Papers by Santosh Kumar Rai
International Review of Social History, 2022
In existing historiography, the modernity discourse presents modern knowledge as being more econo... more In existing historiography, the modernity discourse presents modern knowledge as being more economically efficient and technologically advanced compared to traditional skills. This theoretical lens has introduced a hierarchy of production and restructured the meaning of work and division of labour within the profession of weaving. Historically, the contexts of both the modern textile industry and traditional handloom weaving were interrelated in terms of technology and skills, but they have become increasingly segregated over the last two centuries. This article suggests an apparent distinction between “modernization” as a historical process and “modernity” as a condition. Analysis of the policies and prejudices of the colonial state explains the dynamics between producers, products, and techniques in the handloom textile sector of the United Provinces during the early twentieth century, as well as the impact of government policies, nationalist ideas, and global processes on the sec...
Indian Historical Review, 2007
Daud Khan's receipt of a magnificent robe from Munim Khan during the banquet of reconciliatio... more Daud Khan's receipt of a magnificent robe from Munim Khan during the banquet of reconciliation on 12 April 1575 (for example, Abul Fazl's Akbarnama, Vol. III, pp. 130-3 I). By donning it, Daud Khan became ritually 'incorporated' into the body of the emperor, which formally ended Daud's independence. In principle, the khil'ats had been worn by the ruler himself and, therefore, their acceptance symbolized the incorporation of the person into the body of the ruler, who incarnated the empire (F.W. Buckler, 'The Oriental Despot', in M.N. Pea.rson, ed, Legitimacy and Symbols, 1985, pp. 177-79). There was a 'political rite, a ritual incorporation, in which symbolism was everything', remarks Richard Eaton concerning the event (The Rise of Islam, 1993, p. 143).
Economic and Political Weekly, Apr 14, 2012
Social Scientist, 2004
In this book an attempt has been made to determine, tentively, the size and composition of the no... more In this book an attempt has been made to determine, tentively, the size and composition of the nobility during the reign of Shah Jahan. It also analyses amomg other things the nature of the mutual relationship that existed between the crown and the nobility and highlights the limited role of racial or religious sentiments in the political life of the ruling class of the time.
Academia Letters, 2021
As we are in an unprecedented lockdown to deal with this mutant virus that is killing people and ... more As we are in an unprecedented lockdown to deal with this mutant virus that is killing people and making our world tragic and horrendous, one requires to explore nature of panics in relation to epidemics of plague and influenza among others and the ways in which they have been historically produced, defined, and managed in different settings. The relationship between disease and historical change has been quite rapid across different, imperial, and post-imperial settings-from early fourteenth century Europe, late nineteenth century East Asia to twentyfirst-century world. Panics of epidemics in relation to political anxieties, rumors, resistance, and crises have been a provocation for the government agencies, policymakers, planners, and other authorities to understand, deal with, and neutralize the fear. Here one has to situate each epidemic episode into two distinct cultural settings: European and non-Western-as the peoples of different cultures viewed and attempted to control or cure the illnesses that newly afflicted them in their own ways. There have been the differing conceptions of plague and controls to check its spread in Western Europe and the Middle East, from 1347 to 1844; the case of leprosy and lepers in modern Europe and the tropics colonized by Europeans; and the course of smallpox in the Americas from its supposed introduction in 1518 to eradication in the 1970s.There have been the varied experiences of the impact of syphilis in Western Europe and East Asia from 1492 to 1965; then histories of cholera in Great Britain and India from 1817 to 1920; and yellow fever and malaria, have been major historical forces shaping Atlantic Africa and America in the period 1647-1928. The, impact of plague of medieval Europe on the peoples of the continent was so immediate and dramatic that it is critical to our understanding of the changing cultural and religious, as well as the social and economic dynamics of the beginning of modernity. In Western Europe plague mortality generally decreased after 1450, but in Egypt it continued high until the middle of the nineteenth century simply because the Mamluks tended to stay put as the plague
The Indian Economic & Social History Review, 2018
Locating the theorisation and practices of caste hierarchies within South Asian Islam with refere... more Locating the theorisation and practices of caste hierarchies within South Asian Islam with reference to high-caste Muslims (Ashrafs) versus Julaha weavers (Ajlafs), this article argues that class exploitation and class hegemony over the marginalised sections of Muslim society in North India were practised through caste stratifications, social hierarchies and land relations. The horizontal equality of ‘textual Islam’ was transformed into vertical social hierarchies in South Asia. While explaining the conditions of the disadvantageous socio-economic status that ensured their subordination, this article narrates instances of resistance and quests for equality undertaken by the Julaha weavers. The dialectics of these negotiations produced factors such as the stigma of status mandated by their caste, on the one hand, and the weavers’ integration within the capitalist colonial economy and politics, on the other. The article explores this history of hierarchies and the complex resistances offered to it, closely mediated by social and economic structures, prevailing ideologies and notions of colonial legality and mobility. The processes of the weavers challenging their social marginalisation, predicated on their economic status and their quest for new identities may look familiar to other communities which similarly used religion, caste and colonial law to resist and subvert hierarchies. Hence, the politicisation of the colonial public sphere affected the relations among the Indian Muslims in a new milieu. These arguments are significant in terms of rewriting the existing historiography that reinforces the binaries of nationalist–communalist or Hindu–Muslim politics.
This article is a study based on the United Provinces (UP) State Archive records on the early his... more This article is a study based on the United Provinces (UP) State Archive records on the early history of modern weaving schools in UP. Handloom weaving has been a major occupation in this region, diversified in skills, and involved some of the most skill-intensive types of textiles woven on the loom. Did the schools—as expected—formalise that knowledge to modernise it, bring it from the private domain to the public and encourage experiments upon it by making training less tradition-bound? These are important questions in the history of traditional industry, for the schools do represent some sort of paradigm shift in the way knowledge of technology forms. The case of experimental weaving schools in the United Provinces proved to be a site of contestation reflecting the overlapping and contradictory notions for the binary superstructures of modern state and community. As far as the dominant colonial power structure was concerned, a need to accommodate traditional ‘community’ and its product was certainly recognised in an attempt to legitimise many actions of the state. But this accommodation of the ‘community’ was possible only in a conditioned form in the new power structure. If ‘community’ was not ready to get accommodated in that particular conditioned form, then it had to suffer marginalisation. In fact, the colonial regime was certainly offering a technical alternative in the form of new content in the syllabi, modes of transmission, and enhancement of knowledge and motivational structures. But the parallel existence of traditional, sophisticated and complex knowledge, conveyed through kinship, dynasticism and close-knit cultural groups was not going to relent so easily. How, as per the new ground realities, both the systems interacted, co-existed, challenged and overlapped with each other and in the process transformed each other as well are some questions to be posed here.
This article addresses the fluid, changeable and ambiguous character of religious and cultural id... more This article addresses the fluid, changeable and ambiguous character of religious and cultural identities, held by Julahas; claiming different local and sectarian backgrounds. The Barelvi, Wahabi and Deobandi schools of Indian Islam provided a polarising platform to the Julaha identity discourse from the late nineteenth century onwards, leading to a wider 'shift' towards supra-caste, supra-locally-based concepts of community and collective religious identity, yet this 'shift' did not 'replace' other forms of collective identities along sectarian, caste, community and regional lines. These 'blurred boundaries' in the Julaha Ansari identity discourse defy their concrete positioning within the framework of India's Islamic landscape. The challenges triggered by a stagnant capitalist transformation under the colonial state and the official records reinforce a static image of the Julaha community, ascribing to it innate conservatism, recalcitrant to change fostered by the 'modernising impulse' of the colonial government. The self image of the community was no doubt deeply affected by this ascription by the powerful 'other' but nevertheless remained distinct. This process was accompanied by renewed efforts at setting up community institutions such as panchayats and by constructing community mosques. Societal changes like the simultaneous formation as well as breakup of communities along with the communal pooling of labour were part of the larger development. The article further locates and scrutinises the influence of this sort of polarisation on the mind of Muslim weavers and Hindu merchants.
This article discusses the complex nature of handloom weaving in market relations and the househo... more This article discusses the complex nature of handloom weaving in market relations and the household production in the north Indian region of eastern Uttar Pradesh in the first half of the twentieth century through studying a Muslim weavers’ community known as Julahas. The entire community chain active in the process of handloom production in a micro-region was appropriated in a new relation of commodity production. Therefore, the article focuses on the emergence of capitalist conditions that enabled connections, affiliations, and exclusions in the networked relationships of social communities. In basically a labour-intensive, low-cost household production, the structure of the production process was defined by the need to purchase yarn and pay for living expenses of the weaver and his dependents while the cloth was being woven. The historically unequal connections operated through the social power balance of community and those in families (between husbands and wives, parents and children) found new meanings in bargaining situations of labour markets. A direct involvement with the loom and weaving ensured that the master weaver would directly come from the weaving population and should be Muslim as well. The mechanism of advances and karkhanadar’s/grihasta’s position in the community ensured that weaver/labourer would remain under a constant moral and social pressure to follow the ‘capitalist mode of production.’
Facets of Indian history, Jan 1, 2006
Social Scientist, Jan 1, 2002
Indian Historical Review, Jan 1, 2007
Explorations in Indian history, Jan 1, 2007
Region in Indian history, Jan 1, 2008
Indian Historical Review, Jan 1, 2005
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Papers by Santosh Kumar Rai