Raziuddin Aquil and Kaushik Roy, eds, Warfare, Religion, and Society in Indian History (New Delhi: Manohar, 2012)
Raziuddin Aquil and Kaushik Roy, eds, Warfare, Religion, and Society in Indian History (New Delhi: Manohar, 2012); pp. 341. Price: Rs 995. ISBN 978-81-7304-958-3.
About the Book:
This volume includes essays on a wide range of themes, marked by various distinct approaches to the study of connections between religion and warfare in Indian history from earliest times to the present. Such a collection could possibly cause some consternations, even as the editors began with the basic premise that some of the critical questions be discussed as freely as possible, despite constraints of ideological barriers limiting the fields of inquiry.
Written by a mix of veterans as well as early career scholars, the essays will provoke some debate on what all could possibly be undertaken as legitimate historical exercise and whether it is impossible to write a professional and non-partisan history of such politically sensitive issues as the entanglement of religion and warfare in Indian history and society.
List of Contributors
1. Breaking the Thigh and the Warrior Code
Torkel Brekke
2. Dispatching Kafirs to Hell?: The Languages of Warfare, Politics and Religion in the Delhi Sultanate
Raziuddin Aquil
3. India’s Military Revolution: The View from the Early-Sixteenth-Century Deccan
Richard M. Eaton
4. Rethinking Early Mughal Warfare: Babur’s Pitched Battles, 1499-1529
Pratyay Nath
5. Territories, Wars, Nation: Chronicling Ahom-Mughal Confrontation
Arupjyoti Saikia
6. Responses to Religion and Politics: Riti-kal Poetry, c. 1550-1850
Sandhya Sharma
7. Indian Subaltern Autobiographies: Two Asian Officers in the Eighteenth-Century Bengal Army
Michael H. Fisher
8. Strategies under Stress: Army Management and Environment in Late Pre-Colonial Bahawalpur
Richard B. Barnett
9. Science and Secularization of Warfare: Transition in Siege Warfare in South Asia from Medieval to Modern Times
Kaushik Roy
10. ‘The Nation Within’: British India at War, 1939-1947
C.A. Bayly
Dalit Pachan, Mukti Atey Shaktikaran (Dalit Identity, Emancipation and Empowerment) by Ronki Ram
Ronki Ram’s second book on Dalit Pachan, Mukti Atey Shaktikaran (Dalit Identity, Emancipation and Empowerment) in Punjabi is released on February 1, 2012 at the International Punjabi Development Conference (February 1-3, 2012), organized by Punjabi University, Patiala (India). This book is a detailed account of Dalit identity as it emerged in the border state of Punjab in North-West India where concentration of Dalit population is highest in the country. The central thesis of the book revolves around the critical processes of the emergence of Dalit identity and the ways it facilitates Dalit emancipation and empowerment since the beginning of the Dalit movement (Ad Dharm) in the state in the second half of 1920s. The book also provides an in-depth account of the role of the philosophy and teachings of Guru Ravidass, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar and Shaheed Bhagat Singh in the rise of Dalit consciousness in Punjab. How the complex process of Dalit identity has been represented in the grass-roots Dalit poetry is another interesting aspect of this book, which lays special emphasis on the importance of doing research in Punjabi for the better understanding of Dalit question in Punjab. The book is based on ethnographic study done during the last two decades in the villages of East Punjab.
The book is published by the Publication Bureau, Punjabi University, Patiala (India).
Horrors of Partition, by A.G. Noorani
Frontline Vol 29 – Issue 4
Book review of The Punjab Bloodied, Partitioned and Cleansed by Ishtiaq Ahmed; Partition Observed edited by Lionel Carter and Partition and Locality by Illyas Chattha.
In addition to the loss of human lives and property, the near-fatal blows on cultures mark Partition’s distinctively hideous features.
THE partition of the subcontinent of India deserves to rank as one of the 10 great tragedies in recorded human history. That is saying a lot. It is not only the loss of human lives and property but the near-fatal blows on cultures that mark its distinctively hideous features. Urdu and the composite Ganga-Jamuna tehzeeb (culture) suffered grievously. People were uprooted, leaving an impoverished culture behind them. Of all the provinces, Punjab suffered the most. The massacre that preceded and followed its partition, along with that of India, was predictable and was predicted.
“Pakistan would mean a massacre,” the Premier of Punjab Sir Sikandar Hyat Khan predicted to the distinguished civilian Penderel Moon as early as in October 1938 ( Divide and Quit, page 20). That was well before the Muslim League adopted the Pakistan resolution on March 23, 1940, in Lahore, radically altering Sir Sikandar’s draft just 24 hours before it was passed. He repudiated it because it dropped the organic link between the two parts of India, which he had provided. He told the Punjab Legislative Assembly, on March 11, 1941, “We do not ask for freedom that there may be Muslim Raj here and Hindu Raj elsewhere. If that is what Pakistan means I will have nothing to do with it.”
Read full review:
Poetry as Resistance: Islam and Ethnicity in Postcolonial Pakistan by Nukhbah Langah
Poetry as Resistance: Islam and Ethnicity in Postcolonial Pakistan by Nukhbah Langah (Routledge, 2011)
Focusing on the culturally and historically rich Siraiki-speaking region, often tagged as ‘South Punjab’, this book discusses the ways in which Siraiki creative writers have transformed into political activists, resisting the self-imposed domination of the Punjabi–Mohajir ruling elite. Influenced by Sufi poets, their poetry takes the shape of both protest and dialogue. This book reflects upon the politics of identity and the political complications which are a result of colonisation and later, neo-colonisation of Pakistan. It challenges the philosophy of Pakistan — a state created for Muslims — which is now taking the shape of religious fanaticism, while disregarding ethnic and linguistic issues such as that of Siraiki.
Read review by Ayesha Siddiqa in The Friday Times: http://www.thefridaytimes.com/beta2/tft/article.php?issue=20120210&page=19
Sikhs in Europe. Migration, Identities and Representations, Edited by Knut A. Jacobsen & Kristina Myrvold
Sikhs in Europe. Migration, Identities and Representations, Edited by Knut A. Jacobsen, University of Bergen, Norway; Kristina Myrvold, Lund University, Sweden (Ashgate, 2011)
Sikhs in Europe are neglected in the study of religions and migrant groups: previous studies have focused on the history, culture and religious practices of Sikhs in North America and the UK, but few have focused on Sikhs in continental Europe. This book fills this gap, presenting new data and analyses of Sikhs in eleven European countries; examining the broader European presence of Sikhs in new and old host countries. Focusing on patterns of migration, transmission of traditions, identity construction and cultural representations from the perspective of local Sikh communities, this book explores important patterns of settlement, institution building and cultural transmission among European Sikhs.
Contents: Introduction: Sikhs in Europe, Knut A. Jacobsen and Kristina Myrvold; Part I Sikhs in Northern and Eastern Europe: Institutionalization of Sikhism in Norway: community growth and generational transfer, Knut A. Jacobsen; The Sikh community in Denmark: balancing between cooperation and conflict, Helene Ilkjaer; The Swedish Sikhs: community building, representation and generational change, Kristina Myrvold; Sikhs in Finland: migration histories and work in the restaurant sector, Laura Hirvi; The Sikhs in Poland: a short history of migration and settlement, Zbigniew Igielski. Part II Sikhs in Southern Europe: Mirror games: a fresco of Sikh settlements among Italian local societies, Barbara Bertolani, Federica Ferraris and Fabio Perocco; ‘Did you get papers?’: Sikh migrants in France, Christine Moliner; Caste, religion, and community assertion: a case study of the Ravidasias in Spain, Kathryn Lum; Sikh immigrants in Greece: on the road to integration, Niki Papageorgiou. Part III Sikhs in the United Kingdom and Ireland: Sikh diversity in the UK: contexts and evolution, Eleanor Nesbitt; Sikh-ing beliefs: British Sikh camps in the UK, Jasjit Singh; The Valmiki, Ravidasi and Namdhari communities in Britain: self-representations and transmission of traditions, Opinderjit Kaur Takhar; The Sikh diaspora in Ireland: a short history, Glenn Jordan and Satwinder Singh; Glossary; Index.
Link to publisher – Ashgate: http://www.ashgate.com/default.aspx?page=637&pageSubject=549&calcTitle=1&sort=pubdate&forthcoming=1&title_id=10934&edition_id=14157
The Punjab: Bloodied, Partitioned and Cleansed by Ishtiaq Ahmed
Extract from The Punjab Bloodied Partitioned and Cleansed by Ishtiaq Ahmed, (Rupa & Co, 2011)
INTRODUCTION
(Pages xxxviii-xxxix)
A Sikh Plan to eradicate all Muslims from East Punjab They alleged that the Sikhs had a definite plan to eliminate Muslims from East Punjab and that the Hindu group, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), was behind many heinous bomb blasts and other assaults on Muslims. Notes on The Sikh Plan says:
‘The ultimate goal which the Sikhs had set before them seems to have been the establishment of Sikh rule in the Punjab. Their preparations to this end were aimed directly and exclusively against the Muslims. Whether the Hindus who formed the bigger minority in the Punjab, would ultimately have acquiesced in the fulfillment of Sikh ambitions at their expense, is doubtful; but for the time being they made common cause with the Sikhs. The activities and preparations of the two, therefore, run parallel to each other and even where active conspiracy between them is not evident, the fact that they regarded the Muslims as their common enemy created mutual disposition towards collaboration which virtually amounted to a conspiracy and let [sic] to concerted effort’ (1948: 1-2).
Chaudhri Muhammad Ali, who represented Pakistan in the Steering Committee of the Partition Council set up by the colonial government, and was later prime minister of Pakistan (1955-56), alleged in his book, The Emergence of Pakistan, that the Sikh leadership at the highest level, especially the Maharajas of Patiala and Kapurthala, were involved in a macabre conspiracy to wipe out all Muslims from East Punjab.
The former Chief Justice of the Pakistan Supreme Court, Muhammad Munir, one of the two members nominated by the Muslim League to the Punjab Boundary Commission, admitted in his book, From Jinnah to Zia, that the first large-scale communal attack in Punjab occurred in the Rawalpindi region in March 1947 against Sikhs and Hindus, and its perpetrators were Muslims (1980: 17). He reiterated the charge that the Sikhs had a plan to eradicate all traces of Muslim presence in the eastern parts of Punjab.
Extract: http://books.hindustantimes.com/2011/09/extract-the-punjab-bloodied-partitioned-and-cleansed/
Review in The Asian Age: http://www.asianage.com/books/conspiracies-partition-635
Review in the Deccan Chronicle: http://www.deccanchronicle.com/channels/lifestyle/books/conspiracies-partition-459
Sikhs in Latin America by Swarn Singh Kahlon
A NEW BOOK ON SIKH DIASPORA
For the first time,an effort has been made to complete the Sikh Diaspora map by covering Latin American countries.Case studies on
Argentina, Belize, Brazil, Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama and other countries.
The book is now available from Manohar Publishers and Distributors, New Delhi.
Political Theology, special issue ‘Ten Years After 9/11′
The editors of Political Theology are pleased to announce that the latest issue is now available on the web. PT 12.5 (2011) is a special issue entitled ‘Ten Years After 9/11′, in which twenty-two contributors from across the religious spectrum take stock of the events of September 11, 2001 and their aftermath. Perspectives are offered from theologians, specialists in the study of religion, historians, philosophers, ethicists, anthropologists and political scientists. A number of the contributors are active in the area of interreligious dialogue and interfaith relations. Some are grassroots activists.
To continue reading this introduction, please visit: http://www.politicaltheology.com/blog/?p=526
Political Theology Vol 12, No 5 (2011): Ten Years After 9/11
Table of Contents
http://www.politicaltheology.com/PT/issue/view/PT-v12_5
Guest Editorial
——–
Editorial: An Alternative Vision (641-644)
Colleen Kelly
Articles
——–
Political Theology Ten Years After 9/11 (645-659)
Julie Clague
“Do Not Despair of God’s Mercy”: Reflections on the Divine Mercy in
Times of Tragedy (660-665)
Abdulaziz Sachedina
September 11: Meaning in Fragments (666-671)
W. Clark Gilpin
Fragments: Reflections in a Shattered Screen (672-677)
Tina Beattie
9/11 – 100 Years On (678-684)
Hugh Goddard
The War on Terror: Secular or Sacred? (685-690)
William T. Cavanaugh
The World As We Know It (691-695)
Jean Bethke Elshtain
In the Decade After 9/11 (696-698)
Amir Hussain
American by Force, Muslim by Choice (699-705)
Amina Wadud
Keeping Shari’a and Reclaiming Jihad (706-712)
Irfan A. Omar
Osama bin Laden as a Multi-Vocal Symbol (713-721)
Richard Gauvain
The Problem of Religious Violence (722-726)
Alan Mittleman
September 11, 2001: Remember Forgetting (727-736)
Asma Barlas
The Legacy of 9/11: A Decade of Denial and Destruction (737-743)
Reza Pankhurst
Tragedy and Triumphalism (744-751)
Lenn E. Goodman
The Emerging Phenomena of Post-9/11 (752-761)
Shaykh Ahmed Abdur Rashid
Fighting Terrorism through Generosity: The Spiritual Approach to
Homeland Security (762-769)
Rabbi Michael Lerner
The Line Dividing Good and Evil (770-777)
Marina Cantacuzino
After 9/11: Religion and Politics (778-782)
David Novak
Collapsing Horizons (783-791)
Marius Timmann Mjaaland
Mourning 9/11: Walter Benjamin, Gillian Rose, and the Dual Register of
Mourning (792-800)
Ted A. Smith
Political Theology
www.politicaltheology.com
Partition and Locality. Violence, Migration, and Development in Gujranwala and Sialkot, 1947–1961 by Ilyas Chattha
This book provides original and challenging insights into the processes of violence, demographic transformation, and physical reconstruction arising from partition of the subcontinent in 1947. The study focuses on the cities of Gujranwala and Sialkot that experienced violence, demographic shift, and economic transformation in different ways. The work is not only a significant contribution to the understanding of the Partition process of British India and its aftermath in Punjab that became Pakistani territory, but it also provides an authoritative and thought-provoking approach to the themes of broader twentieth-century processes of collective violence, mass displacements, and economic recovery.
About the Author: Educated at the Universities of Warwick and Southampton, Dr Ilyas Chattha obtained a PhD in 2009. He is presently based at the Centre for Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies, University of Southampton, and is carrying out research on the impact of Partition on the Punjabi Christians in Pakistan.
To Purchase: http://www.oup.com.pk/shopexd.asp?id=2104
EXCERPT: Stories of an unacknowledged massacre: http://www.dawn.com/2011/10/23/excerpt-stories-of-an-unacknowledged-massacre.html
Book review in Pakistan Today: http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2011/10/the-review-30th-october-2011/
Call for Contributions: The Economics of Military Conflict in South Asia
The Economics of Military Conflict in South Asia
We seek original contributions from a wide range of disciplines including economics, econometrics, political science, international relations, strategic studies and public policy for an inter-disciplinary collection of essays to be published in a proposed special edition on the economics of military conflict in South Asia in the Journal of Asian Public Policy. Contributions should address an economic and public policy aspect of military conflict in a country, or combination of countries, from South Asian including Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Sri Lanka. Studies of both inter- and sub-state conflict (including separatist movements and non-state actors) are welcome. Final articles should be 4,000-7,000 words in length with an expected date of publication in late 2012 or early 2013.
Possible topics include:
* The effects of conflict on trade or economic growth
* The economic determinants and costs of conflict
* Public policy responses and solutions to conflict
* The economic and social effects of military spending
* The economic impediments and imperatives of peace
Interested contributors should send a 200 word abstract with a brief biographical note to mwebb@pi.ac.ae or albert.wijeweera@scu.edu.au by 15 December 2011. Authors of selected abstracts will be contacted in early 2012. Final contributions will be subject to a process of peer review before publication.
Sikh Nationalism and Identity in a Global Age (Paperback) – Routledge
href=”http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415586108/?sms_ss=wordpress”>Sikh Nationalism and Identity in a Global Age (Paperback) – Routledge.
Sikh Nationalism and Identity in a Global Age examines the construction of a Sikh national identity in post-colonial India and the diaspora and explores the reasons for the failure of the movement for an independent Sikh state: Khalistan. Based on a decade of research, it is argued that the failure of the movement to bring about a sovereign, Sikh state should not be interpreted as resulting from the weakness of the ‘communal’ ties which bind members of the Sikh ‘nation’ together, but points to the transformation of national identity under conditions of globalization. Globalization is perceived to have severed the link between nation and state and, through the proliferation and development of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs), has facilitated the articulation of a transnational ‘diasporic’ Sikh identity. It is argued that this ‘diasporic’ identity potentially challenges the conventional narratives of international relations and makes the imagination of a post-Westphalian community possible. Theoretically innovative and interdisciplinary in approach, it will be primarily of interest to students of South Asian studies, political science and international relations, as well as to many others trying to come to terms with the continued importance of religious and cultural identities in times of rapid political, economic, social and cultural change.
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