation builders of modern India, Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar coined a narrative of Nationalism about freedom of India from social inequality and untouchability. He talked about freedom of India from social inequality and untouchability. This could be understood as a subaltern narrative about the upliftment of downtrodden, deprived and marginalised sections of the society; the section that did not have any participation in public life of colonial India. In this research paper, we will study the various aspects of Dr. Ambedkar's nationalism, in which he firmly stated that without emancipation of deprived people (Dalits), Indian freedom struggle was not deemed to be complete. He has presented the concept of practical nationalism in contrast to western and Indian extremist concepts, some aspects of which we will discuss in this article.

An Assessment of the Progress of School Education Based on Source of Funding and Expenditure Incurred in the United Provinces in Modern India

The advent of modern education in India, based on a secular system of grants- in-aid, is attributable largely to the policies introduced by the Government in the latter half of the nineteenth century. While the present educational system has evolved over the years, and tuned itself to the present needs, both global and national, it still retains various foundational aspects of modern education, one being the grants-in-aid system.
 This paper attempts to analyze the gradual development of school education, from the lens of the expenditure incurred in this exercise, which was crucial for its implementation. The various sources and modes of funding have been elaborated, and juxtaposed with the actual progress displayed by the aided schools, to understand the efficacy as well as the drawbacks of the system.

The Beginnings of the Grants-In-Aid System to Fund School Education in United Provinces in Modern India

The second half of the nineteenth century saw the advent of a change in the hitherto followed traditional system of education in India. The East India Company, tasked with the administration of a vast territory, gradually went from a policy of non-intervention and detachment, towards active reform in the structure of education in India, based on the English model. This paper attempts to capture the early stirrings of modern educational development in India. It seeks to streamline years of structured proposals and policies, ranging from the Charter Act of 1813, to Wood’s Dispatch of 1854, coupled with individual efforts of many officials, that ultimately brought about a grants-in-aid system, to establish modern learning on secular grounds. The system, which sought to achieve the uniform development of educational institutions on non-religious grounds, through grants-in-aid provided by the Government, seemed just and participative, but also suffered from limitations on diverse and vernacular interests.
 Even though the education system in India saw further development to reach its present form, this paper highlights the crucial and imperative understanding we must possess, of the ideals and the means that went into introducing modern education in the country.

Scripting of a ‘New Woman’: Rabindranath Tagore’s Jogajog

There has been a whole range of both male and female writers who have advocated the cause of women and portrayed the diverse shades of their personality in inventive works. Rabindranath Tagore has been the most countless-minded personality of modern India. He was the first writer to give equal or perhaps more place to women in his writings. The wave of new woman ideology was not only limited to the Western world. It affected women around the world and even men who were sensitive to women’s issues. Rabindranath Tagore was a personality who clearly dealt with issues like women’s will, their rights and freedoms in his novels. The approach adopted in the present study is not a follow-up to Western feminist ideas, but a synthesis of the concepts available within the Indian sociological system. In India, feminism is a debatable concept. Indian feminist researchers or women studies researchers have not been able to define what Indian feminism exactly is? Indian feminists are not very comfortable in creating a strict definition of theories such as writing and Western feminism. He was a personality who dealt with issues such as women’s will, their rights and freedoms clearly in his novels. In Tagore’s narrative, there is a reflection of courageous women in women. One can call them the ‘New Women’. Keywords: New Woman, Feminine, Indian Society, Marriage and Family, Man-Woman Relationship, Sexuality

Pritipuspa Mishra. Language and the Making of Modern India: Nationalism and the Vernacular in Colonial Odisha, 1803–1956.

Pritipuspa Mishra. <i>Language and the Making of Modern India: Nationalism and the Vernacular in Colonial Odisha, 1803–1956</i>.

Ram Mohan Roy and Contemporary Hindu Religion: A Philosophical Study

Raja Ram Mohan Roy was a rational and progressive social reformer of modern India. The contemporary societal condition of Ram Mohan was that the common people were misled in several ways by the priest in the name of religion. The conventionally accepted rituals and customs were used as instrumentally to make the Brahmans benefited. They used their fabricated words in society in the name of scriptures and it is consequently resulting to the common people used to follow those instructions blindly. That time, Upanishads was not available in Bengali Language. Since Ram, Mohan Roy translated the Upanishads and core Sanskrit texts into Bengali language and made the common people conscious about their scriptural essence. In addition, the common person able to capture the essence of religion. He was clamor against the hitherto existing ritualism has been practicing in Hinduism. He exposed that the Upanishads do not preach any kind of idol worship. Actually, Ram Mohan wished to develop a rationalistic attitude among the common people of the society and presents a new direction of Hinduism that is called Neo-Hinduism. The present paper intends to depict the image of Hindu religion contemporary to Ram Mohan and how he brought a renaissance through firmly criticizing the dogmatically accepted rituals of Hinduism.

Contention and collaboration: the tenuous encounter of modern Ayurveda and Western medicine in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries

Complementary medicine systems are ascending to rapid popularity as the twenty-first century progresses. Often adapted from ancient systems of healing such as Ayurveda, these modern alternative medical movements reappraise millennia-old...

The Bhasa of History—an essay for Dipesh Chakrabarty

ABSTRACT What value does a leading historian of modern South Asia ascribe to bhasa literature? Meant as an introduction to a volume of papers dedicated to Dipesh Chakrabarty, this essay proposes to read through some of his work and draw out a couple of general responses to this central question. The first one concerns Chakrabarty’s larger philosophical engagement with the condition of colonial modernity in India. In his treatment, bhasa literary corpus is a site of difference as well as belonging. He searches for the difference that marks Indian experience of colonial modernity in the literary. The value of bhasa, in this instance, lies in its ability to provide a ground for resistance to the uniform march of enlightenment and capitalist modernity. And, bhasa enables an awareness of historical difference precisely because it provides a sense of belonging. This sense of belongingness is closely tied to a place, a particular location as well as to a sense of everyday intimacy. As the hybrid site of difference as well as belonging, bhasa is then the constitutive cradle of what Chakrabarty calls ‘History 2s’. The second one concerns Chakrabarty’s more specific analysis of the evolution of history as an academic discipline in modern India. He delineates a sharp devaluation in the political worth of the literary that the rise of rational-scientific history writing brought about in the middle decades of the twentieth-century. As he studies the intellectual careers of particular historians, part of his intent is to elaborate on this process of devaluation. The essay situates this reading of Chakrabarty in a larger discursive context. It briefly looks at the work of some other scholars of modern South Asia who share these intellectual concerns, and seeks to create, as it were, a dialogue between Chakrabarty and others. The essay concludes by briefly introducing the papers in the volume. In different ways, they extend Chakrabarty’s preoccupation with the relationship between history and literature, and with the subject of modernity in India at large.

Habib Tanvir’s Experiment with Folk Idioms: An Approach toward an Inclusive Theatre

Modern Indian theatre has a long and sustained tradition. It got invigorated and exposed to the western conventions of drama and performance in the post-independence scenario. It is therefore, a conglomerate of three strands: Sanskrit, folk and western dramaturgy. All these strands collide, intersect and sometimes blend with each other with a fine balance. Folk theatres and traditions of regional bhasha drama thus are key constituents of Modern theatre, which is rooted in the local cultures of common people’s belief systems and language. Folk theatre in India and modernity thus are integrated phenomena. The vitality and vigor of folk theatre for social change and awareness has been thus very essential and used equally by actors, artists, and playwrights to bring out desired change. The paper seeks to highlight HabibTanvir’s folk idioms as part of his theatre strategy for social inclusivity and political awareness. His formulations of naya theatre and his other dramatic innovations, which the paper progresses to show, have been phenomenal and anti-colonial in its approach. For this, I attempt to analyze his two well-known plays, namely, Agra Bazaar and The Living Tale of Hirma, as glaring examples of folk forms which are intended not only to subvert the colonial values but also to expose the social disparity post-independent Indian society was encountering.

The Ethical Thought of the Bengal Renaissance:The Neo-Hindu Conceptions (1880–1910)

A development of ethical thought by Neo-Hindu philosophers in Nineteenth– early Twentieth century Bengal is depicted in the article based on hermeneutic readings of the texts by Bankimchandra Chattopaddhyay, Swami Vivekananda, Aurobindo Ghosh. From the one hand, Neo-Hindu philosophers continue Rammohun Roy’s line of criticism of Indian society’s moral condition, consciousness and conduct. From the other hand, they formed their own ethical conceptions to present Hindu normative ethics. The research demonstrated for the first time the becoming of Modern Indian ethics in the conceptions of Bengal Neo-Hindu thinkers who are the real founders of ethics as philosophical discipline in India. Growing up from indigenous ancient tradition of exegesis of scriptures, Neo-Hindu conceptions of ethics are the new adogmatic interpretation of the native religious ethics in broad context of Modernity. The Bengal Renaissance thinkers had made an intellectual breakthrough in Indian philosophy. The result of intellectual works are following: 1) bringing morality to the fore in dharma to differentiate ethical issue-area as meaningful in thought and practice; 2) definition of universality of Hinduism’ s moral consciousness in the core; 3) normative ethics along with its imperatives and rules had presented as established and fixed in ancient Hindu scriptures; 4) the ethical ideal was found in images of sages and epic heroes as well as in their teachings; 5) ethical norms and ideal are practically oriented for the criticism of society’s morals and future development.

Agni: The Eternal Flame Guiding Indian Life and Spirituality

This opinion delves into India's profound connection with Agni, exploring its significance as a symbol of divinity, transformation, and guidance. The ancient practice of Yagya, a ritual centered around Agni, has evolved through time, maintaining its relevance in modern India. Agni's teachings are reflected in Vedic mantras and are interwoven into the fabric of daily life through rituals like Balivaishya Yagya. The manuscript discusses Agni's role in 16 Sanskaras, guiding individuals through life's stages while promoting values and virtues. It also explores Agni's metaphysical dimension, manifested as sacred eternal flames or lamps, revered by Yogis and the masses alike. The spiritual essence of Agni is emphasized through practices like Yogagni, Pranagni, and Mantragni. Additionally, Maharshi Aurobindo's perspective unveils Agni's deep symbolism in Vedic hymns as a bridge between humanity and divine realms. Ultimately, the opinion underscores that Agni is not a mere concept, but an integral thread woven into the tapestry of Indian life, continuing to inspire generations to embrace wisdom, virtue, and spiritual growth.

Erratum to “Behind the Ballot: Democracy, Chicanery, and Electoral Technique in Modern India”

Erratum to “Behind the Ballot: Democracy, Chicanery, and Electoral Technique in Modern India”

Raja Ram Mohan Roy: The Father of Modern India’s Renaissance

Raja Ram Mohan Roy, known as the “Father of Modern India’s Renaissance,” worked tirelessly for social change. He is credited with bringing about a new era of enlightenment and liberal development in India. Because of the significant contributions he made to India’s development in the 18th and 19th centuries, he is usually referred to as the “father of modern Indian renaissance”. These advancements enhance Indian culture in every way. However, few people in Raja Ram Mohan Roy’s era were fully aware of the new age’s importance. The goal of human civilization should be interdependence between people and nations rather than independence in isolation, and this should apply to both individuals and nations. His goal was to fully reawaken the Indians to their individual cultural identities and to help them better understand the realities that were unique to their respective civilizations in the spirit of sympathetic cooperation. In this article, we discuss and explore Raja Ram Mohan Roy’s remarkable life and the contributions he made to society.

Assessing Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Role in India’s Unification

This paper attempts to analyse the role of one great person who took the enormous task of building the nation's edifice when a nation on the verge of independence was struggling to discover its geography of togetherness. Through his unwavering determination and perseverance, he was able to unite hundreds of strikingly distinct states to create the modern nation-state of India and this visionary's leader name was Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. From 1917 to 1950, Sardar Patel ruled the Indian political system. He devoted his life to the cause of liberation and reorganised the Indian National Congress. He oversaw delicate ministries including Home and the States after Independence. He merged the princely States after the Partition and reorganised the government. Patel was a key contributor to the creation of the Indian Constitution and helped lay the groundwork for democratic democracy. As a result, he became known as the Iron Man, a wise statesman, and a founding father of modern India. It is therefore widely held in the Indian context that nationalism was rendered obsolete with the victory of Independence. But this isn't always the case. The political reinterpretation of Sardar Patel's ideas, actions and thoughts are examined in this paper. Sardar Vallabhai Patel was a self-sufficient and driven individual. He almost never needed assistance from others to fulfil any of his professional tasks. Sardar Vallabhai Patel was one of those who helped the nation's citizens come together. He gave individuals the means to rebel against the British government. He participated in a number of demonstrations against Indian rulers.

Gandhi's Views on Truth, Cleanliness, Good Health, and Community Services

The Gandhian Charkha plan is also crucial for fostering community growth. Gandhi's contribution to constructive labor is crucial for modern India. In this paper, we will discuss the Gandhian philosophy of community development. The village industry programming the country, village self-sufficiency, and the belief in Panchayati Raj, Gram Swaraj, Bhoodan, Sarvodaya, Garmdan, decentralization, and Swadeshi are very significant and helpful in Gandhian Community development.

UNVEILING INDIANNESS: EXPLORING HINDUISM THROUGH THE EYES OF POETS IN INDIAN LITERATURE

In shaping the Indian identity and Indian literature Hinduism has played a central role it has been a treasure trove of diverse cultural expressions. The perceptions and interpretations of Hinduism of Indian poets offer unique understanding into the complexities and fine points of Indianness. The present study aims to explore how poets in Indian literature have presented Hinduism, suppling a deep insight of the religion's influence on the Indian psyche. The present study delves into the exploration of "Indianness" in Indian literature by the lens of Hinduism's profusive influence. Indian literature topography reflects a unique amalgamation of languages, religions, traditions, and perspectives, contributing to the heterogenous cultural identity of the nation. The present study investigates the significant influence of Hinduism on poetry during focusing Bhakti Movement. It delves into the works of Bhakti saints i.e. Kabir, Mirabai, Surdas, and Tulsidas, whose verses revolutionized the depicted Hinduism by spotlighting a personal and emotional connection with the divine. The expressions of love, devotion, and spirituality by Bhakti poets resonate with the core values of Hinduism, jubilation the timeless essence of "Indianness" and the cultural values of India. Moreover, the present study analyses modern Indian poetry with its continued inspiration of Hindu themes. Modern Poets such as Swami Vivekananda, Rabindranath Tagore, and Kamala Das comprised Hindu philosophical concepts, deities, and rituals to explore the complexities of human emotions and spiritual truths. Their verses represented the enduring role of Hinduism in shaping the spiritual essence that weaves together modern India, which highlights the universal enchantment of Hindu spirituality and its contribution to the Indian literature. Eventually, the present study reveals Hinduism's influence on Indian literature which transcends time and space, reflection of interconnectedness of culture, spirituality, and the soul of the nation. The picture of "Indianness" in Indian literature applauds the rich cultural heritage, inclusivity, and pluralism of nation, and offering profound understanding into the enduring spiritual values that maintain to inspire generations of readers.