Precolonial and Colonial Punjab : Society, Economy, Politics and Culture

Contents: Preface. I. Precolonial: 1. Reflections on geographical perspectives, culture change and linkages in early Punjab/B.D. Chattopadhyaya. 2. Jatts in medieval Punjab/Irfan Habib. 3. Well-irrigation and socio-economic change in medieval Punjab/Chetan Singh. 4. Economic profile of the Punjab (sixteenth-seventeenth centuries)/Shireen Moosvi. 5. Batala as a medieval town/J.S. Grewal. 6. The state and agrarian society in the early nineteenth century Punjab/Radha Sharma. 7. Sahiban in Punjabi literature/Naresh K. Jain. 8. Punjabi heroic poetry/Daljinder Singh Johal. 9. Cultural life under Maharaja Ranjit Singh with emphasis on the French influence/Jean-Marie Lafont. II. Colonial: 10. Administrative space in the British Punjab/Surya Kant. 11. Epidemics in the colonial Punjab/Sasha. 12. Customary law and women in the colonial Punjab/Harish C. Sharma. 13. The women of Amritsar through missionary eyes/John C.B. Webster. 14. The peasants\' response to colonial environment in the Punjab/Sukhwant Singh. 15. Agricultural labourers in the Punjab (late nineteenth century)/Himadri Banerjee. 16. Bhagyawati: the first Hindi novel of the Punjab/Sheena Pall. 17. Pioneer Punjabi migrants to North America: \'revolutionaries of will\'/Harish K. Puri. 18. The Jallianwala Bagh massacre in the context of anti-colonial struggle/K.L. Tuteja. 19. Ad Dharm/Mark Juergensmeyer. 20. A nightmare of two cities: Amritsar and Lahore in 1947/Sukhdev Singh Sohal. 21. Colonialism and Punjabi literature/Tejwant Singh Gill. Glossary. Bibliography. Index.

"Beginning with geographical and cultural perspectives on the early Punjab, and the migration and settlement of Jatts by the seventeenth century, essays in the first part of this volume dwell on different aspects of socio-economic and cultural life in north-western India in the precolonial times. They focus on agrarian society, modes of irrigation, trade and urbanization, Sahiban in Punjabi literature, Punjabi heroic poetry, and cultural life in the time of Maharaja Ranjit Singh.

Twelve essays in the second part bring out multi-faceted change under colonial rule, with their focus on organization of administrative space, epidemics, customary law and Christian missionary activities in relation to women; response of peasants, agricultural labourers, conservative Hindus and Dalits to the colonial environment; politicization of Punjabi migrants in North America; convergence of communitarian and nationalist concerns before the Jallianwala Bagh massacre; escalation of communal violence in Lahore and Amritsar in the context of events leading to partition; and the attitudes of Punjabi writers towards colonial rule.

This volume breaks fresh ground in regional history and raises some significant issues of historical methodology and interdisciplinary approach." (jacket)