Browsing by Subject "Princely states"

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Animal kingdoms : princely power, the environment, and the hunt in colonial India
(2009-12) Hughes, Julie Elaine; Minault, Gail, 1939-; Talbot, Cynthia; Davis, Janet; Hyder, Syed Akbar; Louis, William Roger; Charlesworth, Michael
Shaped in part by diverse landscapes, game profiles, and ruling personalities, hunting in the Indian princely states in the colonial period was heterogeneous to a previously unrecognized extent. At the same time, significant underlying political, social, and cultural continuities unified states and their rulers’ approaches to sport. Focusing on the Rajput realms of Mewar, Orchha, and Bikaner, I show how princes of different ranks negotiated their states’ divergent landscapes in pursuit of dissimilar game, and how they trusted in superior hunting grounds, wildlife, and shooting methods to advance their personal standings and sovereign powers. I also investigate how these rulers used hunting to maintain connections with their state and lineage histories, to exemplify local Rajput ideals and identities, and to manage relationships with various audiences, including their subjects, state nobles, other princes, and British officials. This study is concerned as much with princely perceptions of game and shooting grounds as with “real” landscapes or environmental changes. I examine how the princes conceptually linked natural abundance with favorable political conditions and degradation with lost power and compromised dignity. I consider what it meant to pursue tigers, wildfowl, antelope, and wild boar in dense jungles, wetlands, arid plains, and imposing hills. In addition, I look at the ways princes attempted to employ and also to modify those meanings to suit their own purposes. I did the research for this dissertation at government and private archives in India and the United Kingdom. Because my primary goal was to discover princely views, I relied as far as possible on sources produced by elite Indians or by those in their service. Among the materials I used were state government records, personal correspondence, speeches, game diaries, hunting memoirs, photographs, and miniature paintings. Much of the documentation was in English, with the major exception of records relating to Mewar State and its subordinate noble estates. The language of those papers ranged from Hindi through Rajasthani (Mewari). To understand British responses better, I consulted Government of India records. Published memoirs and travelogues written by Europeans who visited and hunted in the regions under consideration also proved useful.
Princes, diwans and merchants : education and reform in colonial India
(2012-05) Bhalodia-Dhanani, Aarti; Minault, Gail, 1939-
Scholarship on education and social reform has studied how communities with a history of literacy and employment in pre-colonial state administrations adjusted to the new socio-political order brought about by the British Empire in India. My work shifts the attention to the Indian aristocracy and mercantile communities and examines why they promoted modern education. I argue that rulers of Indian states adapted to the colonial environment quite effectively. Instead of a break from the past, traditional ideas of rajadharma (duties of a king) evolved and made room for reformist social and economic policies. This dissertation examines why many Indian princes (kings and queens) adopted liberal policies in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. I argue that English-educated rulers of Indian states became reformers and modernizers to enhance their monarchical authority. The main audience for princes was their own state population, neighboring princes, imperial officials, and Indian journalists and politicians. I have carried out research at government archives and public and private libraries in India and the United Kingdom. Sources used include official records and correspondence, annual administrative reports, newspaper accounts, social reform journals, and weeklies and monthlies dedicated to educational topics. I have also consulted memoirs and biographies of kings, queens, diwans (prime ministers) and merchants. My source material is in English and Gujarati. I draw evidence from princely states across India with a focus on Hindu Rajput and Pathan Muslim states in the Gujarat (specifically Saurashtra) region of western India, neighboring the former Bombay Presidency. Due to Gujarat's strong mercantilist tradition, commercial groups played an influential role in society. I examine how and why merchants in princely states supported their ruler's educational policies. I also discuss how mercantile philanthropy crossed political and religious boundaries with the Gujarati (Hindu, Muslim and Jain) diaspora across India, Africa and Burma supporting educational institutions in Gujarat. My dissertation examines the interactions between the English-educated upper caste Hindus, the Anglicized Rajput rulers and the Gujarati merchants to understand how they all contributed to the shaping of modern Gujarati society.