Pre-independence India Research Articles

The Anticolonial Turn in Journalism and the Media in Pre-Independence India: How Newspaper Coverage by Foreign and Indian Newspapers of the Champaran, Dandi, and Dharasana Movements Made Gandhi a Household Name

ABSTRACT This article argues that the role played by the print media in India’s anticolonial struggle was a pivotal point of departure in the episteme of postcolonial histories—one that provided an impetus and guiding light to similar struggles worldwide, a position often ignored by Eurocentric academia studying media historiographies. It is based on extensive reviews of newspaper archives from the northeastern and northwestern states of Bihar and Gujarat in India, as well as archival review of the British press, and it outlines the coverage of Gandhi’s interventions in the two states that ultimately resulted in nationwide mobilization. The authors argue that the journalistic tradition of anti-colonial protest that developed in India provided an impetus to the advancement of anticolonial sentiments and the movement as a whole. This was supplemented in some measure by the more radical members of the British press, while the mainstream British press remained committed to the colonial project.

MEDIA DEVELOPMENT IN THE LIGHT OF FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION: AN INSIGHT IN THE PRESENT INDIAN CONTEXT

Basic principle in journalism is to focus for development for public good and to uplift the society and transform the societal healthy practices. Media in its various capacity tries to inform, educate, and entertain the mass people for the benefit of human society and that should be the motto of media cutting across country line and geographical boundary. In Indian context how media focuses in its principle in the present set up that is interesting to be seen in the light of the critical perspective of freedom of expression as envisages in our constitution. In India journalistic freedom remained a million dollar question not only in pre-independence India but remained a valid question in post independence period and in the modern scenario too. In the present context if we speculate we observe that media organization and their key functionaries are vertically divided into pro and anti against any elected government and this phenomenon is not even permanent in them. They themselves frequently changes their colour for the reasons not best known by themselves alone but mass people are more knowledgeable these days and understand the very fact for this kind of shift. Off course for some time their survival question remains a valid point too in this competitive market scenario. In such a juncture this paper would like to discuss all those critical issues in this complex and media saturated condition more specifically in the light of journalistic freedom and their challenges in the current Indian situation.

“Perveen Mistry investigates”: representing the first Indian female lawyer in fiction

ABSTRACT Sujata Massey’s lawyer-detective heroine Perveen Mistry is based on the real-life Cornelia Sorabji and Mithan Lam, the first female Indian lawyers. Over the course of three published novels, Mistry is shown as a true hero with agency over her life, one who investigates, gets into trouble, and ultimately solves cases, albeit with a little help from others. While there has been some representation of women legal professionals in Indian movies or series, the Perveen Mistry series marks the first such depiction in print. Since Mistry is based on real female lawyers, Massey has remained true to the historical realities of pre-Independence India. In this paper, I will examine how realistic is the portrayal of Perveen Mistry as India’s first female lawyer, drawing comparisons with Sorabji’s and Lam’s lives and the lived experiences of women lawyers today. I will also undertake a close textual reading of the novels to attempt a socio-political analysis of the three books’ plots and their role in making or breaking the female lead character. Emphasis will be placed on the interconnected themes of gender, religion, time, and law.

The Integration of Indian Christians into India Leading up to the Partition of 1947

As one of Great Britains main oversea assets going into the 1900s and with its rich traditions and diversity, India and its road to independence have drawn much scholarly interest. Studies of pre-independence modern India have always centered around the development of Indian nationalism that became the backbone of the Quit India movement, eventually leading to the establishment of a new nation and exit of its colonizer. Almost inseparable from Indias independence is the Partition of 1947 that witnessed the formation of two sovereigns which, in existing works and research, features the culmination of religious conflicts between the two largest religious groups in the peninsula. This hyper-focus on the main players has led to gaps in comprehending the roles of other minority groups that shared the stage alongside Hindus and Muslims. While these groups did not and could not become as politically influential as the political triangle among Hindus, Muslims, and the British, their struggles and mere existence helped shape the political landscape within the region and paved the foundation to Indias path in becoming a secular state. This paper explores the discourse of Indian Christians, the nations third largest religious community, leading up to the fateful summer day in 1947. Using primary sources as evidence and secondary sources as guidance, it examines the majority vs. minority dichotomy within pre-independence India under a hypersensitive religious context and how Indian Christians maneuvered the political waters to achieve social integration. In doing so, it attempts to explore the prospect and methodology of achieving religious coexistence between a religious majority and religious minorities in the nation-building process.

Bishnu Prasad Rabha from an Indian Perspective: A Revolutionary and Cultural Icon of Assam

On January 31, 1909, Bishnu Prasad Rabha was born in Dhaka, which is now in Bangladesh, but was a part of pre-independence India. Gopal Chandra Rabha was Bishnu Prasad Rabha's father, and Gethi Das was his mother. During his time in college, Rabha actively participated in the Indian independence struggle. His active involvement in the fight against the British meant that, although attending several colleges, including Karmail Academic in Rongpur, Victoria College in Cooch Behar, and St. Paul's Cathedral Mission College in Kolkata, his academic education was never fully completed. In 1930, he took part in Gandhiji's Non-Cooperation Movement. Following India's independence in 1947, Rabha began to rebel against the wealthy landowners, known as Jamindars, who were abusing the common people. As a result, he became animosity with the government and had to hide from the watchful eyes. He joined the Communist Party in support of the freedom of the underprivileged and oppressed ordinary people. He carried a pen in one hand and a stein-gun in the other, both dedicated to the people's liberty. An equitable society was Bishnu Rabha's utopian vision. This research paper aims to examine Bishnu Prasad Rabha's involvement in the fight for India's independence, as well as his activism as a Communist Party member for the emancipation of the impoverished and oppressed common people. A legendary figure's life story and historiography can accurately reflect the social progress of a given era. Bishnu Prasad Rabha was a true bohemian and artist in arms who, against the backdrop of the eastern Indian subcontinent's liberation movement, emphasised a crucial role in the development of revolutionary ideas of a society. Rabha was recognised as the Assamese people's symbol, "Kalaguru.". In this paper, Bishnu Prasad Rabha a revolutionary and cultural icon from Assam is seen from an Indian perspective.

Negotiating Gender Justice Amidst UCC Debate: Assertions, Contradictions and Current Positions

This paper aims to unravel the different layers of gender justice debate in relation to UCC, the perspective of women?s movements and various feminist positions. It traces the demand of UCC by women?s groups in pre-independence India. It briefly looks at the constituent assembly debates surrounding UCC to highlight the rationale behind support or opposition to the idea. In doing so, it highlights the perspective of members of the constituent assembly regarding UCC. It then looks at the changing facets of political and feminist discourse in post-independence era. The paper delves into the reasons of changing stance of the women?s movement on UCC and the apprehensions generated by the current political climate.

Vocal for Local Growth of Domestic Supply Chain

One of the positive fallouts of the Covid crisis seems to be the policy initiatives of GOI in line with PM’s clarion call for Vocal for Local targeted to expand the efficiency and competitive edge of the indigenous industries. Basically it may be in line with the Swaraj calls during the pre-independence India or the earlier steps like Make in India but there were obvious risk minimization steps necessitated by the dislocation of the international supply chain as a result of the world wide shut down due to covid impacts. Many segments of the economy have already started benefitting from the policy and it seems to be on a firm course for greater good for the overall economy.

Rabindranath Tagore’s Philosophy on Indian Education

Education is a process of learning and development. Education aims to change a man from normal to perfect. Education is the fundamental process to change a man to complete man. It is a process of all – round growth and development of physical, mental, social, emotional, moral and spiritual. Education is an enlightment and empowerment of total behaviour. It develops the cognitive, affection and cognitive aspects of the learner’s behaviour. Tagore aimed to develop an ideal educational system in India. He emphasis not only body and mind to change through education but also soul, including physical, mental, religious and spiritual. Tagore was born during a period of strife in pre-independence India. He stood for the development of a free mind, free knowledge and a free nation. According to him, the primary objective of education was to enable the preservation of the perfect symphony between one’s life and the world outside. “The highest education is that which does not merely give us information but makes our life in harmony with all existence”. -Rabindranath Tagore

Les femmes et les mythes hindous dans le théâtre hindi

This article examines the portrayal of women in Hindi drama. In the following, we will examine the cultural segments that have influenced the development of the dramatic genre of Hindi. We will analyze Hindu images of the feminine according to three mythical figures. We propose to understand the interpretation of the feminine through these three mythical figures of great importance in the Hindu tradition. In support of our theoretical discussion, we have chosen to focus on the dramas of three representative playwrights, Bharatendu Harishcandra, Jayshankar Prasad and Jagdishcandra Mathur. We will deal with the ways Hindu images of the feminine have been reinterpreted in Hindi theater of pre-independence India. By means of a thematic analysis and ideological criticism, we aim to understand how Hindu myths have been used in order to affirm or contest Hindu female models of the submissive woman or the independent woman.

Against Contextualization: An Ethics of Encounter

Against Contextualization: An Ethics of Encounter

India and Britain Inside and Outside Sakku Bai and Jackson: The Narrator and the Anglo-Indian Family in Ismat Chughtai’s “Quit India” (“Hindustan Chod Do”)

Ismat Chughtai’s short story “Quit India” (“Hindustan Chod Do” in Urdu, 1953) represents the relationship between Indians and British colonists and Anglo-Indian Indians by examining the life of Eric William Jackson, a British official in pre-Independence India and an unemployed outcast and displaced person following Independence who lives with his working-class lover Sakku bai, and the narrator’s outlook towards the family. The ex-British official Jackson’s attempt to “Indianize” himself perhaps fails after Independence because he does not seek the desire of the new Indian state in the spaces of business and government like he does in the domestic space of Sakku Bai’s lodgings and in his relationship with her and perhaps also because the narrator and the other citizens of the new Indian state ignore those who are powerless such as the charwoman Sakku bai and the unemployed Jackson. The narrator’s focus on Jackson and Sakku bai’s family seems to indicate, at least partly, a desire to look outside the domestic sphere for mental and spiritual stimulation even though she appears to be a typical domestic goddess. This could be related to the women’s movement’s need for a greater role for women outside the house in pre-Independence and Independent India.

Science for Freedom Exploring Scientists’ Role in the Freedom Struggle

The paper traces the rise of scientific communities in response to colonial oppression from the second half of the eighteen-century until India’s independence in 1947. We study how scientific temper, held in colonial captivity (Krishna, 1991, p. 89), registered a break from colonial restrictions to find its moorings in the freedom struggle. There were scientists, but no meaningful science was allowed to happen by the British government. We learn from the existing literature how discriminatory practices disillusioned the native Indian scientists, which led to their parting ways with the British government and forming their own scientific community for conducting scientific research (Chakrabarti, 2009, 1996, pp. 188-195) (Krishna, 1991, pp. 89-95). Even in the absence of government support, our scientists established informal collaborative networks to carry out and share scientific knowledge amongst them. Thus, scientists’ successful formation of the scientific community in India marks the beginning of the real scientific endeavour. A galaxy of early scientists such as M.L. Sircar, P.C. Ray, J.C. Bose, C.V. Raman, M.N. Saha and Ashutosh Mukherjee started scientific investigation in pre-independence India. The paper sheds light on the contribution of the above scientists to the cause of science in India and argues that the birth of science in the form of an organised scientific community was occasioned by the British government’s opposition to free scientific endeavour. The Indian scientists earned the displeasure of the British government because they worked for establishing science to create universal knowledge, not as a handmaiden to the Empire (Krishna, 1991, p. 91). Thus, the paper concludes that the struggle for freedom already began in the mind of the scientific community in India against discriminatory colonial practises in scientific institutions quite early. The article mentions specific historical events and draws inferences to form a theoretical framework for understanding the motives behind such historical happenings and their effects.

Science journalism in Hindi in pre-independence India: A study of Hindi periodicals

Science journalism in Hindi originated in the late nineteenth century. Hindi literary periodicals provided the first platform for science to be discussed along with literature. The onset of the twentieth century witnessed a remarkable advance in Hindi literary writing, and science writing also flourished with this advance. A remarkable overlap and a complementary relationship between the development of Hindi literature and Hindi commentaries on sciences is evident. Equally important in this context was the backdrop provided by a politically contentious process of evolution of a ‘modern’, ‘standard’ Hindi, and by the anti-colonial freedom movement, yoked to the idea of cultural and economic nationalism. The article surveys certain popular periodicals that regularly published essays and commentaries on science and scientific subjects. These periodicals were instrumental in shaping the popular discourses on science. The article also underlines an overwhelming effort by the intelligentsia to seek a philosophical commensurability between modern science and ‘traditional’ schools of thought. It concludes that the predominance of these characteristics in Hindi science journalism was a reflection of the agenda of the Hindi intelligentsia, shaped by linguistic nationalism framed alongside or in conjunction with a revivalist perspective.

Colonial Bungalow Design in the Twenty-First Century Karachi: A Cultural Identity Basis for Architectural Identity of Pakistan

Culture; the essence of Pakistan’s independence of 1947; has been impacted by various ideologies and civil powers like Mughals, Sikhs, Hindus, and most influential Britishers who ruled the land long before the country got its independence. Karachi, the port city of Pakistan has particularly attracted many powers for economic benefits, dominantly Britishers who later took over the land. Britishers brought the Bungalow-compound complex as a permanent residence typology due to their long stay in the city. The importation and transformation of this new housing typology have framed the architectural identity of Pakistan and have defined the lifestyle of its citizens, which is a cultural synthesis between the East and the West. Though the Bungalow design in Karachi has evolved with time as per the native’s culture and needs having different plot sizes, shapes/forms, open/built ratio, space arrangements, and materials that have changed its overall aesthetic point of view but the core remain the same. This research aims to analyse the British reign in pre-independence India through their socio-cultural, economic, and political influence on bungalow design and its transformation over time in the context of Karachi, Pakistan, i.e., Western influence combined with modernity. Keywords: Cultural Identity, Architectural Identity, Colonial Bangalows, Twenty- First Century Bangalows, Karachi

Behind the veil of the zenana: Cornelia Sorabji and the colonial heritage of the trapped housewife

ABSTRACT This essay argues that second wave feminist accounts of the trapped housewife type, who must remain inside the house, consumed with domestic drudgery, derive from a colonial precedent. Many second wave writers relied on Orientalist metaphors and anecdotes in order to dramatize their theses of global patriarchal oppression. My essay reframes this bibliography by centering the neglected work of modernist-era Indian writer and activist Cornelia Sorabji. As an Anglophile and defender of empire, Sorabji fails many of the terms of a valorized feminist recovery. However, her writing suggests a clear precedent for the Orientalized housewife type later adopted by second wave feminists. In addition, she appropriates a white feminist literary persona to new, modern results: she is an intermediary to women living in purdah in pre-Independence India. Because she shares the heritage and language of these confined housewives, she can chronicle their lives with nuance and ambivalence. Ultimately, Sorabji inaugurates a tradition of women who have evoked modernity for themselves by differentiating themselves from a cloistered, racialized throng.

Changing Scenario of Family System in India: An Analysis Against the Backdrop of Changing Social Values

The predominant type of living arrangement in pre-independence India was joint family system. It was based on the notion of collectivism and charity. It was a serving place for not only nurturing and preserving social values, but also passing them down through generations. After the advent of industrialization and subsequent emergence of urbanization and modernization, the joint families started disintegrating into nuclear families. The modern nuclear family is perpetually promoting the principle of individualism or independence in contrast to the value of collectivism deep-rooted in joint family. It is, therefore, a value shift in family from collectivism to individualism. It is followed by a loyalty shift in family from lineal ties to conjugal ties. Consequently, nuclear family has become an indispensible social unit in contemporary Indian society. However, its sustainability may perhaps be uncertain in a distant future because of the inclination of present younger generation to complete independence in life. Probably this may result in the emergent of a new type of living arrangement to satisfy the needs of generations of people in a remote future.

Review Article on A Fragmented Feminism: The Life and Letters of Anandibai Joshee By Meera Kosambi, Ram Ramaswamy, Madhavi Kolhatkar & Aban Mukherji

A Fragmented Feminism: The Life and Letters of Anandibai Joshee is the seminal work on social history about the first woman doctor of India, Anandibai Gopal Joshee written by the sociologist Meera Kosambi and Edited by Ram Ramaswamy, Madhavi Kolhatkar and Aban Mukherji. It provides insight into the psychosocial impacts of culture on Indian women through the life of Dr. Anandibai Gopal Joshee, India’s first women doctor. The author collected the letters written by Anandibai, newspaper reports on her, her poems in Marathi and rare photographs of her to craft the biography of her life. This book resembles an epistolary style in its narrative quality accompanied by annotations and explanations by the author and Editors. Anandibai, who was graduated in western medicine at America, lived during the nineteenth century pre-independence India where access to basic education was a distant dream. This book stands as a witness to practices of child marriage, physical and emotional abusement on women. (Kosambi, 19) ‘In childhood the mind is immature and the body undeveloped. And you know how I acted on these occasions. If I had left, you at that immature age, as you kept on suggesting, what would have happened? (And any number of girls have left their homes because of harassment from mothers-in-law and husbands). I did not do so because I was afraid that my ill-considered behaviour would tarnish my father’s honour… And I requested you not to spare me, but to kill me. In out society, for centuries there has been no legal barrier between husband and wives; and if it exists, it works against women! Such being the vase, I had no recourse but to allow you to hit me with chairs and bear it with equanimity. A Hindu woman has not right to utter a word or to advise her husband. On the contrary she has right to allow her husband to do what he wishes and to keep quiet.’

Information and the Indian State: A Genealogy

The category of information has been at the heart of notions about citizenship and governance in all modern societies. This paper constructs a genealogy of information and statehood in India by examining how information as a governing idea was brought into play in successive stages of contemporary Indian history. This first section provides a broad account of the creation of the Aadhaar card project—that attempts to uniquely identify every citizen in the country—and briefly reviews the controversies it has generated. The second portion of the paper provides historical snapshots that illustrate information’s constitutive role in previous versions of the Indian state. Thus, the second section looks at the role information played in constituting colonial government, while the next section examines the nationalist phase in pre-independence India to suggest that information functioned as speculative category that allowed freedom fighters to dream and think the nation. In the fourth section I look at the pre-liberalization period of postcolonial history to trace how information becomes a state “good” that is both strictly controlled and sparsely disseminated while at the same time acting as a spur to a specialized sort of economic activity. Finally, in the fifth and concluding section of the paper, I analyze information’s role in emerging India by revisiting the implications of the Aadhaar card in particular and of informational governance in general, by placing both in the context of contemporary political and administrative developments like the National Population Register and the Citizenship Amendment Act.

‘Think imperially’: Indian journalists’ goodwill visits to White Australia, 1927 and 1947

ABSTRACTAcademic research on the White Australia Policy has spanned the history of Asian migration and policy-making initiatives in Australia. However, the role of popular transnational media images and stories of the past that inform the socio-cultural understanding of Australia–India cross-cultural relations has been under evaluated. In this paper, using unexplored archival material from popular newspaper reports and columns, I will examine the ‘goodwill visits’ of two Indian journalists, K. K. Lalkaka and Sir R. Srinivasa Sarma, to Australia in 1927 and 1947. By assessing the role of these two journalists, this paper will highlight transnational issues such as migration, ethnicity, race, class and trade between the two countries. Borrowing from Vineet Thakur’s research highlighting the role of first diplomats in the pre-independence era India, this article will contribute to the field of history in Indian diplomatic studies and historiography of Australian–Indian cross-cultural relations.

Brahmoism and Enlightenment scene in pre-independence India

Abstract: There have been various attempts to answer the question “What is Enlightenment?” The philosophers and historians have tried to answer this question posed many a time. In the present scenario, the most appreciated and accepted definition of enlightenment is considered to be is that of Immanuel Kant’s. German philosopher Immanuel Kant says that “enlightenment is a man’s release from self-incurred tutelage.’’ Here, tutelage is the inability of a man to make use of his “reason”. He mentions that a man is needed to have courage to use his own reason and remain unaffected of any external force. But the problem with Kantian version of use of reason appears problematic to some. He divided the realm of reason into two spheres, i.e, public use of reason and private use of reason. Where he mentions that only public use of reason must be free and boundless so that debates and arguments can take place and that according to him must have been the first step towards the Enlightenment of a society.