Categories: History

Contextualizing the Body: An Indian Experience

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<p>The new cultural history has rendered the historical epistemology of the human body a privileged site for scholarly intervention in social anthro­pology and other related disciplines. As a cultural metaphor as manifest­ation of lived experience as medium of existential encounter with the outer world and as a surface of social calligraphy the human body spans varied categories of the extant strands of contemporary hermeneutic discourses. The essays in the present volume regard the human body more as a social subject than a social object. The volume accommodates variegated encounters of the biological body with the exterior world mostly from an Indian standpoint. The authors have explored the varied experiences of being embodied – the social subject’s interactions with the surrounding context – as also its role as carrier of cultural social and symbolical agents. While exploring the various contours of the ‘corporeal self' the authors have captured fascinating glimpses of the ‘representative’ body. The present volume does not claim to represent a comprehensive account of body history. It is rather an incoherent bundle of scholarly conceptualizations of the human body discursively shaped to facilitate practices of knowledge production. About the Author Sudit Krishna Kumar is Associate Professor at the Department of History in the University of Burdwan. His research interests are the social and economic history of nineteenth-century Bengal. He is currently working on a monograph on insolvency and the middle class in nineteenth-century Bengal. Suvobrata Sarkar is Assistant Professor of History at Rabindra Bharati University Kolkata. Earlier he taught at the University of Burdwan. His area of research is the social history of technology in colonial India. He is the author of The Quest for Technical Knowledge: Bengal in the Nineteenth Century (2012) and Let There be Light: Engineering Entrepreneurship and Electricity in Colonial Bengal 1880-1945 (2020).</p>

History of Indigenous Pharmaceutical Companies in Colonial Calcutta (1855-1947)

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<p>In the context of life and civilization the pharmaceutical industry is as old as human existence. Since time immemorial India had its own enriched indigenous tradition of medicine. The development of alchemy and its application for human welfare was also an important step in Indian scientific tradition. The present monograph is an innovative attempt to understand the history of the indigenous pharmaceutical companies in Calcutta during the colonial times. Here pharmaceutical companies have been viewed as an illuminating lens to understand the interconnectedness between Indian traditions of thought and Western science and subsequent development of pharmaceutical industry in colonial India. The entire gamut of discussion centres around the issues of medical education medical services public health pharmaceutical profession and politico-economic contexts of the development of pharmaceutical industry in colonial India. Three indigenous pharmaceuticals namely – Buttokrishna Paul &amp; Co. Bengal Chemical &amp; Pharmaceutical Works Limited and East India Pharmaceutical Works Limited have been studied. The study not only portrays the politico-economic background to the emergence of the pharmaceutical industry in colonial India but links it to the economic nationalism and the quest for self-sufficiency among Indian nationalists and entrepreneurs. The pharmaceutical industry in India can be symbolic of a cultural response to modern science which was to pave the subsequent trajectory of national scientific endeavours in India. About the Author Malika Basu is presently Assistant Professor in History Kalna College Uni­versity of Burdwan. She began her career as a Research Assistant under the internationally acclaimed Social Scientist Prof. Partha Chatterjee. Dr. Basu’s research papers have been published in national and inter­national journals edited volumes and conference proceedings. She is also recipient of the Travel Grants from University Grants Commission and Indian Council of Historical Research.</p>

The Kafirs of the Hindu-Kush

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<p>A remote and mysterious ethnic group the Kafirs of Kafiristan continue to cast a spell similar to the one they cast on George Scott Robertson nine decades ago. Locked in the fastness of the Hindu-Kush mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan their relationship with the world beyond their valleys with administrative authority and with Islam has always been an ambiguous one and their unique culture persists to the present day. Robertson’s curiosity about the people of Kafiristan was first excited while serving with the Kabul Field Force in 1878-80 and a further visit in October 1889 encouraged him to return to live with the Kafirs for a year in 1890-1. Often in fear for his life Robertson had numerous adventures amongst the Kafirs and his stories are full of vivid descriptions of their colourful personalities. Robertson went on to become the British Agent at Gilgit succeeding Durand during a stormy period of power struggles that was to end in the famous siege of Chitral in 1895. Renewed interest about a land and people no longer as remote and inaccessible as when Robertson wrote necessitates the present reprint of an 1896 edition of what still remains a major source of information on pre-Muslim Kafiristan. Happily for the reader Robertson combines the perception and approach of an anthropologist with the skills of a novelist. This edition containing a new index and an Introduction by Louis Dupree himself an expert on Kafirs retains the original illustrations in all their authenticity.</p>

The Heart of Buddhism: Being an Anthology of Buddhist Verse

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<p>This book is a selection of verses taken from established Buddhist texts. Translated by the Pali scholar K.J. Saunders it provides the reader with an insight into the teachings that conquered the orient more than 2500 years ago. The verses included in the text lead one to the true essence of Buddhist thought and belief.</p>

Studies of Indian Life and Sentiment

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<p>This book contains descriptions of various aspects of India as seen through the eyes of a British officer. Highly informative and compre­hensive it was originally published in 1910 to provide British officers in understanding India. The different chapters deal with various as­pects of India such as the Indian monsoons topography history religions domestic life of the people famines manufactures and commerce tax and revenue the police and courts education etc. About the Author Bampfylde Fuller (1854-1935) was a British inventor author of more than nine books and an ICS. Beginning his career in Indian Civil Services as the Commissioner of Settlements and Agriculture of Central Provinces he went on to become the first Lieutenant Governor of the new province of Eastern Bengal and Assam.</p>

The Sepoy

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<p>The Sepoy is a comprehensive account of some of the greatest Indian sepoys or soldiers who have over the years given the Indian Army their extensive support and dedication. It is a true tribute to the traditions of the Gorkhas the Sikhs the Punjabi Mussalmans the Dogras among others. This book offers readers a collective analysis of the socio-political settings of the British Empire and also tracks the formation of the Indian Army. About the Author Edmund Candler (1874-1926) was an English journalist novelist and educator notable for his literary depictions of colonial India.</p>

The People of Tibet

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<p>In this volume the author describes the life of the people in their own homes and illustrates his description with numerous photographs taken by himself. About the Author Sir Charles Bells (1870-1945) joined the India Civil Service in 1891. In 1908 he was appointed Political Officer in Sikkim. In 1913 he participated in the Simla Convention a treaty between Great Britain China and Tibet concerning the status of Tibet. In 1919 he resigned to devote himself fully to his research. But in 1920 he was again sent to Lhasa as a special ambassador. After travelling through Tibet in 1920 he retired to devote himself full time to write a series of books on the history culture and religion of Tibet.</p>

The Early History of Bengal

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<p>This book originally published in 1925 deals with the Mauryan Period. It is but a preliminary part of a venture which had in view a History of Bengal from the early age i.e. from the establishment of the Mauryan Empire the earliest event in the history of Bengal to which an approximate date can be assigned up to the first Muslim invasion. Presidency of Bengal at that time when this book was being written covered most of North India including United Provinces of Agra and Oudh the Panjab and the NWFP as also Bihar and Orissa. However due to unexpected death of the author project could not be completed. About the Author F.J. Monahan was a distinguished member of the Indian Civil Service. In 1885 he went to Calcutta as Assistant Magistrate. From there he was sent to Cuttack. After short periods in Dacca and Burdwan districts as Magistrate-Collector in 1892 he was transferred to Sibsagar and finally to Jalpaiguri as Commissioner seventeen years later. In 1898 he was chosen as Chief Secretary until the creation of the new Province of Eastern Bengal and Assam when he was appointed Commissioner of the Assam Valley. In 1914 he was transferred to Calcutta as Presidency Commissioner.</p>

Psalms of Maratha Saints: One Hundred and Eight Hymns translated from the Marathi

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<p>The period of the Maratha Rennaisance during which great poets and saints of Maharashtra flourished extends from the thirteenth to the seventeenth centuries. This literary revival found its impulse in a religious awakening. It is indeed appropriate to call them psalmists because cer­tainly their most popular work consisted of short lyrical utterances called abhangas which usually express religious longing or describe religious experiences. This collection contains translations of one hundred and eight poems by some of the chief Vaisnavite poets of this period. Some of the poems have a place in the regular worship of the devotees as repeated daily by the Varkaris or sung in their bhajans. The saint poets whose hymns have been included are Jnaneswar Mukta Bai Namdev Tukaram and Ekanath. The message of these poets was opposed to a gross idolatory. Though they were worshippers of Vithoba they distinguished between their attitude to this god and that of the superstitious multitude. About the Author Nicol Macnicol (1870-1952) was educated at the University of Glasgow. He then studied at the United Free Church Theological College before being ordained as a missionary to India in 1895.</p>

With the Tibetans in Tent and Temple: Narrative of four Years' Residence on the Tibetan Bordes, and of a Journey into the Far Interior

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<p>This is an account of the arduous journey undertaken by the author and her husband Petrus Rijnhart to Tibet between the years 1895 to 1899 with the idea of propagating the Gospel among the Tibetans. Sailing from the Pacific coast of Canada they reached Shanghai from there they travelled to Hankow by steamer up the Yangste River and then by houseboat up the Han as far as Fancheng. Remainder of the journey was by cart and mule to Nagchuk150 miles from Lhasa. The account is rich in detail and paints a lively picture of the people their customs beliefs local temples and the laity. About the Author Susie Carson Rijnhart (1868-1908) was a medical doctor from Canada. After her marriage to a Christian missionary Petrus Rijnhart they departed for China to reach Lhasa to do evangenical work there. However after the tragic death of her husband she went back to Canada. In 1902 she returned to China to work for the Foreign Christian Missionary Society before returning to Canada in 1907.</p>