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Papers by Katherine Prior

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004

Prerace 77his dissertation is the result of my own work and includes nothing which is the outcome... more Prerace 77his dissertation is the result of my own work and includes nothing which is the outcome of work done in collaboration. As always with a project of this kind, despite the essentially solitary nature of the work there are lots of people without whose help and friendship my time in Cambridge would have been less productive and certainly less enjoyable. First of all, I must thank Chris Bayly, who has been a delightful supervisor, at all times gentle in Ws criticism and generous with his ideas and time. Also in Cambridge, I have thoroughly enjoyed the companionship and the wit of my friends Seema Alavi and Radhika Sin&. In India, 04viks are due to Professor Gyan Pandey and Dr Muzaffar Alam for their courteous assistance and encouragement. This research was made possible by a scholarship from the Association of Commonwealth Universi6es (UK), for which I am extremely grateful. Staff at the British Council were invariably helpful, but in particular I must mention Alison Edwards for her good-humoured management of my file over am last two or three years. Additional assistance has been forthcoming from the Master and Fellows of St Catharine's College, the Managers of the Smuts Memorial Fund and the Managers of the Pzince Consort and Thirlwall Fund, to all of whom I extend my thanks. My parents, Mel and Joy, have long encouraged me in my somewhat idiosyncratic pursuits and they alone can be aware of how much I owe to their support and affection. To Anthony I offer my th, anks for his friendship and his faith in my abilities, not to mention his generous approach to my chronic indigence. But my longest standing debt, in terms of friendship, encouragement and inspiration, is to Lance Brennan. And, although I fear that this thesis will not have done justice to his high expectations, it is nevertheless dedicated to him. Katherine Prior Cambridge, 1990 Conclusion 259 Bibliography 267 Glossary 278 12 Ksatriya and Brahman men were eligible to perform such sacrifices. I'lle legitimation of pilgrimage opened the doors of a very exclusive club to women, Vaisyas, Sudras, untouchables, people of mixed caste, and all those of restricted means. 15 Hans Bakker, emphasizing that Brahman and Ksatriya men were also to be allowed the rewards of pilgrimage, has read into this the development of a new Brahmanic ideal. Increasing urbanization and sedentarization and the cost and rarity of Vedic sacrifice combined to promote the ascetic ideal of renunciation-'a negative appraisal of the settled life'. 16 Ibis elaborate reasoning finds little support in Diana Eck's work. She has argued that the initial acceptance of tirthayalra in the Mahabharata and the subsequent flowering of texts expounding. its: virtues illustrates the process by which Brahmanic Hinduism tried to tap onto (or to 'encode' in Eck's words) a pre-existing phenomenon of religious travel based on indigenous appreciation of holy sites. 17 Ile myths and deities associated with a certain site may have changed under the influence of an expanding and aggressive religion, but the site itself would have had an autonomous history of ritual and pilgrimage in the local setting at least. 18 15 Kane, History of Dharmasastra, IV, pp. 567-9; Ecký 'India's Tirthas', p. 338. Some texts extend the benefits of pilgrimage and tirthas beyond the human world. Kane translates this passage from the Kurmapurana (c. 300-600AD): 'brahmanas, ksatriyas, vaisyas, sudras, persons of mixed castes, women, mlecchas [non-Hindus, foreigners), and others who are born in evil forms and are of mixed blood, worms, ants, birds and beasts when they die in Avirnukta (Benares) are bom as human beings in Benares and no one guilty of sins dying in Avimukta goes to Hell. ' Kane notes that this passage is quoted in Vacaspati's fifteenth-century Tirthacintamani and Mitra Misra's seventeenth-century Tirthaprakasa. History of Dharmasastra. IV, p. 568. 16 HT Bakker, 'Some notes on the practice of pilgrimage in India. A contribution to the discussion' in Vaisnavism: the history of the Krsna and Rama cults and their contributions to Indian pilgrimage, H. T. Bakker and Alan Entwistle (eds) (Groningen. 1981), pp. 79-81. 17 Eck. 'India's Tirthas'. p. 339. M Ksatriya stock. 47 Not everyone was convinced of Shivaji's high caste status; the Rajputana rajas continued to treat the Bhosales as an inferior clan and enough uncertainty remained to fuel many debates between elite Marathas and Maharashtrian Brahmans about the status of the former. It is this question mark over the Marathas' caste status that seems to have inspired their exw"dinary displays of piety. Before the Bhosales lost control of their state to their Brahman primeministers, the Peshwas, they used every opportunity to prove their worthiness as Hindu kings. The traditions of patronage were continued, indeed heightened, under the Peshwas' rule, but the foundations lay in Shivaji's reign. The rise in the eighteenth century of such families as the Sindhias of Gwalior, descended from peasants, and the Holkars of More, shepherds by caste, shows that even then there was room in the Maratha world for people of humble birth to win kingdoms by combining military skill with conspicuous piety. 48 The pious duty of the Maratha kings is laid out in the Ajitapatra, a document expounding the principles of the Maratha state. It was produced by Ramachandrapant Amatya (c. 1650-c. 1717), a great Maratha administrator who helped Shivaji establish his kingdom and remained at its helm until his death in 1717. It was issued in 1716 by Sambhaji of Kholapur (r. 1712-60). 49 lie Ajnapatra begins with a history of the reigns of Shivaji and Rajaram (r. 1689-1700), stressing that one of Shivaji's greatest achievements was his restoration of dharma and the establishment of ft Gods and the Brahmans in 'their due places'. 50 At a general level of principle the Maratha king is enjoined first and foremost to practise the dharma of his ancestors: 47 Ibid., p. 214; O'Hanlon, Caste, conflict and ideology. pp. 19-21; Shastri, Takshini Pandits at Benares'. p. 12. 49 A comparison with the behaviour of the nascent Rajas of Benares in the mid-cighteenth century is valid. As Thumiliars', BTahmans who had resorted to the pollution of the plough. the Benares Rajas were not ideal royal material, especially as they derived their authority from a series of tenuous links with the Mughal Emperor through the Nawab of Awadh. More suitable candidates for princely status. such as the strong Rajput lineages in the region. also threatened the attempts of the first Raja, Balwant Singh, to assert royal authority. Philip Lutgendorf has argued that the Rajas' enthusiastic patronage of aspects of the bhakti Ramaite tradition 'reflected among other things their need to cultivate an explicitly Hindu symbol of royal legitimacy' which would help them 'achieve ideological as well as political independence from the Nawabs. ' Lutgendorf attributes specifically to the Rajas' patronage of Tulsidas's Ramacaritmanas the awakening of elite interest in this vernacular epic, which already had a large following among people of low social status. Philip Lutgendorf. 'Ram's story in Shiva's city: public arenas and private patronage' in Culture and power in Banaras: community, performance and environment, 1800-1980. Sandria B. Freitag (ed.) (Berkeley, 1989), p 39-43. 4 S. V. Puntambekar (trans. and ed.), 'The Ajnapatra or Royal Edict-Relating to the Principles of Maratha State Policy', Journal of Indian History, V111 (1929), pp. 81-105,207-33. 50 Ibid., P. 88. Puntambekar's translation reads: 'He rescued the Dharma, established Gods and Brahmanas in their due places and maintained the six-fold duties of sacrifice. officiating at sacrifice and others (study and tealing. giving and receiving gifts) according to the division of the (four) varnas (castes).,

Foreword 1 Swaine Adeney Brigg - The Founding Fathers 2 J. Kohler & Son - Hunting, Coaching, and ... more Foreword 1 Swaine Adeney Brigg - The Founding Fathers 2 J. Kohler & Son - Hunting, Coaching, and Signal Horn Manufacturers 3 G. & J. Zair Ltd - The Birmingham Connection 4 Thomas Brigg & Sons - Royal Umbrella-makers 5 Herbert Johnson - Hatters of New Bond Street 6 'Pendragon Perfection - The skilled touch of craftsmen' 7 Looking Ahead Chronology List of Illustrations A Note on Sources Index

South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, 1993

... See in particular Gyanendra Pandey, The Construction of Communalism in Colonial North India (... more ... See in particular Gyanendra Pandey, The Construction of Communalism in Colonial North India (Delhi, 1990), especially chapters 4 and 5. On Indian reactions to the government&amp;#x27;s plague controls see David Arnold, &amp;#x27;Touching the Body: Perspectives on the Indian Plague, 1896 ...

Modern Asian Studies, 1993

In the nineteenth century the towns and cities of the North-Western Provinces witnessed a huge ex... more In the nineteenth century the towns and cities of the North-Western Provinces witnessed a huge expansion in public expressions of Hindu identity: temples mushroomed, new processions graced the streets and the cow attained new prominence as a symbol of Hindu piety. Rarely, if ever, were such activities motivated by anti-Muslim sentiment, but they could provoke ill-will between Hindus and Muslims, especially in the towns where Islamic government, buildings and festivals had previously set the tone for the public life of their inhabitants. The colonial administration was a powerful but ill- informed force, able either to suppress or to protect the new display, and its responses were crucial in determining people's understanding of their rights to public religious expression.For the first half of the nineteenth century the British tried to preserve the balance of religious display in each town and city as they had found it, but this goal required that individual officers piece toget...

Modern Asian Studies, 2001

In 1829, at the height of Lord William Bentinck's regime of reform, a keen young civil servan... more In 1829, at the height of Lord William Bentinck's regime of reform, a keen young civil servant in north India took on one of the last of the Company's nabobs and won. It was a clash of a new style of Haileybury civilian with an old Company servant which remarkably prefigured the personal and philosophical dynamics of the Anglicist-Orientalist education debate a few years later. Sir Edward Colebrooke, Bt, was Resident of Delhi, 67 years old and nearly 50 years in the East India Company's service. His youthful adversary was his own first assistant, Charles Edward Trevelyan, aged 22 and, in Sir Edward's words, ‘a Boy just escaped from school’. In June 1829 Trevelyan charged Colebrooke with corruption, and despite being cut by many of Delhi's European residents, saw the prosecution through to its conclusion some six months later when the Governor-General in Council was pleased to order Colebrooke's suspension from the service, a sentence ultimately confirmed by t...

History Workshop Journal, 2007

The commemorative events for the 200th anniversary of Britain's outlawing of the transatlanti... more The commemorative events for the 200th anniversary of Britain's outlawing of the transatlantic slave trade have been surprisingly numerous and varied. Eighteen months ago few cultural commentators would have predicted that the anniversary would generate such institutional and media interest. Now, at the time of writing in March 2007, the commemoration of the Abolition anniversary seems likely to overwhelm the coverage of all the other anniversaries competing for attention in this remarkable year: the English settlement at Jamestown in 1607, the Anglo-Scottish Union of 1707, Ghana's independence in 1957, the Falklands War in 1982, and a multiplicity of dates for India (the Battle of Plassey in 1757, the Mutiny in 1857, and independence in 1947). As a historian of British imperialism who works as a museum consultant, I take a keen interest in how the anniversaries of major historical events are noticed in museum exhibitions and by the media. I am also interested in how university-based scholars, especially historians, interpret the success of museum exhibitions and how they see their work in relation to museums and similar cultural institutions. In particular, I am concerned about the exchange of information between universities and museums and whether this can be speeded up or facilitated in any way. My observations in this article are informed by my half-dozen years' experience as a historical consultant with the British Empire and Commonwealth Museum in Bristol (BECM) and, more recently, a stint at the Natural History Museum in London. In both of these institutions I have worked on slavery-related projects for 2007, including a year spent on the initial development of BECM's 'Breaking the Chains' exhibition, which opens at the end of April. My comments are personal ones and at the same time general in their scope. They do not relate solely to those institutions and they should not be read as either a critique of them or a statement of their policies and approaches.

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004

South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, 1993

Modern Asian Studies, 1993

Modern Asian Studies, 2001

History Workshop Journal, 2007