The Making of History to lrfa n Hab ib Essays presented Original from UNIVERSITY Of MICHIGAN Or19lnal from UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN The Making of · H i s t o r y lrf an Habib Essays presented to Edibd by KN P1nikk1r Terence J Byres lJtSI Petneik . ,,, CJ" ,.' Tuli k a Original from UNIVERSITY Of MICHIGAN Published by Tulika 35A/l (third floor), Shahpur Jat, New Delhi 110 049, India Individual articles, respective authors Q C This collection, Tulika 2000 First published in India 2000 ISBN: 81-85229- 15-5 D~gned by Ram Rahman, typeset in Minion and Univers at Tulika Print Communication Services, New Delhi, and printed at Pauls Press, E WI I, Okh.la Phase II, New Delhi 110 020 Google Onglr;al rron1 0191uz,., by UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Contents . Preface lX Irfan Habib PRABHAT PATNAIK l SECTION 1 l The J!.gveda: Encapsulating Social Change ROMILA THAPAR l 1 2 Aryanization oft he Indus Civilization SURAJ BHAN 41 3 Feudal Social Formation in Indian History OSAMU KONDO 56 SECTION2 4 Muskets in the Mawas: Instruments of Peasant Resistance IQTIDAR ALAM KHAN 81 5 Witnessing Transition: Views on the End of the Akbari Dispensation MUZAFFAR ALAM and SANJAY SUBRAHMANYAM 104 6 Levelling or Differentiation? Production and Appropriation Relations in Mughal India J. MOHAN RAO 141 v Google Original from 0191t1zed by UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN CONTENTS 7 Rural and Urban Caste Structure in Eighteenth Nineteenth Century India: The Deccan and Gujarat HIROYUJ<I !<OTANI 179 8 Palashi: The Inside Story of a Betrayal BIPLAB DASGUPTA 202 Sl!CTION3 9 Pre-capitalist Economic Formations and Differential Agricultural Productivity: A Tentative Hypothesis TERENCE J. BYRES 239 10 Workers and the Historians' Burden AMIYA KUMAR BAGCHI 276 11 The Indian Economic Experience 1600-1900: A Quantitative Study SHIREEN MOOSVI 328 12 New Estimates of Eighteenth-Century British Trade and Their Relation to Transfers from Tropical Colonies UTSA PATNAIJ< 359 SECTION 4 13 Modernity and Its Philosophic Visions JAVEEDALAM 405 14 Postmodemism in History AIJAZAHMAD 440 15 Realism and the Syntax of Difference: Narratives of the Bengal Famine MIHIR BHATTACHARYA 478 16 Archaeology and Nationalism: The Case of Medieval Gaur RATNABALI CHATTERJEE 500 17 The Rural Artist and Secular Culture in the Era of Globalization MALIN! BHATTACHARYA 515 VI Google Origiral frcn1 0191t1zea by UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Contents SECTIONS Culture, Nationalism and Communal Politics 18 K.N. PANIKKAR 533 India's Partition Revisited 19 MUSHIRUL HASAN 550 Class, Clientelism and Communal Politics in 20 Contemporary Bangladesh MUSHTAQ H. KHAN 572 21 Ayodhya: A Review of the Archaeological Evidence K.M. SHRIMALI 607 SECTION 6 22 State Enterprise Reform and the Political Economy of'Transition' C.P. CHANDRASEKHAR 625 23 A Simple Model of an Imaginary Socialist Economy PRABHAT PATNAIIC 640 Contributors 658 Irfan Habib: A List ofP ublications 660 VII Google Onginal fron1 01g1tlz•dby UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Or19lnal from UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Preface he project of a festschrift for Irfan Habib started nearly four T years ago, and it has been completed in time for his sixty eighth birthday on August 12. Putting together this collection ofp apers in honour of Irfan Habib, has been a very enjoyable task for the editors. When one tries to analyse the reason for this it is clear that it has to do Irfan Habib himself. as Marxist scholar and historian, his bas been a towering presence on the Indian intellectual scene during the last four decades. His truly formidable academic reputation, al ready firmly established in the early sixties, has gained in depth as the boundaries of narrow professional specialization were broken in the succeeding years, and the intellectual project was broadened to con sider the origins and ideological dimensions of the Indian nationalist, anti-imperialist movement as a whole. Scholars in India and abroad felt privileged to be able to record their appreciation through a contri bution to the volume. Given the range of Irfan Habib's interests and contributions, we decided that the festschrift should also reflect this as far as possible. Therefore, there are not only historians but political scientists and economists, not only those specializing in the medieval period but also theorists of modem India, the theorists of culture and the theorists of imaginary socialist systems, who have contributed to this volume. While a loose structuring of the volume in terms of groups of papers has been attempted, there are no hard and fast dividing lines between the sections, which have been left deliberately untitled. There were some problems: an initial writer's block as many scholars thought that what they bad written was perhaps not good . IX Google Onginal fron1 01g1tlz•dby UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN PREFACE enough, so that for a year and a half few final contributions came in; followed by a veritable flood of papers. We are sorry that it has not been possible to ask all those who might have liked to have contributed. Some scholars who had prepared draft papers, have regretted not being able to meet the final deadline; we hope to carry their tribute to lrfan Habib elsewhere, at a later date. On behalf of the editors I would like to thank the contributors, and all the people whose dedicated work has made this volume possi ble: Rajendra Prasad, whose advice and incessant goading kept us on our toes; Salima Tyabji, who meticulously copy-edited all the papers; Ram Rahman, who designed the cover; Indira Chandrasekhar, our publisher, and Pum.ima Joshi, who together miraculously kept to the deadline even though the last paper arrived only a month before the book was to be ready in its final form; and the staff at the Tulika offices, who worked overtime to complete the project. UTSA PATNAIK x Google Original frcm 01gitized by UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN