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Biswamoy Pati's fascinating book examines dimensions of the social history of tribals and dalit outcastes in Orissa. It studies the impact of colonial agrarian settlements, adivasi strategies of resistance; indigenous systems of health, the colonial 'medical gaze'; fluidities of caste formations, appropriation by princely rulers of adivasi deities and healing methods; rituals of legitimacy adopted by these rulers; the development of colonial capitalism, as well as the role of marginalized groups in the national movement.
About the author
Biswamoy Pati taught Modern Indian History at the Department of History, University of Delhi. Over the years, he received numerous Honours, awards and Fellowships, the last of them being a Senior Fellowship at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (2015-2017).
He published extensively in terms of books, scholarly journals and edited collections. These include his monographs: Resisting Domination (1993), Situating Social History (2001), Identity, Hegemony, Resistance (2003), and South Asia From the Margins (2012). His edited collections include the landmark Health, Medicine and Empire (2001), besides India's Princely States (2007), The Rebellion of 1857 (2007) and The Great Rebellion of 1857 in India (2012). His latest volumes include Society, Medicine and Politics in Colonial India (2018) and the co-authored volume Health and Medicine in the Indian Princely States (2018). Dr Pati also occasionally wrote a Guest Column for The Telegraph, Bhubaneswar. He
tragically passed away in June 2017.
Summary
This book examines diverse aspects of the social history of the tribals and dalits/outcastes in Orissa. It delineates how the socially excluded sections were further impoverished by both colonial government policies and the chiefs of the despotic princely states who worked in tandem with the colonizers.
In the book, Biswamoy Pati studied several key issues including 'colonial knowledge' systems, the stereotyping of tribals as violent and brutal, and colonial constructions of the 'criminal tribe'. Additionally examined are colonial agrarian settlements, adivasi strategies of resistance, (including uprisings); indigenous systems of health and medicine; the colonial 'medical gaze;' conversion (to Hinduism); fluidities of caste formations in the nineteenth century; the appropriation by princely rulers of adivasi deities and healing methods; the rituals of legitimacy adopted by these rulers; as well as the development of colonial capitalism and urbanization. Also explored are the connections between marginalized groups and the national movement, and the way these inherited problems have remained unresolved after Independence.
Drawing upon archival and rare sources, this important book would interest the general reader, besides students of history, social anthropology, political sociology, cultural studies, dalit studies, social exclusion, and the social history of medicine. It would also attract NGOs and planners of public policy.
