Debrahmanising History Is A Sweeping And Radical Survey Of The Major Dalit-Bahujan Intellectuals And Movements Over 2500 Years Of Indian History, From Buddha To Ambedkar.

Debrahmanising History Is A Sweeping And Radical Survey Of The Major Dalit-Bahujan Intellectuals And Movements Over 2500 Years Of Indian History, From Buddha To Ambedkar.

In some studies, the emancipatory thrust of this tradition is occasionally recognised, but it is seldom integrated with civilisational studies on Indian culture and society.

In Aryans, Jews, Brahmins, Dorothy M. Figueira provides a fascinating account of the construction of the Aryan myth and its uses in both India and Europe from the Enlightenment to the twentieth century. The myth concerns a race that inhabits a utopian past and gives rise first to Brahmin Indian culture and then to European culture. In India, notions of the Aryan were used to develop a national identity under colonialism, one that allowed Indian elites to identify with their British rulers. It also allowed non-elites to set up a counter identity critical of their position in the caste system. In Europe, the Aryan myth provided certain thinkers with an origin story that could compete with the Biblical one and could be used to diminish the importance of the West's Jewish heritage. European racial hygienists made much of the myth of a pure Aryan race, and the Nazis later looked at India as a cautionary tale of what could happen if a nation did not remain "pure." As Figueira demonstrates, the history of the Aryan myth is also a history of reading, interpretation, and imaginative construction. Initially, the ideology of the Aryan was imposed upon absent or false texts. Over time, it involved strategies of constructing, evoking, or distorting the canon. Each construction of racial identity was concerned with key issues of reading: canonicity, textual accessibility, interpretive strategies of reading, and ideal readers. The book's cross-cultural investigation demonstrates how identities can be and are created from texts and illuminates an engrossing, often disturbing history that arose from these creations.

The writing of history in India has been fraught with controversies. From the storm over textbooks in the 1970s, and the furore over the Babri Masjid in the 1990s, to the flaring up of religious sentiments over 'beef-eating' and the Ram Sethu, this book provides a synoptic view of teaching and writing of history in post-colonial India. Michael Gottlob explores historical research and teaching as important components contributing to the development of a national identity and ideas of citizenship in post-colonial India. He shows how the urge to decolonize and recover the self has given rise to several approaches that attempt to 'reclaim' Indian history from its colonial past. The book discusses diverse areas like methodological research and public use of history; cultural identity and diversity; nationalism and communalism; and social movements and deconstructs their far-reaching implications in contemporary India. It also examines the role of women, Dalits, and Adivasis to understand their position in the multicultural reality of India.

Savitribai Phule, 1831-1897, women social reformer from Maharashtra, India; contributed articles.

This book explores the social and cultural histories of India, focusing on cultural encounters and representations of subaltern communities from the seventeenth to the twenty-first century. Examining cultural encounters between Europeans and Indians during the precolonial and colonial periods, the book analyzes European, especially English, efforts to exoticize or investigate the social practices of the Other. It also presents the culturally conditioned Indian subject's perspective on Europe and the imperial society. The book engages with narratives of suppressed movements of tribals and dalits, of erosion of the culture and history of ancient communities, and recovers the local narratives of marginalized groups in Andaman and Malabar, which get superseded by the larger narrative of nation-building. Often relying on oral history instead of printed material and sociological fieldwork, the alternate histories are presented through unconventional, literary or semi-literary genres like travel narratives, fiction, films, and songs, thus presenting an alternative interpretation to the central narrative of the progress of mainstream India. Representing cultural history and the view from below, the book shifts its focus from the conventional historiography associated with political history and will be of interest to academics working in the field of cultural studies, the historiography of India, South Asian Studies and an interdisciplinary audience in history, sociology, literature, media, and English studies.

Present book Voices of Marginalisation: Literary Records of Trauma a legendry collection of chapters from notable faculties across India. Book has an effort to present some weaknesses of our Indian society and how to overcome from this scenario. Book has following contents: Contents: Preface Introduction to Voices of Marginalisation Literary Records of Trauma Gender Violence 1. Reading Rape Narratives: Re-living Trauma and Re-constructing the Self. Kanika Katyal 2. Of Ferris Wheels and Love Motels: An Inquiry into the Nature of Pain in Haruki Murakami’s Fiction. Chaandreyi Mukherjee 3. Trauma, Memory and New Alternatives: A Study of Shashi Deshpande’s Female Protagonists. Madhu Batta Conflict and Trauma 4. Fictionalising Trauma: Narrating Experiences of Women Caught in the Webs of Conflict. Mukuta Borah 5. Delineating the Alienated Writings: The Manipuri Vernacular in the Context of Armed Forces Special Powers Act. Raja Boboy Chiru and Bijit Sinha Pressures of Modernity and the Neo-Colonial State 6. Understanding Trauma Through Post-1947 Literary Production in India from Conflict Zones in India’s Northeast. Anuradha Ghosh ix 7. Recording National Emergency: Literature as History in Times of Censorship. Yamini Trauma and Caste 8. Trauma and Memory: Sociology of Dalit Autobiographies and Biographies. Vivek Kumar 9. Dalit Narratives: Frozen Trauma & Caste in Karukku and Joothan. Charu Arya 10. Representing Trauma: The Dalit Refugees of Bengal. Brati Biswas 11. Memory, History and Power: A Study of Kalyan Rao’s Untouchable Spring. Mukesh Kumar Bairva Memory and History 12. Stuttering Walks and Conflicting Archives: Moments of Trauma in W.G. Sebald’s Austerlitz. Krishnan Unni P. 13. We Played at Disappearing: Analysing Memory and History in Alejandro Zambra’s Ways of Going Home. Mubashir Karim Notes on Contributors

This handbook presents an authoritative account of the development of movements, thoughts and policies of OBCs (Other Backward Classes) in India. Despite the adoption of egalitarian principles in the Indian Constitution, caste inequalities, discrimination and exclusionary practices against people from backward classes and other lower castes continue to haunt them in contemporary India. A comprehensive work on the politics of identity and plurality of experiences of OBCs in India, this handbook: — Features in-depth research by eminent scholars on the Other Backward Classes (OBC) social and political thought, OBC movements and OBC development and policy making. — Discusses the life, ideologies and pioneering contributions by Gautam Buddha, Sant Kabir, Jotirao Phule, Savitribai Phule, Shahu Maharaj, Narayana Guru, B.R. Ambedkar, Ram Manohar Lohia, and E V Ramasamy Periyar and leading social reform movements. — Examines OBC issues with case studies from various Indian states to look at issues of pre- and post- Mandal India; backward caste movements; and reclamation of the Bahujan legacy. — Critiques public policies and programs for the development of OBCs in India. — Reviews the status of Muslim OBCs in India and of the invisibilized nomadic communities. — Reviews the impact of globalization on the economically backward lower castes and the impact of development initiatives for the excluded people. The first of its kind, this handbook will be essential reading for scholars and researchers of exclusion and discrimination studies, diversity and inclusion studies, Global South studies, affirmative action, sociology, Indian political history, Dalit studies, political sociology, public policy, development studies and political studies.