Kingship and Polity on the Himalayan Borderland. Rajput Identity during the Early Colonial Encounter

Kingship and Polity on the Himalayan Borderland explores the modern transformation of state and society in the Indian Himalaya. Centred on three Rajput led-kingdoms during the transition to British rule (c. 1790-1840) and their interconnected histories, it demonstrates how border making practices engendered a modern reading of 'tradition' that informs communal identities to this day. Countering the common depiction of these states as all-male, caste-exclusive entities, it reveals the strong familial base of Rajput polity, wherein women - and regent queens in particular - played a key role alongside numerous non-Rajput groups. Drawing on rich archival records, rarely examined local histories, and nearly two decades of ethnographic research, it offers an alternative to the popular and scholarly discourses that developed with the rise of colonial knowledge. The analysis exposes the cardinal contribution of borderland spaces to the fabrication of group identities. This book will interest historians and anthropologists of South Asia and of the Himalaya, as well as scholars working on postcolonialism, gender, and historiography.

Arik Moran received his doctorate from the University of Oxford in 2010, and is a member of the Department of Asian Studies at the University of Haifa since 2011. He studies the oral and written histories and ritual cultures of the Indian Western Himalaya.

INTRODUCTION, CHAPTER 1. MEMORIES OF A FEUD: CHINJHIAR, 1795 1.1 THE BILASPUR-KANGRA RIVALRY, C. 1750-1795 1.2 THE BARD'S TALE 1.3 ENTER SIRMAUR 1.4 THE RAJPUTIZATION OF PAHARI KINGSHIP: NARRATIVES OF CHINJHIAR, C. 1900 CHAPTER 2. ALTERITY AND MYTH IN HIMALAYAN HISTORIOGRAPHY: KANGRA, SIRMAUR, AND GORKHA RULE IN THE WEST 2.1 THE RISE OF THE KATOCH LEGEND 2.2 BEYOND THE BILASPUR-KANGRA RIVALRY: SIRMAUR 1795/6-1815 2.3 EXPLAINING THE SILENCE BEHIND GORKHA RULE IN WEST HIMALAYAN HISTORIES CHAPTER 3. SATI AND SOVEREIGNTY IN THEORY AND PRACTISE 3.1 THE MULTIPLE ROLES OF ROYAL WOMEN, C. 1775-1825 3.2 THE GULERI RANI OF SIRMAUR 3.3 RETHINKING SATI AND WOMEN'S AGENCY IN BRITISH INDIA 3.4 EUROPEAN AND PAHARI RAJPUT APPROPRIATIONS OF SATI CHAPTER 4. STATECRAFT AT THE EDGE OF EMPIRE: BILASPUR, 1795-1835 4.1 BEYOND THE RAJPUT FOLD: BRAHMINS, ASCETICS, AND MONASTIC ADVISORS 4.2 THE FINAL THROES OF THE BILASPUR-KANGRA RIVALRY: KOT DHAR, 1819 4.3 KINGSHIP RECALIBRATED: KHARAK CHAND'S BILASPUR, 1824-35 CHAPTER 5. WIDOWED RANIS, SCHEMING RAJAS, AND THE MAKING OF 'RAJPUT TRADITION': BILASPUR'S FORGOTTEN REVOLUTION, 1839-40 5.1 A MARRIAGE OF INTERESTS: THE SIRMAURI RANIS IN BILASPUR 5.2 KINGSHIP AMD ITS PRACTISE: BILASPUR, SIRMAUR, AND THE 'RAJPUT STATE' 5.3 THE RANIS' REVOLUTION: BILASPUR, 1839-40 AFTERWORD: PAHARI RAJPUTS IN THE INDIAN IMAGINATION, BIBLIOGRAPHY, APPENDICES