History through rituals. Explorations in Indo-Tibetan religious cultures, University of Haifa, Israel, 1-2 July 2019
In: European Bulletin of Himalayan Research, Heft 54, S. 68-70
ISSN: 2823-6114
In: European Bulletin of Himalayan Research, Heft 54, S. 68-70
ISSN: 2823-6114
In: Asian Borderlands
Frontmatter -- Table of Contents -- List of Images, Maps and Charts -- Acknowledgements -- A Note on Translation and Transliteration -- Introduction -- 1. Memories of a Feud: Chinjhiar, 1795 -- 2. Alterity and Myth in Himalayan Historiography: Kangra, Sirmaur, and Gorkha Rule in the West -- 3. Sati and Sovereignty in Theory and Practise -- 4. Statecraft at the Edge of Empire: Bilaspur, 1795-1835 -- 5. Widowed Ranis, Scheming Rajas, and the Making of 'Rajput Tradition' -- Epilogue -- Appendix: The Jhera of Chinjhiar -- Bibliography -- Index
In: Asian Borderlands
This book explores the modern transformation of state and society in the Indian Himalaya. Centred on three Rajput-led kingdoms during the transition to British rule (c. 1790-1840) and their interconnected histories, it demonstrates how border making practices engendered a modern reading of 'tradition' that informs communal identities to date. By revising the history of these mountain kings on the basis of extensive archival, textual, and ethnographic research, it offers an alternative to popular and scholarly discourses that grew with the rise of colonial knowledge. This revision ultimately points to the important contribution of borderland spaces to the fabrication of group identities.
In: Modern Asian studies, Band 49, Heft 2, S. 302-335
ISSN: 1469-8099
In: Modern Asian studies, Band 49, Heft 2, S. 302-335
ISSN: 1469-8099
AbstractIn 'The Rani of Sirmur: An Essay in Reading the Archives', Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak offered a literary analysis of British records to demonstrate the inextricability of language from the colonial/imperial project's goal of world domination. Honing her arguments on the threat of a Himalayan queen (rani) to 'become sati' (i.e. immolate herself), Spivak interpreted the event as representative of the plight of subalterns and of 'third world women' in particular. However, a close reading of the records reveals profound discrepancies between Spivak's interpretation and conditions that existed in and around the kingdom at the time. This article contextualizes the rani's story by supplementing archival sources with folk traditions, local histories, and recent research on sati and Rajput women. It shows that the rani was actually an astute ruler, similar to her peers in the West Himalayan elite, and that her threat of suicide resulted from reasons that go beyond an alleged attempt at recovering agency from the dual oppressions of patriarchal indignity and an invasive superpower. The discourses about sati in contemporary texts are also investigated, revealing a considerable overlap in South Asian and European views of sati among Himalayan elites in turn-of-the-nineteenth-century northwest India.