Popular Religion, Elites and Reform: Hook-Swinging and Its Prohibition in Colonial India, 1800-1894

Contents: Preface. Introduction. 1. General features and regional variations. 2. Controlling the spirits: Siva and the Saktis. 3. Patrons and profiteers. 4. Government attempts at suppression. 5. The western-educated elites: changing attitudes towards suppression. Conclusion. Bibliography. I. Select Documents. 1. The Charak Puja and hook-swinging in lower Bengal. 2. A Bengali Scholar’s account of the Charak Puja. 3. A priest of Kali on the evils of reform. 4. Protestant Missionary Memorial in the legislative council against hook-swinging and other forms of torture inflicted during the Charak Puja, 1858. 5. Secretary state’s comments on the Misssionary Memorial. 6. The British Indian association on the Bengal Government’s proposals to prohibit the practice. 7. Hook-Swinging among the Santals: Rajmahal hills, Bihar, 1870. II. Hook-Swinging in Bombay. 1. A Brahman account, December 1844. 2. An English Judge’s reaction to an exhibition in Khandesh district. 3. An Indian official’s comments. III. Hook-Swinging in South India. 1. Extracts from the Rev. J.E. Sharkey’s journal of a visit to the festival at Weyoor, Masulipatam district. 2. Continuance of the practice in Tanjore district. 3. The revival at Sholavandan, Madura district, 21 October 1891: a mission doctor’s account. 4. The Hindu newspaper’s criticism of the Madras Government’s apparent inertia. 5. Vizagapatam pundits on the lack of a scriptural basis for the practice. 6. Enquiry into the death of a hook-swinger at Bheemanaickenpoliem, Trichninopoly district, 1893. Index.