Independent India Research Articles

A Study on Issues and Challenges Faced by the Street Vendors in Mysore City

Street trading is the oldest mode of trading form of retail business in the country, though it was considered illegal in independent India for six decades. In the year 2014, the parliament agreed to the Street Vendors Act (to protect livelihood to regulate street vending), this act legally enables providing a prosperous atmosphere. In the present day, many street vendors primarily work to raise income to provide basic needs like food for their family members and to pay the school fees of their children. This would become the source of income for unemployed persons, especially middle-aged women who have limited education. In this context, through objective model methodology studies, this study selected 110 street vendors of Mysuru city to know their socioeconomic status along with the challenges and problems faced by them. 38.18 % of vendors were illiterate, 58.18% belonged to backward classes, and 28% of vendors had 251 to 350 rupees of daily income. 48.18% of traders face low-income problems and 40.9% of traders face a low range of competition in the market. Likely 40% of people facing medium-level challenges related to the environment, and 36.36% were confronting intermediate-level social security challenges. Around 46.37% were encountering a medium level of issues from the local committees. The study shows that 42.73% of traders were confronted with low levels of market fluctuations in prices. Hence, it is significant that this study helps to solve the problems of street vendors.

Vaidya Bapalal G Shah-A botanist Vaidya who made significant contributions to the field of dravyaguna

Abstract This article sheds light on the life and contributions of Vaidya Bapalal G. Shah to Ayurveda. This article is based on information obtained through interviews with Bapalal Vaidya’s grandson, Vaidya Anand Shah, and references to Vaidyaraj Bapalal Shashthipurti Granth and Vanayu e-magazine about his early life, active role in the Indian independence movement, and unwavering dedication to Ayurveda. This study is an effort to introduce the practitioners of Ayurveda to Bapalal’s journey from a sincere student to a leading genius of Ayurveda. Bapalal Vaidya was a lifelong learner, mastering the uses of medicinal plants, Ayurvedic clinical practices, and allopathic methods, which is reflected in works such as “Nighantu Adarsha” and “Dravyaguna Shastra.” As a teacher, pharmaceutical manufacturer, researcher, and author of more than 50 books, his influence extended to establishing institutions like O. H. Nazar Ayurveda College and Atmanand Saraswati Ayurvedic Cooperative Pharmacy Limited.

History, Memory and Memorabilia: Kamala Dasgupta and the Politics of Remembering Revolutionary Bengal

ABSTRACT This paper examines the interplay between memory, history, nationalism, and visual cultures by focussing on a framed photograph of a revolver gifted to Kamala Dasgupta’s family by the Calcutta (Now Kolkata) police after Indian independence. Once used in an attempted assassination during the anti-colonial struggle, the revolver has become an anomaly in the nation’s collective memory – a ‘floating signifier’ with an unfixed meaning. Analysing the photograph as a media spectacle and a symbol within national myths, I argue that it disrupts linear narratives of progress that dominate nationalist historiography. The article shows how Kamala’s act of procuring the revolver has been overshadowed by her comrade Bina Das’s violent act. Drawing on theories of the spectacle, national temporality, and subaltern studies, I illustrate the selective commemoration of revolutionary violence in India. The research in this paper demonstrates how precarious and subaltern histories such as Kamala’s can destabilise established national narratives and pluralise temporal orders of the nation.

Effigies, religion and reversals in the celebration of Purim by Cochin Jews

ABSTRACT This paper discusses the role of the effigy in the celebration of the festival of Purim as enacted by the Cochin Jews of south India in three major periods: under Portuguese conquest in the sixteenth century, in Cochin in the twentieth century, and in a different topography in Israel. Cochin Jews at their peak only numbered 2400 prior to Indian Independence; they never suffered antisemitism except under the Portuguese and lived in harmony with their Hindu, Christian and Muslim neighbours. On the festival of Purim, role reversals took place to protest hierarchical social structures inherent in caste and religion, thereby enabling peaceful relations between members of different religions, communities and quasi-castes (jati) during the year. The inversions were expressed in the construction of effigies of the adversary, as well as in special songs, which represented symbolic protests against hegemonic domination, which addressed other daily injustices, based on gender. Today, the majority of Cochin Jewry live in Israel, where they celebrate Purim, embracing globalization and identification with world Jewry. The physical presence of the Cochin Jewish community, its very embodiment, like the effigy, has been almost totally eroded in India, while the body politic lives on in another world, Israel.

The Arrival of the First Batch of Moplah Rebellion Prisoners in Andaman

The Moplah Rebellion of 1921 stands as a complex bankruptcy within the records of colonial India rooted in agrarian discontent, religious zeal, and anti-colonial resistance. Following the rise up's suppression, many Moplah insurgents were deported to the Andaman Islands, a far flung British penal agreement infamous for its harsh situations. This paper delves into the adventure and fate of the first batch of Moplah prisoners sent to Andaman, examining the context of their deportation, their studies within the Cellular Jail, and the wider implications for India's independence movement. Their tale is considered one of patience, resistance, and the problematic dating among nearby rebel and colonial governance.

Dual Diplomacy of Nepal in the Indian National Movement of 1857

Dual Diplomacy of Nepal in the Indian National Movement of 1857

Social Reforms and Political Activism Unpacking the Dual Role of Khudai Khidmatgar Movement

This article examines the Khudai Khidmatgar Movement, led by Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan popularly known as Fakhr-i-Afghan Bacha khan, which played a pivotal role in social reform and political activism in colonial India. Founded in 1929, the movement adopted non-violent resistance to British rule while also addressing deep-rooted social issues within Pashtun society, such as factionalism, illiteracy, poverty, social and gender discrimination and blood feuds. Implying indegounious values, knowledge and tools, Ghaffar Khan promoted education, unity, and peaceful coexistence among his people, challenging the British narrative of Pashtuns as inherently violent. The article explores how the movement, initially focused on socio-educational reforms, evolved into a powerful force advocating for Indian independence, aligning with other non-violent movements like those led by Gandhi. Despite significant obstacles from the British and local elites, the Khudai Khidmatgar gained mass support, with over 100,000 members at its peak. The article highlights the movement’s transformative impact on Pashtun society and its contributions to the broader anti-colonial struggle, positioning it as a significant yet underappreciated chapter in South Asian history. This articles has relied on both primamry and secondary data for qualitative analysis, with most reliance on primary sorces of data collection. For this purpose, extensive interviews were conducted.

Contribution of Dalit Women to the Indian Freedom Struggle

As we all know, the Indian National movement was a series of historical events with the ultimate aim of ending British rule in India. The Indian independence movement was in constant ideological evolution. Essentially anti-colonial, it was supplemented by visions of independent, economic development with a secular, democratic, republican, and civil-libertarian political structure. Women's participation was a pillar of a national movement. Their participation in the Indian freedom struggle is a significant area of contemporary historical inquiry. Dalit women's roles, opinions, motivations, specificity, and extent in shaping the freedom movement were rarely acknowledged because they were part marginalised group of people who make up part of what is officially known as Scheduled Castes in India. This research will highlight how Dalit women contributed to such a valuable historical legacy of independent India.

INDIAN ARCHITECTS & MODERNISM: THE DILEMMA OF THOUGHTS

Journey of Indian architecture in search for its identity started in the middle of 20th Century. It emerged from the conflict of two parallel thought processes namely, rationalism and revivalism with the former being propagated by the followers of modernism and later by the followers of the old school of thoughts. The hegemony of rationalists’ idea prevailed over the passage of time with the arrival in India of foreign architects like Le-Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret, Dame Jane Drew and Maxwell Fry and the then Prime Minister Nehru had thrown his weight behind rationalism over revivalism to project independent India’s image to the world as a progressive nation. The architecture of these foreign masters had a profound influence on Indian architects’ works, some of whom being the team members of these foreign architects’ Indian commissions. This paper is an attempt to investigate whether the influence of these foreign masters’ architecture in India is limited to only a specific group of architects who worked with them during their Indian commissions or this influence was all over irrespective of the Indian architects’ association with foreign Masters.

Private Space and Scheduled Caste Colonies in Kerala

Central and state governments have been spending huge amounts year after year for the development of scheduled caste people in India. The state of Kerala is also a good role model in this regard. Social integration of the Scheduled Castes in India with the rest of the communities is still an unfinished agenda of independent India. In this regard, Kerala, one of the states in India having highest rate of social development, is not an exception. The present article tries to theoretically contextualize the socio-economic backwardness of Scheduled Castes in Kerala by analysing to what extent a scheduled caste house property in Scheduled caste Colonies is an economic good. The study uses a theoretical concept-private space which is extracted from Henri Lefebvre’s social space.

ANCIENT ROOTS TO MODERN SOCIETY: INDIAS SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION

Indias social transformation is a journey marked by the interplay of ancient traditions and modern influences. This paper explores the evolution of Indias social fabric from its early Vedic roots to its current standing as a dynamic and diverse society. The analysis delves into the enduring impact of religious, cultural, and philosophical traditions on contemporary social structures, highlighting how these ancient legacies have shaped the modern Indian ethos. By examining key historical milestones, such as the contribution of empires, colonialism, and the independence movement, the study reveals the complex ways in which India has navigated the challenges of modernity while preserving its rich heritage. The discussion also addresses the ongoing struggles and adaptations within Indian society, including caste dynamics, gender roles, and the quest for social equity, emphasizing the continuous process of negotiation between tradition and modernity. Through this exploration, the paper aims to provide a nuanced understanding of Indias social transformation, underscoring the nations ability to adapt and innovate while remaining rooted in its ancient cultural wisdom.Indias social transformation encompasses changes in various societal aspects, including institutions, structure, culture, and philosophy. The goals of social transformation in India are evolutionary in strategy but revolutionary in content. Leaders of the Indian independence movement understood that social structure, history, and tradition form the foundation of society, setting the parameters for social reform plans, objectives, and methods.

How parties impact the trajectories of federalism: India

ABSTRACT The article examines the interface between the party system and the trajectories of center-state interactions in independent India. It argues that the Constituent Assembly put in place a strong-center model of federalism, giving the center much greater leverage than the states. The structural features envisaged in the constitution implicitly give us the image of a rigid framework and do not account for the dynamic nature of federalism. The discussion in the article, however, shows that there have been periods when the central state has been able to achieve a greater level of vertical integration, overriding the existing institutional frameworks. This has occurred whenever a party, owing to a lack of federal political culture and being under a person-centered leadership, managed to achieve polity-wide legislative dominance. Whenever it happens, the constituent states are reduced to more like administrative units, accepting directives from the center, as the existing federal safeguard mechanism loses its efficacy. However, here again the degree of integration has varied depending on the ruling strategy of the party leader, the party’s internal structure, and the level of resistance put up by the state units, and the opposition parties. In sharp contrast, when, due to political and economic transitions, the state-based parties gained prominence at the national level, then they invariably pushed for greater decentralization, strengthening the existing federal institutional safeguards, and striving to make the constituent states more autonomous political and economic units.

Symbol of wisdom in art of Independent India : The Deer

Symbol of wisdom in art of Independent India : The Deer

The Politics of Religious Non-Interference: Islamic Legal Reform in Colonial India

Abstract The 1929 Child Marriage Restraint Act (cmra), initially propounded as the Sarda Bill, became the first law related to marriage enacted in colonial India to be universally applicable to all subjects regardless of personal religious affiliations. Though formally adopted before Indian independence, the crma was advanced and passed by the newly formed Central Legislative Assembly which consisted primarily of Indians. As a result, the cmra garnered vociferous debates within both Muslim and Hindu communities and signaled a new challenge for religious communities which was distinct from British colonial legal logics. The focus of this article will be on one Muslim scholarly engagement with the cmra, that of Mufti Kifāyatallāh Dihlawī, the President of the Jamʿiyyat-i ʿUlamāʾ-i Hind (juh) and a highly influential Deobandi scholar. By navigating the contours of his legal debate surrounding the cmra, this article explores how the process of Islamic legal reform in the late colonial period in India was met with a new set of challenges as Indians gaining legislative authority sought to enact legal reforms that were seen as impinging on the rights of religious communities. And while, in this case, Muslim juristic opinions were sought, they could ultimately be trumped by larger social and political forces. More broadly, this article demonstrates that as India inched towards self-governance, competing groups and entities sought to claim communal representation of Muslims, and in the process, arguments made by religious scholars, even if they were recognized as being representative of broad Muslim sentiments, could be dismissed by emerging legal logics which supported the nationalizing tendencies of the Imperial Legislative Assembly over and above the rights of religious communities.

National register of citizens and citizenship amendment act 2019: following the logic of citizenship securitization in India

ABSTRACT The idea of securitization has an influence on citizenship policies since it enables them to regulate, control and separate secure identities from unsecure identities while also exploiting intercommunity dynamics, straining connections, resulting in exclusions. The thesis that securitization and citizenship are inextricably linked, following different logic at the national and provincial level but tied with the thread of securitization and identity management, is supported by a detailed examination of citizenship policies and legislation implemented after India's independence.

Atrocities on Dalits in Contemporary India Even After 75 Years of Indian Independence

Atrocities on Dalits in Contemporary India Even After 75 Years of Indian Independence

A Nuanced Study on the Contribution of Jawaharlal Nehru in the Indian Freedom Struggle

Jawaharlal Nehru, an outstanding leader, a leading figure of the twentieth century and a great statesman was an accredited political visionary with a brilliant record of struggle and sacrifice for the country’s liberation from foreign rule. His contribution to the national freedom struggle forms an illustrious chapter in the history of this nation. For his glorious contribution and outstanding service to the freedom struggle of India, Jawaharlal Nehru’s name “is known throughout Asia and Africa where he is not only revered as a distinguished Indian patriot but looked upon as an uncompromising champion of the struggle of colonial peoples for their independence and self-determination.” Although a lot of fascinating and perceptive studies have been undertaken regarding Nehru’s personality, his contribution to the nation building process, his achievements as a Prime Minister, and his enormous contribution in the sphere of national and international relations, yet not much attention has been given to his role in India’s freedom struggle movement. Therefore, the present study is an endeavour to highlight the crucial role and contribution of Jawaharlal Nehru in the freedom struggle movement.

The secular cleansing that wasn’t: “Vande Mataram” and the expurgated story of Indian nationalism

ABSTRACT This article shows the religious iconography of Indian nationalism by observing the manner in which the defining text of the Hindu Right came to legitimize an unapologetically majoritarian nationalism. It revisits the history of the Indian independence movement through its architects’ handling of the song “Vande Mataram” and its idolization of the nation as a Hindu goddess. Tracing its relevance to the hegemony of Hindutva in India today, the article then reads Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay’s 1881-82 novel Anandamath to study the connection between the song and its parent text, and to thereby understand the politics of secular cleansing which strives for the secular by purging from the communal that which is unambiguously sectarian. Consequently, the article argues that the story of “Vande Mataram” becomes an unparalleled example in Indian history of how the secular is structured on the ideological foundations of the communal and is therefore conceptually intertwined with it.

Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh's courageous sacrifice in the Indian nationalist movement

Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh is considered one of the most influential young revolutionaries of the Indian nationalist movement. His courageous sacrifice for the Indian nationalist movement is remembered as Martyrs’ Day on 23 March. On this day, on 23 March 1931, Bhagat Singh Rajguru and Sukhdev Thapar were hanged. To liberate the country of India, these brave sons had kissed the noose with a smile. That is why this day is called Martyr’s Day. At that time Bhagat Singh was only 23 years old. At the young age of 23, he along with his comrades sacrificed their lives for the motherland, due to which Bhagat Singh became a favorite of the youth during the freedom struggle. This famous slogan of “Inquilab Zindabad” had expressed the voice of patriotism in every vein of the heart, mind and body of the Indian youth. Bhagat Singh was born on 27 September 1907 at 09.00 am in Banga village, District – Lyallpur. His father’s name was Sardar Kishan Singh Sandhu and mother’s name was Vidyavati Kaur. At the time of his birth, his father Kishan Singh and some family members were in jail. His uncle Ajit Singh was always in front of him as a motivating force and role model. His father Sardar Kishan Singh, who worked all his life for the independence of the country, was his source of inspiration. Inspired by the revolutionary family, the spirit of courage, sacrifice and patriotism developed in Bhagat Singh. In his early days, Bhagat Singh supported Mahatma Gandhi’s non-cooperation movement. But later, due to Gandhiji canceling the non-cooperation movement, some anger arose among them. But like the entire nation, he respected Gandhiji. Bhagat Singh was only 12 years old at the time of Jallianwala Bagh massacre. This massacre filled Bhagat Singh’s mind with anger against the British. At the same time, Bhagat Singh was so disturbed by the hanging of four revolutionaries and the imprisonment of 16 other revolutionaries in the Kakori incident that he merged his party Navjawan Bharat Sabha with the Hindustan Republican Association and gave it a new name, Hindustan Socialist Republican Association. “Today the desire for sarfaroshi is in our hearts, let us see how much strength the killer has in his arms” These are the words of those revolutionaries whose story of courage, sacrifice and bravery is remembered across the country. The country always pays tribute to his martyrdom.

Towards Freedom: A Critical Analysis of Sarojini Naidu’s Poem Coromandel Fishers

This paper takes a unique approach to the profound metaphors of the sea, fish, and fishermen in Sarojini Naidu’s poem ‘Coromandel Fishers’, which she masterfully uses to symbolise the Indian Independence movement. By meticulously dissecting the figurative language interwoven throughout the poem, the researcher unveils the poet’s spiritual and philosophical ideals, artfully blended with metaphor and myth. The analysis draws a compelling parallel between the fisherfolk and the art of fishing to the freedom fighters and the broader freedom movement, offering a fresh and thought provoking perspective that will stimulate new insights into India’s struggle for independence.