Summerhill: IIAS Review

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Pankaj Gupta — 2024-11-14

Writing about Lahore of Pre-partition India

Ravinder Singh — 2024-11-14

There was a Sarasvati

Seema Shukla Ojha — 2024-11-14

Master Tara Singh and His Reminiscences

Subhash Singh — 2024-11-14

Princely States in Social Reforms

Amit Dholakia — 2024-11-14

The history of modern India is predominantly shaped by narratives of British colonial rule and the nationalist movements that resisted and ultimately dismantled the colonial regime. However, the role and contributions of princely states represent a significant yet often overlooked aspect of India's recent history. Many princely rulers, such as those from Baroda, Mysore, Travancore, and Cooch Behar, initiated or supported substantial social changes through various policy measures and social mobilization efforts. Their contributions laid the groundwork for future advancements in women's rights, education and social development in India.

The reign of Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III of Baroda, which lasted over six decades, is characterized by significant socio-economic reforms and progressive governance. Through his reformist policies in governance and social initiatives, Sayajirao left an indelible impact on the life and society of Baroda. This paper highlights his ideas and contributions in areas such as education, welfare for depressed classes, women's empowerment, and the amelioration of regressive social practices.

Sayajirao introduced comprehensive reforms in education, empowerment of the girl child, and industrial and economic development within the Baroda state. His implementation of compulsory primary education and the establishment of a modern higher education system—culminating in a university—positioned Baroda ahead of other princely states. Sayajirao was particularly concerned with overcoming the barriers that caste discrimination posed to social, economic, and moral progress. He actively campaigned against untouchability through personal example and provided financial and moral support to facilitate B.R. Ambedkar’s pursuit of higher education both in India and in the United States. Furthermore, Sayajirao played a pivotal role in advancing the public library movement in India.

While influenced by European and American ideals, Sayajirao remained deeply rooted in Indian traditions and practices, successfully preserving cultural heritage while embracing modern advancements. His reign significantly impacted not only the princely state of Baroda but also contributed to shaping modern India.

Knowledge Transmission in Pre-Colonial India

Ankur Kakkar — 2024-11-14

The history of pre-colonial education in India has largely focussed on ashrams, gurukuls, and few well-known universities of ancient India. However, in pre-colonial India, knowledge was not confined only to a few grand centers or universities. There were a variety of institutions and modes through which knowledge was transmitted. The most prominent modes were temples and tols, palaces and pathshalas, ghatikas and guilds, as also the traditional family homes of various kinds of artists and craftsmen. The Indian education system continued to flourish in all these avenues. This paper throws light on the various modes and networks of indigenous educational institutions in the nineteenth century. In doing so, this paper discusses how knowledge was transmitted in a wide variety of knowledge traditions and practices that were prevalent before the institution of British colonial education.

Mass Mobilization through Perambulation

Jasmine Anand — 2024-11-14

Sister Nivedita

Priyanka Vaidya — 2024-11-14

Relevance of Sri Aurobindo’s vision of Rashtra

Sudhir Kumar — 2024-11-14

The paper is a modest attempt to critically examine the relevance of Sri Aurobindo’s vision of Rashtra as represented in his writings in the contemporary contexts of the so-called Euro-Americo-centric discourses of the post nation, the post-human and the post-truth. The essay aims at critically analysing how Sri Aurobindo’s “dharma-centric”, “purushartha-oriented” vision of “ rashtra” cannot be equated or compared with the Eurocentric notions of “nation” or even “the post-nation” - which are primarily grounded in the positivist, rationalist, materialist, historicism or new historicist discourses.

Sri Aurobindo’s discourse of “rashtra“ is grounded in the philosophical matrix of Sanatan Dharma - ( dharma in Indian tradition cannot to be translated as “ religion), and Bharatiya Jnana Parampara - that is, free from the kind of religious, ethnic, political, economic, cultural, linguistic, regional, or ideological dogmatism etc that characterise the discursive trajectories of “ the nation/ post-nation” in the west.

It is interesting to discuss how and why Sri Aurobindo emphasises that “sanatan dharma” is the only politics as well as nationalism (rashtra- vimarsha) that Bharat / India admits of. The essay, this, deals with the analysis of the spiritual-moral connect between “rashtra” and “dharma “that leads to “Swaraj” - the welfare of all.

The paper is also an endeavour to illustrate how the already heavily colonised field of research methodology in contemporary times in Indian institutions of higher education can be decolonised- in consonance with the objectives of the NEP-2020

Reading Karl Marx on India

Shankar Sharan — 2024-11-14

Urban Life in Early East Punjab - Rupnagar (Ropar)

Ashish Kumar — 2024-11-14

At a distance of about forty kilometres from Chandigarh, Ropar (Rupnagar) is situated in the Shivalik hills on the left bank of river Sutlej, and the archaeological excavation (1952-1955) under Yagya Datt Sharma has attested the presence of a town here from the Harappan period to nearly the present times with intermittent (apparently short) episodes of desertions. Unfortunately, Y. D. Sharma never published a detailed excavation report, and we only have short reports and articles by him on the archaeological remains from Ropar for the study of this town’s historical past. In the absence of a detailed excavation report, we do not have much information about the context of the artefacts that are found in excavation at Ropar. Therefore, in this paper, an artefact centric approach is adopted. This paper treats the artefacts that are found in Ropar as social products, and they are studied as integral part of everyday life of early Ropar’s residents. Following this presumption, it is proposed that the artefacts found in excavation at Ropar can be used as evidence by identifying their purpose, significance in human life, and consumption pattern, to uncover the complex character of the urban life in early Ropar. Several artefacts that are found in Ropar are similar to those artefacts that are discovered in several contemporary sites in the Ganga valley and Northwest as well as Central India. This scenario allows us to analyse the artefacts from Ropar in the light of previous studies on similar artefacts from other sites, and based on this analysis, an attempt is made in this paper to uncover this town’s early to the late historical past (from circa 600 BCE - CE 700) with a focus upon its urban life.

Sarvam Khalvidam Brahma

Pramod V. Pathak — 2024-11-14

In this article, the theist approach towards epistemology and knowledge of universe creation is discussed. It is based on fourteen propositions about existence of the Brahman i.e. the Supreme Entity. These are in tune with the understanding of the creation theories of the modern cosmology. R?gvedic theism asserts that there is a Supreme Entity (SE) which manifests itself in different forms. As the present author proposes, all the knowledge of every type, regardless of discipline, related to basic and advanced sciences, astronomy and cosmology is part and parcel of the brahmajñ?na. Here only the development of scientific theories in science in the West through sheer intuition is discussed. Scientists who discovered those theories were no way influenced by the theistic or theological background. They had no inkling towards attributing these discoveries to any SE. Thus a) Einstein’s discovery of the ‘principle of equivalence’ leading to the general theory of relativity; b) the initial perception of the loss of energy from the black holes by Stephen Hawking; c) Cosmologist Tryon’s visualization of the universe erupting out of nothing as a quantum fluctuation and explanation of the critical density of the universe stands on par with ?di Shankar?c?rya’s dictum brahma satya? jaganmithy?| Brahman real, the world illusion; d) the technical marvels created by the ancient and mediaeval temple architects, engraving fractal like patterns on the walls in many south Indian temples, all these were intuitive and not strictly mathematical. In many instances what the ancient seers and sages perceived through grand intuitive perceptions run parallel with the intuitive perceptions of the modern scientists and cosmologists. P?tañjala Yogas?tras give us clues towards an intuitive reception of the universal cosmological and even the materialistic laws in the physical sciences

The Untragic Indian Stories

Umesh Patra — 2024-11-14

By a comparative study of the genre of tragedy originating in the Greco-Roman period and the Indian classical theatre, this paper claims that there are subtle differences between European and Indian worldviews, one of which would necessitate the birth of tragedy and the other which would obviate its genesis. The paper claims that the characteristic Indian hero, depicted in the classical Indian epics, mythological narratives, and theatrical genres up to the medieval period, is one who treads the path of righteousness and is free from hamartia—which is regarded as a distinctive feature of the European tragic hero. In the Indian and European mythological narratives and theatrical genres, the virtue of a hero would be tested through a series of trials, often involving superhuman suffering. The misery that would befall the heroes would often stem from their actions, either wilful or inadvertent. The tragic worldview aims to showcase the struggle of a valiant hero who is admired for the chutzpah of pointing the heroic finger at a foe far mightier than a human subject. The tragic hero, therefore, has to succumb to a catastrophe, evoking a sense of tragic waste. On the other hand, the Indian worldview is rooted in the firm conviction of the righteousness of the universe, epitomised in the dictum “Satyameva Jayate”, meaning “Truth always triumphs”. Ergo, the Indian narratives showcasing the suffering of its principal characters would nonetheless end with the resolution of all entanglements, or at least with a sense of hope. The Indian narratives and theatrical genres exhibit an exemplary infallible hero who would come out unscathed from the terrible crucible of fate by dint of their virtuous actions, thereby fostering faith in an essentially moral universe