The proponents of British rule, in their bid to demonstrate their loyalty to the colonial regime, popularised the view that south India from the earliest historical times was divided into a number of small kingdoms that were continually at war…
A disturbing aspect of postcolonial science studies is that for some of its adherents, the content of science does not matter. For them science studies can thrive minus the science. The consequences of this mentality are of great interest because…
The concept of a minority educational institution was brought into legal discourse for the first time by the Constitution of India (effective as of 26 January 1950) in its Part III (‘Fundamental Rights’), under the rubric of ‘Cultural and Educational…
We are writing this in the context of the frenetic campaign that was conducted before and during the general elections. Since at least one major contestant party has tried to controvert an exercise of parliamentary elections into an individual-centric, quasi-presidential…
The heterotopia of Westfort Leprosy Hospital and Weskoppies Psychiatric Hospital was inspired by a reform vision combining compulsory segregation of leprosy patients and institutional confinement of psychiatric patients, with moral–therapeutic landscaping. These regimes in turn were linked to precepts of…
Muhammad Qasim Zaman, Modern Islamic Thought in a Radical Age: Religious Authority and Internal Criticism, Cambridge University Press, first South Asian edition, 2013, 364 pages, Rs 795. Nilanjana Sengupta, A Gentleman’s Word: The Legacy of Subhas Chandra Bose in South…
It has been one of our consistent efforts to encourage fresh researchers, which is also behind the idea of having this special ‘History’ issue of Social Scientist. The articles chosen demonstrate the vibrancy and diversities related to the discipline of…
This article attempts to explore Urdu literary culture in eighteenth-century north India by studying the textual predilections of people, forms of expertise, the aesthetics and patronage to particular types of literary cultures. The social and cultural world of the native…
The Mughal currency system survived even after the decline of the Mughal Empire as it continued to be used by the regional states. The gradual decrease in the annual flow of silver led to paucity of this metal for its…
The indigenous educational institutions had their own history of evolution and had been known as the repositories of knowledge. There was a set structure and curriculum and they often thrived on the patronage given by the ruling class/elite/local magnate. However,…