Literature Caste and Society: The Masks and Veils

This groundbreaking collection presents a significantly different portrait of the medieval and modern Indian society, literature, and the nation-state. Reporting on eighteen studies in five distinct sections spanning many centuries of Indian social history it has brought fresh insights into the emergence of innumerable sub-castes owing to various factors such as political, economic, inter-religious and inter- cultural. This remarkable set of reconstructions presents the reader with familiar as well as unfamiliar groups and areas within the subcontinent offering fresh appraisals of the evidence and of modern historical writing. What unites them here is an 
Jeyaseela Stephen is Professor of Maritime History and Coordinator of the Special Assistance Programme of the UGC at Visva- Bharati. He joined the academy of historians in 1994 at L’Ecole francaise d’ extreme-orient and went to Pune to become Senior Advisor to Tata Central Archives in 2000. He became Head of the Department of History in 2001 at Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan. He was the Editor of Revue Historique : Societe de l’Histoire de Pondichery (1995-97). He had taught at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln City, (1996) and was Visiting Professor at the University of Connecticut, Storrs, USA in 2004. He is a Member of the Executive Committee in the Indian Historical Records Commission nominated by the Government of India (2002-07).
Among his many publications are: The Coromandel Coast and its Hinterland: Economy, Society and Political System, 1500- 1600 (1997), Portuguese in the Tamil Coast: Historical Explorations in Commerce and Culture, 1507-1749 (1998), Rangappa Thiruvengadam Pillai Naatkurippu, Vol. I (1760-1768) Vol. II, 1762-66, (2000), The Diary of Rangappa Thiruvengadam Pillai, 1760-68: Translated from Original Tamil with Notes (2001), Portuguese-Tamil Grammar: Modernisation and Democratisation of Tamil (2001) and Letters of the Portuguese Jesuits from Tamil Countryside, 1666-68, (2001). He has also co-edited (with K.S. Mathew) Indo- French Relations, (1999). ) and edited Trade and Globalisation: Europeans, Americans and Indians in the Bay of Bengal, 1511-1819 (2003). He won the best book prize for his book “Muthu Vijaya Thiruvengadam Pillai Naatkurippu, 1794 -1796, in 1999 (in Tamil which deals with Diary Writing in Tamil during the Eighteenth Century).

Contents

Acknowledgements
Contributors
Introduction
Society in Ancient India Society in Medieval South India under the Cholas Religion and Society South Indian Society in the Vijayangara Period Medieval Society in North India Medieval Social Institutions Social Problems Advent of the Europeans in India and the Hindu Society Christians in Indian Society. The British and the Indian Society : 1757-1857 Movements, Social Reforms and Legislations Social Thinkers in Modern India Role of Periyar Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar  Caste Associations, Peasant Revolts and Indian Society under the Crown Nationalism, Secularism, Communalism and Society Rabindranth Tagore, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. Dimensions of Development in Contemporary Society in Independent India  Chapter Descriptions Literature and Society Language and Society. The Military, the Civil and the Tribal Society in India Indian Society and the European Encounter Society, Nation-State and Culture Society in Contemporary India.
PART I – OPENING A NEW ROAD:
INDIAN LITERATURE AND SOCIETY
Medieval Telugu Literature and the Untouchables in Society
Untouchables : The Background Telugu Literature and Society Vemana: Time and Place Vemana : The Resurgence. Vemana : The Reformer.
Caste System in North Indian Medieval Society : A Study Chiefly Based on Hindi Literature
Contemporary Hindi Literary Sources. Varna System and Social Organisation Hereditary Occupation and Endogamy Businesmen, Occupational Castes and Miscellaneous.
Widows and Fallen Women: Gleanings from the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Bengali Literature
Status of Bengali Women Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay Rabindranath Tagore Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay.
Emergence of Seditious Literature and its Social Impact in the French Colony of Pondicherry (1908-1915)
Pondicherry: An Asylum of Anti-British Groups Growth of Various Printing Press and Publications Pondicherry: A Meeting Place of Several Leaders Banning Seditious Literature.
PART – II
FROM EUROPE TO INDIA: THE SPREAD OF IDEAS AND KNOWLEDGE IN LANGUAGE, LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE
Portuguese in Bengal: A Literary and Linguistic Interaction
Brahman-Roman-Kayatholic Smabad Crepar Xaxtrer Orth, Bhed Portuguese-Bengali-Hindustani Vocabulary.
European Impact and Paradigm Shift in Tamil Development
Modernization and Society Language Modernization Paradigm in Tamil European Contributions Paradigm Shift Shifts in the Script Shifts in Style Grammar Shift in the Style and Prose
Literary Tradition  Shifts in the Attitudes.
Shifts in Tamil
Shift in the
Advent of the Europeans and Emergence of New Literary Genres in Tamil
Development of Tamil Prose Diaries Novels Short Stories New Verse.
PART-III
CONSTRUCTION, DIMENSION AND MANIFESTATION: SOCIETY IN INDIA
Tamil Society and the Military in the Age of the Medieval Cholas
The Land and the People Hero Stones Warfare and Soldiers The Murugan Cult.
Civil Society Under the Sultanate-Mughal Rule: The Role of the Sufis
Sufism Two Groups of Sufis. The State, Society and the Sufis in Medieval India.
Caste and Dynamics of Society in Andhra (1600-1750)
Hamsavimsati. Sukasaptati  Telugu Inscriptions and
Andhra Society Telugu Literature of 17th and 18th
Centuries and Society Rise of Innumerable Sub-caste.
The Social World of the Weaver in the Northern Coromandel (1775-1817)
Various Weaving Castes of the Region Loom Tax Caste Rules and Regulations Social Disturbances and the English Company.
Society and the Identity of the Santals : The Other’ Way of Interpreting the Subalterns
Methodological Problems Reconstructing the Santal Society . The Rebellion of the Santals , 1855.
PART – IV
EUROPEAN ENCOUNTER AND SOCIAL INTERACTIONS IN INDIA
Crime, Social Ramifications and the Portuguese Diaspora on the Coromandel Coast (1538-1695) Pen-Picture of Murders and Death Dimensions of Adultery and Sex Dowry Women and the Social Disclosing the Voices from Universe of Superstitions. Men and the World Slavery, Immorality and Disorderly Conduct.
French Missionaries, Tamil Catholics and Social Changes in Pondicherry (1674-1793)
French Capuchins in Pondicherry French Jesuits in Pondicherry Rome and the Indigenous Customs of the Converts to Christianity. Missions Etrangères de Paris. Towards an Upward Social Mobility Principle of Equality and the Prejudices against Lower Castes.
Religious Conversions in Pondicherry and the French (1703-1878)
Policy of Preference and Pressure Famine and Epidemics Religious Intolerance
Colonisers The Caste Obstacle. Missionaries versus
Social Stratification and Change in Orissa Under the English East India Company and the Crown
A Reappraisal of the Sources Pre-Nineteenth Century Social Evolution in Orissa Pre-19th Century Social Organisation in Orissa The Colonial Period, 1803- 1865 Caste System Ritual Bases of Stratifica- tion Agrarian Bases of Stratification. Overall Social Condition The Years of Transformation, 1865 to 1947 Social Stratification and Change in the Post-famine Situation.
PART – V
TOWARD SOCIETY AND NATION-STATE: IMAGE AND PERCEPTION
The Inner Dynamism of a Nation State: An Indian Paradigm
Perceiving the Indian Nation Three Major Social Processes The Dravidian Movement.
Social and National Consciousness of Rabindranath Tagore and the Indian National Movement (1905-1930)
The Beginnings of National and Social Conscious- ness Ideas of Tagore The Noble Prize The Jallianwala Bagh Massacre Rabindranath Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi.
Socio-Cultural Reforms in Bengal and the Indian National Movement: A Case Study of Prabartak Samgha in Nation Building (1915-1947)
Prabartak Samgha The Wings of the Mission Socio-
Economic Thought and its Application Socio-Cultural
Activities.
Index
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