This book is a comprehensive study of the nationalist movement and politics in Orissa during the 1920s. It examines the national movement in the late nineteenth century and the first two decades of the twentieth century prior to the launch of the Civil Disobedience Movement by focusing on the regional peculiarities, especially the Oriya linguistic and cultural identity movement. Based on extensive research, it reflects upon the emergence of a class of new intelligentsia as an opinion maker of the society, its concern for societal needs, the divergent trends within it, the commonalities and differences among them and the organizational linkages between the local intelligentsia and the nationalists. Despite the contradictions, the author argues that the local and national aspirations were not antagonistic but complemented each other, as witnessed during the Calcutta Congress of 1928, establishing the Indian National Congress’ twin commitments on the question of regional identity and national liberation. National Movement and Politics in Orissa: 1920–29is a valuable contribution to the discourse on the nationalist movement and will be of great interest to students and scholars of modern Indian history as well as to the social science academia.

Historians have generally focused on the ‘extraordinary’ forms of protest while speaking of the lives of oppressed social groups, but the basic survival strategies of these groups are often overlooked in research. The fact that excluded groups have managed to survive has, hidden right beneath the surface, a whole range of complexities, while also demonstrating their ability to resist dominant social orders. Biswamoy Pati’s posthumous volume on the lives of the tribals and dalits/outcastes in Orissa, from c. 1800 to 1950, shows how such communities were further impoverished by both colonial government policies and the chiefs of the despotic princely states. Colonial knowledge systems, constructions of the ‘criminal tribe’, and agrarian settlements affected tribals and dalits crucially. These marginalized groups were connected with the national movement. However, their inherited problems remained unresolved even after Independence. Examining these and several other issues such as adivasi strategies of resistance, indigenous systems of health and medicine, the colonial ‘medical gaze’, conversion (to Hinduism), the fluidities of caste formation, as well as the development of colonial capitalism and urbanization, the author presents a broader view of their struggle and endurance.

Explores the ways linguistic nationalism has enabled and deepened the reach of All-India nationalism. This title is also available as Open Access.

The advent of print heralded a significant chapter in the history of colonial modernity in South Asia. This book narrates the story of the emergence of a new literary culture, Utkal sahitya or Odia literature, in the context of similar but conflicting linguistic-territorial cultures of Eastern India. The book is the first cross-cultural study of the emergence of a new literary culture in Eastern India with diverse, yet cognate languages in the years between 1866 and 1919. By researching a large corpus of archival material, it traces the emergence of a new literary culture that marked significant departures from traditional practices and understanding of the “literary,” and that was subsequently called, adhunik sahitya and argues that this was facilitated mainly by the formation of a public sphere in tandem with the rapid growth of educated print-public. While the phenomenon was by no means unique to Odia, the study identifies several local factors that were distinctive about its literary sphere by looking at its imbrication with sister linguistic cultures. It traces how, under political compulsions, a new intellectual class of Odias used agents of modernity such as print, education, new sciences, travel and communication etc. to forge a new aesthetic without completely breaking with the past. It examines the role that the Odia periodical press played, and traces the course it took from the time of its emergence from local political compulsions to the defining and broadening of the scope and limits of the question of the literary. It investigates the shifting and mutating dispositions of the newly emerged Odia print culture and public sphere while highlighting major concerns such as linguistic identity, historiography, literary histories, and canon formation as well as pioneering and consolidating new aesthetic forms. This book will be an important addition to the growing body of scholarship on literary cultures of multilingual India. Rich in archival work, this book will be of interest to students and researchers of literary history, cultural history, cultural studies, literature, literary history, literary and critical theory, and languages of Asia.

This book aims to sketch the diversities of South Asian social History, focusing on Orissa. It highlights the problems of colonialism and its impact upon the lives of the colonised, even as it details the manner in which the internal order of exploitation worked. Based on archival and rare, hitherto untapped sources, including oral evidence, it brings to life diverse aspects of Orissa’s social history, including the environment; health and medicine; conversion (in Hinduism); popular movements; social history of some princely states; and the intricate connections between the marginal social groups and Indian nationalism. It also focuses on decolonisation, and explores the face of patriarchy and gender-related violence in post-colonial Orissa. This volume will be of interest to students of history, social anthropology, political sociology and cultural studies, as well as those associated with non-governmental organisations and planners of public policy.

This Study Provides A Fairly Good Analysis Of Politics In Bihar During 1921-1937. The Nature Of The Congress Movement And The Articulation Of Communal Politics And The Incidence Of Communal Riots Are Critically Examined.

The second half of the 19th century witnessed the growth of organized nationalist movement in India. It arose to meet the challenge of foreign domination. The direct and indirect consequences of British rule provided the material, moral and intellectual conditions for the development of nationalist movement in India. In this connection, Odisha (previously Orissa) as a part of the nation also witnessed the reflections of it. In Odisha, nationalism developed in two different ways. First, the merger of all Odia-speaking regions and secondly, in the later phase with the growth of national awakening, the people of Odisha involved themselves with the mainstream of the national movement along with the rest of the country. However, the aim of the paper is to highlight the nationalist movement in Odisha. In fact, the history of nationalist movement in Odisha, despite the local differences and issues, was an expression of forces that represent an integral part of the all-India freedom struggle against British Raj.

With special reference to Bihar, India.

Presenting the grand sweep of Indian history from antiquity to the present, A History of India is a detailed and authoritative account of the major political, economic, social and cultural forces that have shaped the history of the Indian subcontinent. Hermann Kulke and Dietmar Rothermund provide a comprehensive overview of the structural pattern of Indian history, covering each historical period in equal depth. Fully revised throughout, the sixth edition of this highly accessible book has been brought up to date with analysis of recent events such as the 2014 election and its consequences, and includes more discussion of subjects such as caste and gender, Islam, foreign relations, partition, and the press and television. This new edition contains an updated chronology of key events and a useful glossary of Indian terms, and is highly illustrated with maps and photographs. Supplemented by a companion website (www.routledge.com/cw/kulke), it is a valuable resource for students of Indian history.

On the life of former chief minister of Orissa and his contribution in freedom struggle.