Karatoya : North Bengal University journal of History, Vol. 12

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://ir.nbu.ac.in/handle/123456789/3948

Note from the Editorial Desk

On behalf of the Department of History, University of North Bengal, it is my privilege to present to the readers the Volume 12 (2019) of the Karatoya: North Bengal University Journal of History. The journal has incorporated the research papers from ancient Indian History, Medieval Indian History and Modern Indian History and contemporary as well. The Volume 12 is being published after all the articles having been refereed and peer reviewed with the ISSN 2229-4880. The Karatoya: North Bengal University Journal of History is a UGC Approved Journal of Arts and Humanities with Serial No. 42512

The editor of the journal does not judge for the facts stated, opinions expressed and conclusions reached is entirely that of the authors concern and the editor of the journal accepts no responsibility for the same.

It is my solemn duty to express my gratitude to our Honourable Vice Chancellor, Registrar, Finance Officer for their generous concern on “Academic Endeavour’. I am thankful to my colleagues of the Department of History for their warm encouragement and necessary cooperation for publishing this journal. Dr. Tahiti Sarkar associate editor of this volume deserved huge appreciation for her constant help in publishing this volume.

I am also grateful to all the contributors for providing valuable research papers. Last but not least, the Officials and the Staffs of the North Bengal University Press deserve heartiest thanks for their cooperation in printing the journal within limited span of time.

Dr. Dahlia Bhattacharya (Editor-in-Chief)

Dr. Tahiti Sarkar (Associate Editor)

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Now showing 1 - 14 of 14

Open Access
Caricature in Print Media: A Historical Study of Political Cartoons in Colonial India (1872-1947)
(University of North Bengal, 2019-03) Bhattacharya, Dahlia
With the growth of print media in the nineteenth century there was development of national consciousness and social awareness among the middle class educated gentry of India. Thebeginning of cartoons started in India with the Colonial influence and gradually the visual culture became a significant part of the print media. The present paper intends to unfold a narration of the growth and development of political cartoons in India in the colonial period and to understand the representation of the then contemporary political situation with humour and caricature. The article tries to look into the racial arrogance, the colonial outlook towards Indians and a reaction of the Indians through the vernacular political cartoons.
Open Access
Developments in Tobacco in the Princely State of Cooch Behar
(University of North Bengal, 2019-03) Debnath, Tapas; Sarkar, Tahiti
Tobacco was a very popular intoxication content in colonial Bengal. Though several countries imposed certain restrictions on the use of tobacco, the colonial period became a mark on the growth of tobacco consumption and trade. Due to the growing demands, there was a need to improve quality and quantity of tobacco in India. A number of scientific approaches were suggested and adopted for the improvement of quality and quantity of tobacco. Princely states of Cooch Behar took keen interest in this matter. The main aim was to make the tobacco trade of Cooch Behar a profitable one. The Commissioners of Cooch Behar and Maharaja Nripendra Narayan had taken various experimental measures for the improvement of tobacco. A modern farm was established for that purpose. Prince Gojendra Narayan was also interested in tobacco cultivation. Victor Nityendra Narayan, visited famous tobacco growing countries. Though the investment and efforts on these experiments were much, the success rate was not satisfactory. There was always a fluctuation in the quantity, quality and rate of the tobacco in Cooch Behar mainly owing to rainfall and hailstorms.
Open Access
Bengal Traditional Games And Sports Culture Around In Twentieth-Century North Bengal
(University of North Bengal, 2019-03) Roy, Badal; Lama, Sudash
Games and Sports are an integral part ofthe culture.Traditional games and sportsform the backbone of a community, thus intangible heritage and a symbol ofthe cultural diversity of our societies. It also reflects different cultural expressions that create a bridge among the cultures.This article aims at exploring how children particularly in rural areas of NorthBengal contribute to sports despitethe economically poor but culturally richtradition of the country. They did so to enjoy their leisure with the limited resources available to them like broken bangles, tamarind seeds, and old clothes especially for those who cannot afford to buy expensive goods.
Open Access
Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Nashya Sheikh Community of North Bengal: A Study on Some Agricultural Beliefs and Practices
(University of North Bengal, 2019-03) Md Nabiul Islam
Cultural heritage is the legacy of physical artifacts and intangible attributes of a group or society that are inherited from past generations, maintained in the present and bestowed for the benefit of future generations. Cultural heritage is of two types: Tangible and Intangible. ‘Tangible Cultural Heritage’ refers to physical artifacts produced, maintained and transmitted intergenerational in a society. ‘Intangible Cultural Heritage’ indicates ‘the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills – as well as the instruments, objects, artifacts and cultural spaces associated therewith that communities, groups and, in some cases, individuals recognize as part of their or a place’s Cultural Heritage’ Traditionally, the Nashya Sheikh Muslim community of North Bengal is believed in various Belief and Customs.. In this paper, an attempt will be made to we find out historical significance of some agricultural belief and practices of Nashya Sheikh community of North Bengal, prospect and problems facing this heritage and steps to be taken to preserve it.
Open Access
A Critical Study of the Official Policies on Child Labour in India 1947-1979
(University of North Bengal, 2019-03) Rakshit, Samiparna
This article essentially analyses the different constitutional provisions, all the laws and regulations, committee resolutions regarding child labour during the period from 1947(the year of India’s Independence) to 1979 (International Year of the Child) to tease out the actual official attitudes of the post-colonial Indian nation-state to the problem of child labour. We have also resorted to critical reading and deconstruction of texts as official policies are largely reflected in the drafts and final texts of the Five Year Plans, other policy documents and the wrings, speeches and comments of ministers, legislators and policy-makers. In order to situate the Plans, policies and official programmes discussed in this article in their appropriate economic and political context, we have also drawn upon the relevant gamut of social-scientific literature. The child labourers were obviously elided by the State’s policy makers as they were exposed to successive links in a chain of exploitation. The poorer sections were being systematically exploited because an unequal economic system was pinning the lower classes down to poverty.
Open Access
In Search Of A ‘New Home’: Anglo-Indians In The Darjeeling Hills, 1900-1947
(University of North Bengal, 2019-03) Mondal, Amrita
In the second half of the nineteenth century, most Anglo-Indian, being a Kolkata based community in Bengal, started to move out of the city in search of new employment opportunities. Some of their destinations were the newly established tea gardens of Darjeeling hills and Assam. Mostly they were appointed as managers in the tea estates. The Anglo-Indian community, not being accepted by both the British or Indian society, started to reimagine their identity while settling down in the hills. However, education of their children was turned into a severe problem for them. Some of the Christian missions came forward and opened boarding schools cum ‘home’ for the Anglo-Indian children in the Darjeeling hills. Later these mission schools also became a shelter for the orphan Anglo-Indian children of Kolkata and played an important role in their identity formation. The paper highlights whether these initiatives could able to give a new future to the Anglo-Indian community and if the Anglo-Indian community could able to accept Darjeeling Hills as their ‘new home’. Further, the paper also discusses other nuances, like how did the indigenous people of the hills and the British Raj look at this identity formation, and what kind of new developments started in the hills with the coming of the Anglo-Indians. The paper is based on the archival sources, like newspapers, education, finance and home department report, missionary documents and memoirs.
Open Access
Globalisation and Its Impact on Siliguri
(University of North Bengal, 2019-03) Kumari, Minakshee
Globalisation is considered an amalgam of social-cultural and economic outcomes which resulted from the opening of the Indian economy. Globalisation is conceived to be an expansion of a neoliberal market economy where market entry becomes important players. In a simple manner, globalisation has been defined as changes in the density of International and global interaction related to local or national networks. Globalisation has a huge impact on the city of Siliguri. This paper discusses the impact of globalisation on Siliguri.
Open Access
Post-Independent Administrative Reorganisation And Changes In Jurisdiction Of Jalpaiguri District of West Bengal (1947-1997)
(University of North Bengal, 2019-03) Ghosh, Arun
In 1947, during the time of independence of India, there was a plan of partition of Bengal by the British Colonial Government. So, a Boundary Commission was formed to decide the political boundary between two parts of Bengal province (West Bengal and East Bengal). This Commission was under the chairmanship of Sir Cyril Radcliffe and he was assisted by two Muslim and two non-Muslim members. During that time, there was tug of war situation between the Congress, Hindu Mahasabha and Muslim League regarding the district of Jalpaiguri. However, after the publication of Radcliffe’s Award this district was divided into East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and West Bengal (India). Five police stations of this district were added with East Pakistan, and rest police stations were added with West Bengal. With that partition, jurisdiction of this district compressed from its earlier position. After independence of India and partition of Bengal, till the 50 years of independence the district was administratively reorganised several times, whenever it needed. So in this way the reorganising process of the administrative level of this district took its place, which effected upon several aspects of this district.
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Hindu Code Bill - An Ambitious Dream of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar to Women Empowerment and its Disastrous Repudiation
(University of North Bengal, 2019-03) Bala, Babulal
As one of the makers of modern India Dr. B. R. Ambedkar wanted ‘to cleanse the rotten structure of the Hindu society and to reinvigorate it’ as per his ideologies of liberty, equality, dignity and social justice. Ambedkar places Man at the centre of his thinking, and his sole concern was the all-round development of Man irrespective of classes, castes, creed and sexes. He used to believe that solving human problems with the help of rational logic is more reliable than adhering to religious beliefs and dogmas blindly. Out of this feeling Ambedkar’s visions concentrated towards the ill treatment of women in our country and that’s why in his capacity as a first law minister of free India he took the task on his shoulders to liberate the women from their long societal bondage as well as enslavement. Though, his efforts were not materialized due to the vigorous opposition from various corners, in spite of that his whole hearted efforts to frame and pass the Hindu Code Bill is the shining example in the history of women emancipation in India. In this context an attempt has been made to trace out the importance of passing the Hindu Code Bill for the better future of modern India.
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Spaces of Protection, Regimes of Exception: Anthropologists, Administrators and the Framing of the Late Colonial Discourse on Tribal Regions (1920-1950)
(University of North Bengal, 2019-03) Tewari, Saagar
In the decades leading to Indian independence, a number of anthropological works by figures like J.H. Hutton, J.P. Mills, Verrier Elwin, William Archer, Christopher von Furer-Haimendorf and, Wilfrid Vernon Grigson etc. were published at regular intervals from 1920s onwards. Taken together, there is a remarkable unity in the ideas of this ‘knot of men’2 whose writings played a crucial role in articulation of ideas and strategies designed for the protection of tribal communities in future India. These individuals were definitely not the founding fathers of this ‘tradition’ and their arguments built upon a much earlier lineage of similar anthropologically minded administrators. However, given that this period was also the twilight of the British Indian empire, their contributions were extremely significant. Without analyzing them, it is almost impossible to theorize the ‘bridge’ which connects the late colonial to the post-colonial period as far as the discourse on the Indian tribal population is concerned....
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Feminism, Post-Colonial Discourse and Indian Liminality
(University of North Bengal, 2019-03) Sarkar, Prajnaparamita
The ‘Women Question” was a central issue in the most controversial debates over social reform in early and mid-nineteenth century Bengal-the period of so-called renaissance. What has perplexed historians is the rather sudden disappearance of such issues from the agenda of public debate towards the close of the century. From then onward, questions regarding the position of women in society did not arouse the same degree of public passion and acrimony as they had only a few decades before. An attempt has been made through this article to interpret this change.
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Was Academic Association a Student Movement or Resurgence of the Social Awakening? A Critical Assessment
(University of North Bengal, 2019-03) Pain, Swapan Kumar
After the introduction of modern education system a fresh consciousness gradually brought the educated youth and students in contact with the modern events in various parts of the country and the world at large. They started to pay attention to the problems facing the country and the people and to look upon them in different light. At the outset of the 19thcentury the problems related with the social reforms were the focal point of students’ agitation. This consciousness of the students was one of the consequences of modern system of western education introduced by the colonial masters. This insisted the educated youth conscious about the social, economic and religious inequalities, discriminations and orthodoxies. These social evils led to the serious reaction among the educated middle class or the Bhadraloke class and it reflected comprehensibly in the ideas of Raja Rammohan Roy, Derozio and Young Bengal and several other streams. The primary reaction of the educated youth and students was not only political, but also social, humanistic and cultural. They began reacting to the needs of better and wider education, social change, discussions on various questions of mutual interests, to spread and share the newly acquired knowledge and consciousness and to protest against various kinds of injustices. This new intellectual segment or, group was originally influenced by the ingredients of freedom, fraternity and equality of the French Revolution. They were also influenced by the writings and compositions of the great philosopher and scholars like Mill, Bentham, Thomas Paine, David Ricardo, Adam Smith etc. This new wave of students was initiated with the inspiration of Henry Louis Vivian Derozio, the young professor of Hindu College and with the movements of Young Bengal. In 1828, after a constructive discussion, the formation of Academic Association took shape in the House of Derozio. Derozio was its first president and Uma CharanBasu, student of Derozio, was its first secretary. The students of Derozio were the forerunner of this mission. It was the first student organisation in India functioning in an organised and regular manner.
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Sahib’s Nautch Girl: Colonial Archaeology and the Identity Formation of A Bronze Girl Statue From Mohenjodaro
(University of North Bengal, 2019-03) Kumar, Ashish
The paper studies the process of identity formation of the Harappanartifacts (mainly, bronze girl statue from Mohenjodaro) under the colonial archaeologists. John Marshall and his fellow archaeologists popularized the term nautch girl or dancing girl for the bronze girl statue by connecting it to the public dancer-prostitutes and devadasis. They attributed this statue the identity of a dark-skin aboriginal (negro) girl of kulli or baluchi ethnicity. The nude body of the bronze girl statue captured the imagination of the colonial archaeologists, who applied the theories of racial differences, inverted growth in Indian art, and the feminine Hinduism for the study of the Harappanartifacts including terracotta female figurines, male stone images and the bronze girl statue. The paper argues that the bronze girl statue was culturally reconstructed in the writings of the European scholars, who also showed the possibilities of using the later date Sanskrit Hindu literature for the study of the Harappan civilization.
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Negotiated Physical Spaces and the Economic Landscapes in Early Colonial Bengal (C.1757-C.1857)
(University of North Bengal, 2019-03) Roy, Varun Kumar
Bernier has vividly described the wealth of Bengal about a century before British conquest. According to him, Bengal mass-produced rice in such profusion that it not only supplied its neighbors but many remote places. Bengal’s excess rice was transported by sea to Masulipatam and the ports on the Coast of Coromandel, Maldives, and Ceylon. Its sugar was exported to Golkonda, Arabia, Mesopotamia, and Persia. Of commodities of value, silk and cotton cloth exported as far as Lahore and Kabul but also for all the neighboring kingdoms and Europe.2Verelst ascribed the prosperity of Bengal before Plassey to the “cheapness and quality and the huge traffic of the products manufactured. Besides the huge investments of the many European nations, the Bengal raw silk, cloth, etc., to a vast amount was dispersed to the West and North inland as far as Gujarat, Lahore, and even Ispahan.” 3 This research article tries to address how Bengal which was once very developed in trade and commerce was total ruined.economic degeneration of Bengal began since the days of Alivardi (if not earlier, from MurshidQuli’s time) to hold that the oppression of the company’s servants and gomastas were alone responsible for the decline of Bengal manufacturers and industries and that this began closely after Plassey, is to see from only one side of a coin.