From 'Hindolence' to 'Spirinomics': Discourse, practice and the myth of Indian enterprise

South Asia: Journal of South Asia Studies

Volumn 32, Issue 2, 2009, Pages 248-268

  Birtchnell, Thomas ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY   (Australia)

Author keywords

'Hindolence'; Asian values; Confucianism; Hindu ethic; Hinduism; Indian entrepreneurship; Indian leadership; Indian management; Transcendental Meditation; Weber

Indexed keywords

ECONOMIC GROWTH; ENTREPRENEUR; HINDUISM; LEADERSHIP; NATIONALISM;

INDIA;

EID: 75649137633     PISSN: 00856401     EISSN: 14790270     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/00856400903049507     Document Type: Article

References (121)

1. For details on the Mughal dynasty, see J.F. Richards, The Mughal Empire (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996);
2. and Satish Chandra, Medieval India: Mughal Empire Part II (New Delhi: Har-Anand Publications, 2001).
3. Writings such as these, in the absence of print media, catered to a limited readership and served as reminiscence and moral self-reflection - the milieu de memoir of a very select band of the learned and the discerning. They created a lasting conception of history. See Sudipta Sen, 'Imperial Orders of the Past: The Semantics of History and Time in the Medieval Indo-Persianate Culture of North India', in Daud Ali (ed.), Invoking the Past: The Uses of History in South Asia (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1999), pp.231-57.
4. Ziauddin Barani, Tarikh-i Firuzshahi (ed. Sayyid Ahmad Khan) (Calcutta: Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1862), p.245.
5. Isami, Futuh's Salatin II (trans. A.M. Hasan) (Aligarh: Aligarh University Press, 1970), p.245.
6. Gulbadan Begum, Humayun Nama (The History of Humayun) translated with introduction, notes, biographical appendix and reproduced in Persian from the only known MS. in the British Museum by A.S. Beveridge (London: Royal Asiatic Society, 1902).
7. For the importance of the Humayun Nama as a source for the study of the Mughals, see Ruby Lal, 'Rethinking Mughal India: The Challenge of a Princess's Memoir', in Economic and Political Weekly, Vol.38, no.1 (Jan. 2003), pp.53-65;
8. and Ruby Lal, 'Historicizing the Harem: The Challenge of a Princess's Memoir', in Feminist Studies, Vol.30 (2004), pp.590-616.
9. Rekha Misra, Women in Mughal India 1526-1748 A.D. (Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1967).
10. K.S. Lal, The Mughal Harem (New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan, 1988).
11. E.B. Findly, Nur Jahan: Empress of Mughal India (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), p.90.
12. Annemarie Schimmel, The Empire of the Great Mughals: History, Art and Culture (London: Oxford University Press, 2005).
13. It was common practice among the Mughal emperors to make land grants, like the madad-i mash, which were revenue-free lands used for the upkeep of some sections of the population. See Rafat Bilgrami, 'Women Grantees of the Mughal Empire', in Proceedings of Indian History Congress, Vol.48 (1987), pp.261-70. Prasad's study is based on epigraphic records and other documents like Lekkhapadhati compiled between the 8th and 13th centuries.
14. See Pushpa Prasad, 'Women and Land Grants in Early Medieval India', paper given at National Seminar on Women's Access to Land and Other Productive Resources, organised by WSDC and CWDS, New Delhi, 11-13 January 1988.
15. To cite a few: Uma Chakravarti, 'Beyond the Altekarian Paradigm: Towards a New Understanding of Gender Relations in Early India', in Social Scientist, Vol.16, no.183 (Aug. 1988), pp.44-52;
16. Kum Kum Sangari and Sudesh Vaid (eds), Recasting Women: Essays on Colonial History (Delhi: Zubaan, 1989);
17. J. Krishnamurthy (ed.), Women in Colonial India: Essays on Survival, Work and State (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989);
18. Meenakshi Thapan (ed.), Embodiment: Essays on Gender and Identity (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1997);
19. Uma Chakravarti, 'Conceptualising Brahmanical Patriarchy in Early India: Gender, Class, Caste and State', in Economic and Political Weekly, Vol.28, no.14 (April 1993), pp.579-85;
20. Leela Kasturi and Vina Mazumdar (eds), Women in Indian Nationalism (New Delhi: Vikas, 1994);
21. Kum Kum Roy, Emergence of Monarchy in North India, Eighth to Fourth Centuries B.C. (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1994);
22. and Kum Kum Roy (ed.), Women in Early Indian Societies (Shimla: Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, 1999).
23. Kum Kum Roy, 'The King's Household: Structure and Space in the Sastric Tradition', in Kum Kum Sangari and Uma Chakravarti (eds), From Myths to Market: Essays on Gender (Shimla: Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, 1999), pp.18-38.
24. Indrani Chatterjee, Gender, Slavery, and Law in Colonial India (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1999). According to Chatterjee, besides power being articulated through hierarchies of age, wealth, social status, and sexuality, slaves played a tremendous role in politics.
25. Daud Ali, Courtly Culture and Political Life in Early Medieval India (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), esp. pp.51-6.
26. Harbans Mukhiya, The Mughals of India (London: Wiley-Blackwell, 2004);
27. and Ruby Lal, Domesticity and Power in the Mughal World: Historicising the Harem (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005).
28. For an understanding of Rajput anthapura, literally meaning the inner quarters, see Varsh Joshi, Polygamy and Purdah: Women and Society among Rajputs (Jaipur: Rawat Publications, 1995).
29. Katherine Butler Brown, '"If Music be the Food of Love": Masculinity and Eroticism in the Mughal Mehfil', in Francesca Orsini (ed.), Love in South Asia: A Cultural History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), pp.61-83.
30. Abul Fazl, Ain-i Akbari (ed. H. Blochmann) (Calcutta: Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1872), pp.218-19.
31. For the English translation see Abul Fazl, Ain-i Akbari (trans. H. Blochmann, ed. D.C. Phillott) (Delhi: Oriental Books Reprints, 2nd. rev. ed., 1977), p.316.
32. Toby Falk and Mildred Archer, Indian Miniatures in the India Office Library (London: Oxford University Press, 1981) has some paintings which show women involved in each of these games: playing chess, pp.274-5/ pic. 523xxii; playing pachisi, p.274/pic. 523xi and p.277/pic 524xxii; playing chaupar, p.523/pic. xviii; and playing a board game, p.523/pic. vi.
33. N.M. Penzer, The Harem: An Account of the Institution as it Existed in the Palace of the Turkish Sultans, with a History of the Grand Seraglio from its Foundation to the Present Time (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1937), p.14.
34. I have borrowed some ideas about this from Kum Kum Sangari, 'Consent, Agency and the Rhetoric of Incitement', in Economic and Political Weekly, Vol.28, no.18 (May 1993), pp.867-82.
35. Gerda Lerner, The Creation of Patriarchy (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986), p.224.
36. For Raziya Sultana see Peter Jackson, 'Sultan Radiyya Bint Iltutmish', in Gavin Hambly (ed.), Women in the Medieval Islamic World: Power, Patronage and Piety (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998), pp.181-97.
37. Beverly W. Cushman has reviewed ancient Near Eastern and Ottoman documents to reflect upon the political influence of the queen or queen mother in the royal court. The role the 'Great Lady' played in the royal household has been explained through a narrative of women's roles in political successions. See Beverly W. Cushman, 'The Politics of the Royal Harem and the Case of Bat-Sheba', in Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, Vol.30, no.3 (2006), pp.327-43.
38. A.S. Beveridge (trans.), Babur Nama: The Autobiography of Babur (New Delhi: Oriental Books Reprints Corporation, 1970), pp.588, 616. When Jahangir's mother arrived, Jahangir, then known as Salim, went to receive her. A painting shows him paying homage to his mother.
39. See M.S. Randhawa, Indian Miniature Paintings (New Delhi: Roli Books International, 1981), pl. 4.
40. Gulbadan Begum, Humayun Nama (The History of Humayun), pp.12-13.
41. Fazl, Ain-i Akbari (ed. H. Blochmann), pp.39-41, English translation, Fazl, Ain-i Akbari, pp.45-7;
42. and Andrea Butenschon, The Life of a Mogul Princess: Jahanara Begam Daughter of Shah Jahan (London: Routledge, 1931), p.108.
43. That they were trusted is evident when Akbar named a eunuch 'Itimad Khan' ('Trustworthiness'). Fazl, Ain-i Akbari, p.13.
44. See also Nizamuddin Ahmad, Tabqat-i Akbari, Vol.II (trans. B.N. De) (Calcutta: Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1936), p.252;
45. and Inayat Khan, The Shah Jahan Nama (trans. A.R. Fuller and eds. W.E. Begley and Z.A. Desai) (Delhi: Oxford University, Press, 1990), p.450.
46. See Hamid-ud-din Khan Bahadur (comp.), Ahkam-i Alamgiri, translated by J.N. Sarkar as Anecdotes of Aurangzeb (Calcutta: M.C. Sarkar & Sons, 1912), pp.71-2. Niccolao Manucci also refers to the spying on the women.
47. See Niccolao Manucci, Storio do Mogor 1653-1708, Vol.III (Calcutta: Murray, 1907), p.308.
48. Fazl, Ain-i Akbari, pp.278, 574;
49. and Khan, The Shah Jahan Nama, p.572.
50. Fazl, Ain-i Akbari, p.341. Nizamuddin Ahmad states: 'HM Akbar had great affection for her, on account of her assiduous attention and service'.
51. See Ahmad, Tabqat-i Akbari, Vol.II, p.237.
52. See also Brij Narain and S.R. Sharma (eds), A Contemporary Dutch Chronicle of Mughal India (Calcutta: Susil Gupta Ltd., 1957), p.13;
53. and Gulbadan Begum, Humayun Nama (The History of Humayun), pp.58-9.
54. Nawab Shamsuddin Daula Shah Nawaz Khan, Maathir-ul Umara, Vol.I (trans. H. Beveridge) (Patna: Janaki Prakash, 1979), p.770.
55. Abul Fazl, Akbar Nama, Vol.III (trans. H. Beveridge) (Delhi: Ess Ess Publications, 1977), pp.566-7;
56. and Nawab Shamsuddin Daula Shah Nawaz Khan, Maathir-ul Umara, Vol.II (trans. H. Beveridge) (Patna: Janaki Prakash, 1979), p.394.
57. A. Rogers (trans.) and H. Beveridge (ed.), Tuzuk-i Jahangiri, Vol.II (London: Royal Asiatic Society, 1914), pp.287, 289.
58. Khan, The Shah Jahan Nama, pp.318-9.
59. Fazl, Ain-i Akbari, p.345;
60. and Nawaz Khan, Maathir-ul Umara, Vol.I, p.328. In fact Jahangir wrote in his Tuzuk how he dreamt that Akbar had asked him to forgive the fault of Aziz Khan for his sake.
61. See A. Rogers (trans.) and H. Beveridge (ed.), Tuzuk-i Jahangiri, Vol.I (London: Royal Asiatic Society, 1914), p.269.
62. Gulbadan Begum, Humayun Nama (The History of Humayun), pp.195, 242.
63. Mutma'd Khan Bakshi, Iqbalnama-i Jahangiri (Allahabad: Kitab Mahal, 1931), p.60.
64. S.A.I. Tirmizi, Mughal Documents 1526-1627, Vol.I (New Delhi: Manohar, 1989), p.128.
65. For similar orders, see pp.129, 133.
66. S.A.I. Tirmizi, Mughal Documents 1628-1659 (New Delhi: Manohar, 1995), p.44, no.13.
67. Ibid., p.48, no.33; p.68, no.113; and p.97, nos.227 & 228.
68. Tirmizi, Mughal Documents 1526-1627, Vol.I, pp.60, 124.
69. William Foster (ed.), The Journal of John Jourdain 1608-17 (New Delhi: Asian Educational Services, 1992), pp.155-6, 186, 191, 209;
70. and William Foster (ed.), Early Travels in India 1583-1619 (London: Oxford University Press, 1921), p.123.
71. William Foster, English Factories 1583-1619 (London: Clarendon Press, 1985), p.203.
72. William Foster and F.C. Danvers (eds), Letters Received by the East India Company from its Servants in the East, Vol.I (London: Sampson Low, Marston & Company, 1896), pp.186-8.
73. Ibid., p.305.
74. Foster, English Factories 1618-21, p.xv.
75. Bodleien MS Fraser 228 (microfilm), Seminar Library, History Department, Aligarh Muslim University, No.443, ff.1-2.
76. William Foster and F.C. Danvers (eds), Letters Received by the East India Company from its Servants in the East, Vol.VI (London: Sampson Low, Marston & Company, 1896), p.150;
77. and William Foster (ed.), The Embassy of Sir Thomas Roe to India 1615-19 (London: Hakluyt Society, 1926), pp.401-4, 410.
78. William Foster and F.C. Danvers (eds), Letters Received by the East India Company from its Servants in the East, Vol.IV (London: Sampson Low, Marston & Company, 1896), pp.11, 310. Nur Jahan's biographer interprets Nur's business manoeuvres as those of 'a shrewd businesswoman who saw the English as an opportunity for expanding overseas commerce'.
79. See Findly, Nur Jahan: Empress of Mughal India, p.258.
80. Foster, English Factories 1583-1619, Vol.IX, p.11. That the horses were much prized is also attested to in a Dutch report which describes how Shah Abbas, the Persian ruler, had sent some good Persian horses to Jahangir among many other gifts.
81. See Narain and Sharma (eds), A Contemporary Dutch Chronicle, p.43.
82. Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, Blochet. Supp. Pers. 482 (rotograph), Seminar Library, History Department, Aligarh Muslim University, Acc. No. 299, ff.20b-21a, 35b-36a.
83. See also Shireen Moosvi, 'Mughal Shipping at Surat in the First Half of Seventeenth Century', in Proceedings of Indian History Congress, Vol.52 (1991), pp.400-9. Corroborating information is also drawn from Dutch reports of 1645.
84. See Dagh Register Gehouden int Casteel Batavia, Anna 1644-45 ('s-Gravenhage: Nijhoff, 1903), p.231.
85. Foster, English Factories 1583-1619, Vol.IX, p.ix. The factors also attested that they had to 'procure Jahanara's nishan (letter or command issued by a princes or princess) to assist us therein'.
86. See Foster, English Factories 1583-1619, Vol.VIII, pp.219-20; Vol.IX, p.11.
87. Van Gent, Surat, to GG and C, Batavia, 2 June 1656, The Nationaal Archief, The Hague, VOC 1215, f.575 a/b; and Pelgrom, Surat, to GG and C, 24 Feb. 1653, VOC 1201, ff.631-2, p.91.
88. VOC 1070, ff.445-51, Vol.II, also available in W.Ph. Coolhaas, Pieter van den Broecke in Azie, Vol.II ('s-Gravenhage: Nijhoff, 1963), pp.378-92.
89. Rogers (trans.) and Beveridge (ed.), Tuzuk-i Jahangiri, Vol.I, p.380.
90. Francisco Pelsaert, Remonstrantie (Cambridge: Heffner, 1925), pp.4-5.
91. Khan, The Shah Jahan, p.318. It also lists other progeny who received gifts and other allowances.
92. Ruka'at-i Alamgiri (trans. by J.H. Bilimoria as Letters of Aurangzeb) (London: Luzac, 1908), p.77, letter no. LXXVI.
93. Foster, English Factories, Vol.IX, p.xi.
94. Tirmizi, Edicts from the Mughal Harem, p.104 (21 & 27 June 1678).
95. Ibid., p.108 (23 & 28 June, 1680).
96. Niccolao Manucci, Storio do Mogor 1653-1708, Vol.I (Calcutta: Murray, 1907), p.208.
97. Fazl, Ain-i Akbari, p.40.
98. Khan, The Shah Jahan Nama, pp.18-19.
99. Ibid., p.22.
100. Ibid., p.409.
101. Niccolao Manucci, Storio do Mogor 1653-1708, Vol.II (Calcutta: Murray, 1907), p.319.
102. Ruka'at-i Alamgiri, p.31, letter no.XXIV, early 18th century. Natalie Zemon Davis has explained gift giving in 16th-century France as a way of sustaining a patronage relationship.
103. See Natalie Zemon Davis, The Gift in Sixteenth-Century France (Oxford, NY: Oxford University Press, 2000), esp. pp.56-72.
104. C.B. Asher, Architecture of Mughal India (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), p.221.
105. Schimmel, Empire of the Great Mughals, pp.148-9.
106. 'Who earnestly sought after the rewards of the next world': Khan, Shah Jahan Nama, p.206;
107. and Butenschon, Life of a Mogul Princess, p.69. According to Abul Fazl: 'The Jami Masjid [was] built for 5 lacs [a lac equals Rs.100,000] of rupees'. Fazl, Ain-i Akbari, p.75.
108. Asher, Architecture of Mughal India, p.204.
109. Butenschon, Life of a Mogul Princess, p.30. Bernier mentions that the sarai built by her was known as a karuansara (caravan sarai).
110. See Francois Bernier, Travels in the Mogul Empire (trans. Archibald Constable) (Delhi: Low Price Publications, 1994), pp.281-2. Active participation by some nobles and their women is also seen when they tried to imitate royalty.
111. See Mohammad Afzal Khan, 'The Mughal Elite. Their Building Activities and Cultural Values', in S.P. Verma and A.J. Qaisar (eds), Art and Culture in Interpretation (Delhi: Abhinav Publishers, 1996), pp.133-41.
112. Butenschon, Life of a Mogul Princess, p.128.
113. Hamid Sulaiman, Miniatures from Babur Nama (Tashkent: Academy of Science of the Uzbek SSR, 1970), p.48.
114. Gulbadan Begum, Humayun Nama (The History of Humayun), pp.40, 180, n.3 tells of one Bibi Fatima who was the chief armed woman in Humayun's time.
115. See Fazl, Ain-i Akbari (ed. H. Blochmann), p.41;
116. and Fazl, Ain-i Akbari (trans. H. Blochmann and ed. D.C. Phillott), p.47.
117. Gavin Hambly describes the bodyguards in 'Armed Retainers: The Case of Bibi Fatima', in Gavin Hambly (ed.), Women in the Medieval Islamic World (New York: St. Martin's Press) pp.429-67.
118. Butenschon, Life of a Mogul Princess, p.177;
119. and Khan, Shah Jahan Nama, p.554. Various paintings depict the female guards of the emperor, princes or royal women. Randhawa, Indian Miniature Paintings, also shows the female bodyguards of Jahangir's mother (pl. 4).
120. See also Falk and Archer, Indian Miniatures, p.533/ pic.509iii (1653 Mewar); and p.469/pic.364 (1775 Faruukabad). A painting in the same collection shows a female guard on horseback walking behind a palanquin carrying a lady (p.489/pic.374ii [c.1760 Murshidabad]).
121. Manucci, Storio do Mogor 1653-1708, Vol.II, pp.309, 328.