A Concise History of Modern India

Abstract

In a second edition of their successful Concise History of Modern India, Barbara Metcalf and Thomas Metcalf explore India's modern history afresh and update the events of the last decade. These include the takeover of Congress from the seemingly entrenched Hindu nationalist party in 2004, India's huge advances in technology and the country's new role as a major player in world affairs. From the days of the Mughals, through the British Empire, and into Independence, the country has been transformed by its institutional structures. It is these institutions which have helped bring about the social, cultural and economic changes that have taken place over the last half century and paved the way for the modern success story. Despite these advances, poverty, social inequality and religious division still fester. In response to these dilemmas, the book grapples with questions of caste and religious identity, and the nature of the Indian nation.

Colonial Dreaming: Textbooks in the Mythology of “Primitive Accumulation”

“…As Metcalf and Metcalf write: ''In India, [British] liberals confidently saw their task as that of stripping off the shackles of 'despotism', 'priestcrat', and 'superstition' that left its people, as James Mill wrote in his History of British India (1818), 'the most enslaved portion of the human race'. 27 The ideals of English-educated Indians -mostly Brahmin (though also including some Kshatriyas), urban, and numbering less than 10,000 at this time -mirrored these paternalist views of Indian society at large. This is evident in the publications of social reform organizations of the time, such as the Paramahansa Mandali and the Prarthana Samaj, 28 and in the writings of individuals attached to them.…”

“…They state that British investors were guaranteed 5% returns by the British government ''absolutely risk free'' and the profits they made, rather than reinvested in the Indian economy, ''went instead into [their pockets]''. 50 While the debate surrounding the exploitative character of British India's colonial economy rages on, 51 suffice to say for the purposes of this essay that the period between 1850 and the emergence of Indian nationalism after the 1910s was characterized by a colonial state collaborating with British (and, to an extent, also Indian) merchants, to foster profitable enterprises. The interests of the Indian population, as a whole, and all its constituent parts, were not paramount during this period of high colonialism.…”

“…While the infrastructure ensured easier access to the colonial territories for people and goods, the former (both the permanent Land Settlement of Bengal, and the ryotwari system in Mysore and Maharashtra 23 ) was aimed at ensuring ''a law-abiding, tax-paying peasantry''. 24 The textbook series is conceived and written in a context that is marked by free trade capitalism, even as it anticipates the phase of finance capitalism. In this latter phase, the British government has taken over from the Company (officially this occurs in 1858, though steps toward it began as early as the 1770s).…”

Hinduism in India and Congregational Forms: Influences of Modernization and Social Networks

“…He argues for an eighteenth century Indian use of -Hinduism,‖ and suggests a nascent unifying Hindu religious identity as early as 300 to 600 C.E. In contrast, many scholars point to a nineteenth century invention of the term -Hinduism‖ by British administrators to describe the diverse religious life that before that time had no overarching unity [20][21][22]. Lipner [7] favors the beginning use of -Hindu‖ as a cultural rather than -specifically religious‖ term and warns that accepting a religious essentialist understanding of Hinduism, among other dangers, leads to -undercutting the rich diversity of actual belief and practice.‖ culture and adjust to the host country.…”

Making Yemen Indian: Rewriting the Boundaries of Imperial Arabia

“…36 The durbar model of colonial governance was based on the assumption that India comprised separate and autonomous communities of castes, tribes, and religious communities that could be ruled only by their natural leaders through a process of consultation with the imperial state. 37 It was a vision of Indian political society, as Partha Chatterjee has argued, based in the notion of immutable difference that was inherently incapable of democratic government. 38 In the Aden Protectorate, the Arabic Guest House and Arabic Translation Department were responsible for the creation of a tribal hierarchy that, by the early 20th century, also entailed a rigid system of honors and protocol.…”