Synopsis: : Community and Nation Essays on Identity and Politics in Eastern India |
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Papiya Ghosh, an avid researcher of the History of Colonial and modern India, had an endearing presence among her fellow Historians and the Academic community. Bringing together for the first time Essays written over the last three decades, this Book showcases her analytical insights, nuanced understanding, and empirical rigour. Community and Nation is a tribute to the versatility and intensity of a committed historian whose efforts helped put Bihar on the national and international academic map.
This posthumous volume of the author's best-known essays focuses on the history of Bihar from 1920s to independence. The first six chapters delineate aspects of identity, perceptions, and Political articulations of Muslims integrating developments in colonial Bihar. The last four chapters explore complexities associated with those who were forced to leave their homes, such as the exodus of Bihari Muslims to Dacca after the 1946 riots.
The author's work shows the diversities within a stereotypical and homogenized Conception of 'Muslim polities'. By focusing on Bihar and not exclusively on 'high' politics, she weaves together the projection of ideas and visions with the shifts, changes, and interactions that marked the intricate Relationship between 'community' and 'nation' in colonial Bihar.
This book will interest scholars, teachers, and students of modern Indian history, sociology, politics, Third World, and Dalit studies, particularly those interested in community identity and Minority politics.
Papiya Ghosh (1953-2006) was Professor of History, Patna University and held several distinguished fellowships. She was Indian Council of Historical Research Fellow affiliated to Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, Teen Murti, New Delhi; Fellow at Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, Shimla; Rockefeller Fellow at the Institute of South Asian Culture, University of Chicago and Fellow at the Institute of Triangle South Asian Consortium, North Carolina State University. She was also Advisor to Patna-based Asian Development Research Institute and Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Introduction/Biswamoy Pati
1. Colonial 'Muslim' Politics in Bihar
2. Community Questions and Bihar Politics 1917-23
3. The Making of the Congress Muslim Stereotype : Bihar, 1937-9
4. Articulating Community Rights : The Muslim League and Hindu Mahasabha in Congress Bihar, 1937-9
5. Muttahidah Qaumiyat in Aqalliat Bihar : The Imarat-i-Shariah, 1921-47
6. The Virile and the Chaste in Community and Nation Making : Bihar 1920s to 1940s
7. The 1946 riot and the Exodus of Bihari Muslims to Dhaka
8. Partition's Biharis
9. Reinvoking the Pakistan of the 1940s : Bihar's 'Stranded Pakistanis'
10. Partition's South Asians : Diasporic Mediations
'[Her] writing has none of the parochialness associated with regional history but has the depth, immersion, and inwardness which characterise the best of regional historiography.' - Kumkum Sangari, Biblio
'Papiya was not only a sincere, committed, dedicated teacher, but also an intense researcher too and her contributions to academics are many. By her work...she had put Bihar on the national and international academic map.' - Meena Bhargava, The Book Review
'Her work spanned all those within the sub-continent who belonged and yet were marginalized. The displacement of individuals through the actions of individuals or the caprice of history bothered her.' - Jyotirmaya Sharma, Seminar
'Papiya's research spanned a range that is astonishing in a context where most research in the humanities and social sciences has a tendency to be spatially and temporally limited.' - Supriya Roychowdhury, Economic And Political Weekly