'Making Kumaun Modern: Family, custom, beliefs, c. 1870-1930' a talk by Dr. Vasudha Pande at Seminar Room, Library Building, Nehru Memorial Museum & Library (NMML), Teen Murti House, Teen Murti Marg > 3pm on 25th March 2014
Time : 3:00 pm
Entry : Free (Seating on First-Come First-Served basis)
Place : Seminar Room, Library Building, Nehru Memorial Museum & Library (NMML), Teen Murti House, Teen Murti Marg, New Delhi - 110011
Venue Info : Events | About | Map | Nearest Metro Station - 'Race Course(Yellow Line)'
Event Description : The Nehru Memorial Museum and Library cordially invites you to the Weekly Seminar on ‘Making Kumaun Modern: Family, custom, beliefs, c. 1870-1930’ by Dr. Vasudha Pande, NMML.
Abstract : Making Kumaun Modern required the invention of a ‘High’ culture, which was constructed by the new intelligentsia. By the last decades of the nineteenth century the intelligentsia, product of British rule and education, was active in local society, the media and pubic sphere. This emerging section articulated a vision of Kumaun as an integral part of the Imperial System. Its concerns were pan -Indian and it identified closely with the Hindi literary culture of North India. It accepted a segmented society and strove to bring all sections into conformity with what it considered upper caste cultural practices. It inculcated a respect for a ‘high’ culture enshrined in Sanskrit texts and tailored its own lifestyle to prevailing notions of normative behaviour. This was not an easy task, because in Kumaun Brahman norms were not prevalent, inspite of Brahman presence and prescription by governing elites since the fifteenth century. The invention of Brahman/ Kshatriya traditions therefore required an activist agenda-- the publication of genealogies, histories and literary texts in Sanskrit and Kumauni. It also meant the downgrading, even repressing of other historical narratives, particularly, folk traditions and practices. It actively worked to modify the ribald, boisterous celebration of festivals and attacked the practice of inviting patars/nautch girls on religious occasions. It campaigned against drinking alcohol and singing ‘obscene’ songs at fairs and public places. The popular Nathpanthi ascetic/shamanic and bardic traditions were relegated to ‘low’ and their priestly/ascetic orders reduced to lower caste status in the social hierarchy. Local customary practices such as bride price, widow remarriage and levirate were also considered inferior, in contrast to sati vrata, pativrata, fidelity and chastity. The onslaught on the Nayak system of hereditary prostitution was an important aspect of this agenda. With the help of the colonial state, the intelligentsia not only legislated the Nayak system into extinction, but also initiated a process for the reconstitution of the family system. In contesting Christian proselytization the intelligentsia chose to emphasise shastric traditions, and also tried to bring within the Hindu fold disparate but upwardly mobile groups like the Bhotias and the Dalits. Attempts were made to induct the Bhotias of Johar into the caste system as Rajputs after modifications in religious and customary practices. Dalit mobilization and entry in to the Arya Samaj, was also part of a strategy for caste mobility. The Arya Samaj movement generated a priestly class among the Dalits to enable conformity with Hindu practices, but other Dalit groups contested this strategy and interrogated upper caste formulations. The modern intelligentsia acquired visibility because of its position within the imperial state system and also because of education, print, public sphere and mobilization. On the other hand, the ‘colonial state’ administered Kumaun as Regulation District, recognized Kumaun’s historical specificity, advocated customary law and actively promoted non-Brahman groups. How did this process play out and what kind of changes did this bring about? The invention of a ‘high’ tradition proved quite persuasive, but it was contested by sections who were relegated to the other/‘low’ cultures. Subsequent attempts by the nationalists to bring all segments of Kumaun society under the ‘Kurmanchal Samaj’ were therefore highly contested and produced multiple visions of Kumaun.
Speaker : Dr. Vasudha Pande studied and taught English Literature at the University of Allahabad. After a brief stint as a professional in Social Work she joined Modern Indian History at Jawaharlal Nehru University and then went on to do her Ph.D from the University of Delhi. She has been teaching History at Lady Shri Ram College since 1987. She has worked on Kumaun and has written on different aspects of the history of the region, which includes a study of the Colonial Architectural Heritage of Nainital. She has also written on Family and Law in Colonial Kumaun. As part of her work for Sephis, University of Erasmus, Rotterdam she worked on a comparative study of Kumaun and Far Western Nepal. She is currently Fellow, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library researching an Environmental History of Uttarakhand.
Related Events : Talks | History
Entry : Free (Seating on First-Come First-Served basis)
Place : Seminar Room, Library Building, Nehru Memorial Museum & Library (NMML), Teen Murti House, Teen Murti Marg, New Delhi - 110011
Venue Info : Events | About | Map | Nearest Metro Station - 'Race Course(Yellow Line)'
Event Description : The Nehru Memorial Museum and Library cordially invites you to the Weekly Seminar on ‘Making Kumaun Modern: Family, custom, beliefs, c. 1870-1930’ by Dr. Vasudha Pande, NMML.
Abstract : Making Kumaun Modern required the invention of a ‘High’ culture, which was constructed by the new intelligentsia. By the last decades of the nineteenth century the intelligentsia, product of British rule and education, was active in local society, the media and pubic sphere. This emerging section articulated a vision of Kumaun as an integral part of the Imperial System. Its concerns were pan -Indian and it identified closely with the Hindi literary culture of North India. It accepted a segmented society and strove to bring all sections into conformity with what it considered upper caste cultural practices. It inculcated a respect for a ‘high’ culture enshrined in Sanskrit texts and tailored its own lifestyle to prevailing notions of normative behaviour. This was not an easy task, because in Kumaun Brahman norms were not prevalent, inspite of Brahman presence and prescription by governing elites since the fifteenth century. The invention of Brahman/ Kshatriya traditions therefore required an activist agenda-- the publication of genealogies, histories and literary texts in Sanskrit and Kumauni. It also meant the downgrading, even repressing of other historical narratives, particularly, folk traditions and practices. It actively worked to modify the ribald, boisterous celebration of festivals and attacked the practice of inviting patars/nautch girls on religious occasions. It campaigned against drinking alcohol and singing ‘obscene’ songs at fairs and public places. The popular Nathpanthi ascetic/shamanic and bardic traditions were relegated to ‘low’ and their priestly/ascetic orders reduced to lower caste status in the social hierarchy. Local customary practices such as bride price, widow remarriage and levirate were also considered inferior, in contrast to sati vrata, pativrata, fidelity and chastity. The onslaught on the Nayak system of hereditary prostitution was an important aspect of this agenda. With the help of the colonial state, the intelligentsia not only legislated the Nayak system into extinction, but also initiated a process for the reconstitution of the family system. In contesting Christian proselytization the intelligentsia chose to emphasise shastric traditions, and also tried to bring within the Hindu fold disparate but upwardly mobile groups like the Bhotias and the Dalits. Attempts were made to induct the Bhotias of Johar into the caste system as Rajputs after modifications in religious and customary practices. Dalit mobilization and entry in to the Arya Samaj, was also part of a strategy for caste mobility. The Arya Samaj movement generated a priestly class among the Dalits to enable conformity with Hindu practices, but other Dalit groups contested this strategy and interrogated upper caste formulations. The modern intelligentsia acquired visibility because of its position within the imperial state system and also because of education, print, public sphere and mobilization. On the other hand, the ‘colonial state’ administered Kumaun as Regulation District, recognized Kumaun’s historical specificity, advocated customary law and actively promoted non-Brahman groups. How did this process play out and what kind of changes did this bring about? The invention of a ‘high’ tradition proved quite persuasive, but it was contested by sections who were relegated to the other/‘low’ cultures. Subsequent attempts by the nationalists to bring all segments of Kumaun society under the ‘Kurmanchal Samaj’ were therefore highly contested and produced multiple visions of Kumaun.
Speaker : Dr. Vasudha Pande studied and taught English Literature at the University of Allahabad. After a brief stint as a professional in Social Work she joined Modern Indian History at Jawaharlal Nehru University and then went on to do her Ph.D from the University of Delhi. She has been teaching History at Lady Shri Ram College since 1987. She has worked on Kumaun and has written on different aspects of the history of the region, which includes a study of the Colonial Architectural Heritage of Nainital. She has also written on Family and Law in Colonial Kumaun. As part of her work for Sephis, University of Erasmus, Rotterdam she worked on a comparative study of Kumaun and Far Western Nepal. She is currently Fellow, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library researching an Environmental History of Uttarakhand.
'Making Kumaun Modern: Family, custom, beliefs, c. 1870-1930' a talk by Dr. Vasudha Pande at Seminar Room, Library Building, Nehru Memorial Museum & Library (NMML), Teen Murti House, Teen Murti Marg > 3pm on 25th March 2014
!['Making Kumaun Modern: Family, custom, beliefs, c. 1870-1930' a talk by Dr. Vasudha Pande at Seminar Room, Library Building, Nehru Memorial Museum & Library (NMML), Teen Murti House, Teen Murti Marg > 3pm on 25th March 2014]()
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