Bonded Histories: Genealogies of Labor Servitude in Colonial India"To the modern world, the notions that freedom is an innate condition of human beings and that money possesses the power to bind people appear as natural facts. Bonded Histories traces the historical processes by which these notions became established as dominant discourses in India during colonial rule and continued into post-colonial India. Gyan Prakash locates the formulation of these discourses in the history of bonded labour in southern Bihar. He focuses on the emergence and subsequent transformation of the relationship of reciprocal power and dependence between landlords and labourers. The author explores the way in which these transformations were connected with broader shifts in the political economy of this part of the subcontinent; with the changing structures of agricultural production, land tenure and revenue demand; with local social hierarchies and the ideology of castes; and with Hindu cosmologies, spirit cults and their articulation in ritual practices."--Publisher description. |
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Bonded Histories: Genealogies of Labor Servitude in Colonial India Gyan Prakash No preview available - 1990 |
Common terms and phrases
agricultural ancestors appear Bakraur became Behar Bengal Bhuinya Bhuinya oral Bodh Gaya bondage bonded laborers British Calcutta caste channels Chota Nagpur cliché Collector colonial crop cultivation debt-bondage Delhi domination economic epics estates existence Gangetic Gangetic plain Gaya district George Grierson ghosts grain Grierson hereafter hierarchy hijara Hindu India irrigation juridical kamia labor kamia-malik relations kamias kamiauti advances Keso Koeri land revenue landlords loans malik devata marriage Mughal Muslim narrative nineteenth century officials oral testimony oral traditions Orissa outcaste paddy Palamau parganas Patna Patna Division pollution practices produce rents puttara Pyare Raja Rajwar records region Report revenue demand rice rich peasants ritual seers Settlement Operations Shahabad Singh slavery slaves social relations south Bihar southern spirits status subordination Survey and Settlement tanks Tekari texts thana Tulsi Bir Tulsi Bir's upper-caste versions village wages warrior zamindars