Gandhi's Spinning Wheel & Barefoot Husain

Gandhi’s use of the spinning wheel was one of the most significant unifying elements of the nationalist movement in India. Spinning was seen as an economic and political activity that could bring together the diverse population of South Asia, and allow the formerly elite nationalist movement to connect to the broader Indian population.

This book looks at the politics of spinning both as a visual symbol and as a symbolic practice. It traces the genealogy of spinning from its early colonial manifestations in Company painting to its appropriation by the anti-colonial movement. This complex of visual imagery and performative ritual had the potential to overcome labour, gender, and religious divisions and thereby produce an accessible and effective symbol for the Gandhian anti-colonial movement. By thoroughly examining all aspects of this symbol’s deployment, this book unpacks the politics of the spinning wheel and provides a model for the analysis of political symbols elsewhere. It also probes the successes of India’s particular anti-colonial movement, making an invaluable contribution to studies in social and cultural history, as well as South Asian Studies. About the Author

Rebecca M. Brown is visiting Associate Professor in Political Science and the History of Art at Johns Hopkins University, US, researching colonial and post-independence in South Asia. Her publications include Art for a Modern India, 1947–1980 (2009) and Asian Art (co-edited with Deborah S. Hutton, 2006).

Religious Cultures in Early Modern India: New Perspectives (South Asian History and Culture) by Rosalind O'Hanlon and David Washbrook (Jun 26, 2011)

Gender and Neoliberalism in India: The All India Democratic Womens Association and Globalization Politics (Routledge Research in Gender and Society) by Elisabeth Armstrong (Mar 15, 2011)

The Postcolonial Secular Imagination (Routledge Research in Postcolonial Literatures) by Manav Ratti (May 1, 2011)

A History of State and Religion in India (Routledge Studies in South Asian History)by Ian Copland, Ian Mabbett, Asim Roy, and Adam Bowles (May 2011)

Terrorism and Insurgency in Indian-english Literature: Writing Violence and Empire by Alex Tickell (May 2011)

Global Bollywood: Culture, Diaspora and Border Crossings in Popular Hindi Cinema (Global Institutions) by Rajinder Kumar Dudrah (Feb 1, 2011)

Democratic Culture: Historical and Philosophical Essays (Critical Interventions in Theory and Praxis) by Akeel Bilgrami (Jan 25, 2011)

Insurgent Sepoys: Europe Views the Revolt of 1857 by Shaswati Mazumdar (Jan 25, 2011)

Communalism and Globalization in South Asia and its Diaspora (Intersections: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories) by Deana Heath and Chandana Mathur (Jan 17, 2011)

Becoming a Borderland: Space and Identity in Colonial Northeastern India (Transition in Northeastern India) by Sanghamitra Misra (Jan 11, 2011)

Traversing Tradition: Celebrating Dance in India (Celebrating Dance in Asia and the Pacific) by Urmimala Sarkar Munsi and Stephanie Burridge (Jan 11, 2011)

Wronging Rights?: Philosophical Challenges for Human Rights (Ethics, Human Rights and Global Political Thought) by Aakash Singh Rathore and Alex Cistelecan (Jan 11, 2011)

Militant and Migrant: The Politics and Social History of Punjab by Radhika Chopra(Dec 26, 2010)

Western Sociologists on Indian Society: Marx, Spencer, Weber, Durkheim, Pareto (Routledge Revivals) by G. R. Madan (Dec 15, 2010)

Bengali Cinema: 'An Other Nation' (Routledge Contemporary South Asia Series) bySharmistha Gooptu (Nov 27, 2010)

Modern South Asia: A Sourcebook and Reader - Modern South Asia: History, Culture, Political Economy by Sugata Bose and Ayesha Jalal (Nov 26, 2010)

History and the Making of a Modern Hindu Self by Aparna Devare (Nov 25, 2010)

The Indian Postcolonial: A Critical Reader by Elleke Boehmer and Rosinka Chaudhuri(Nov 22, 2010)

Gandhi's Spinning Wheel and the Making of India (Routledge Studies in South Asian History) by Rebecca M. Brown (Sep 22, 2010)

Barefoot across the Nation: M F Husain and the Idea of India (Visual and Media Histories) by Sumathi Ramaswamy (Oct 26, 2010)

This book is the first inter-disciplinary engagement with the work of Maqbool Fida Husain, arguably India’s most iconic contemporary artist today, whose life and work are intimately entangled with the career of independent India as a democratic, secular and multi-ethnic nation. For more than half a century, and across thousands of canvases, Husain has painted individuals and objects, events and incidents that offer an astonishing visual chronicle of India through the ages.

The 13 articles in this volume – written by distinguished artists, curators, anthropologists, historians, art historians and critics, sociologists and scholars of post-colonial literature and religion – critically examine the artistic statement that Husain has presented on the self, community and nation through his oeuvre. It engages with the controversies that have erupted around and about Husain’s work, and situates them in debates around the freedom of the artist versus the sentiments of the community, between ‘virtue’ and ‘obscenity’, between an ‘elite’ of intellectuals and the ‘common man’, and between a ‘work of art’ and a ‘religious icon’. Correspondingly it considers how India has responded to Husain: with affection, admiration and adulation on the one hand, and hostility and rejection on the other.

This book is more relevant than ever before in light of the debates that have arisen over Husain’s self-imposed exile for the last few years following a spate of violent attacks on his home and exhibitions in India, and his recent decision to forfeit his Indian citizenship.

It will be of interest to those studying art history, sociology, anthropology, cultural studies, and politics, as well as to a wide spectrum of readers interested in contemporary issues of identity and nationhood. About the Author: Sumathi Ramaswamy is Professor of History at Duke University. 

Religion, Community and Development: Changing Contours of Politics and Policy in India (Religion and Citizenship) Gurpreet Mahajan, ... (Jul 22, 2010)

Power and Influence in India: Bosses, Lords and Captains (Exploring the Political in South Asia) by Pamela Price and Arild Engelsen Ruud (Oct 26, 2010)

Gender and Radical Politics in India: Magic Moments of Naxalbari (1967-1975) (Routledge Studies in South Asian History) by Mallarika Sinha Roy (Oct 13, 2010)

Sovereignty and Social Reform in India: British Colonialism and the Campaign against Sati, 1830-1860 (Routledge/Edinburgh South Asian Studies Series) byAndrea Major (Dec 13, 2010)

Civility and Empire: Literature and Culture in British India, 1821-1921 (Routledge Research in Postcolonial Literatures) by Anindyo Roy (Dec 23, 2004)

Nation, Diaspora, Trans-nation: Reflections from India by R. K. Jain (Nov 25, 2010)

From Oppression to Assertion: Women and Panchayats in India by Nirmala Buch(Sep 25, 2010)

Passionate Modernity: Sexuality, Class, and Consumption in India by Sanjay Srivastava (Apr 17, 2007)

Gender and Sexuality in India: Selling Sex in Chennai (Routledge/Edinburgh South Asian Studies Series) by Salla Sariola (Dec 15, 2009)

The History of Vegetarianism and Cow-Veneration in India (Routledge Advances in Jaina Studies) by Ludwig Alsdorf, Translated by Bal Patil, and Willem Bollee (Mar 22, 2010)

Rethinking Religion in India: The Colonial Construction of Hinduism (Routledge South Asian Religion Series) by Esther Bloch, Marianne Keppens, and Rajaram Hegde(Feb 8, 2010)

Churchill, Roosevelt and India: Propaganda During World War II (Routledge Studies in Modern History) by Auriol Weigold (Jun 18, 2008)

Literary Radicalism in India: Gender, Nation and the Transition to Independence (Routledge Research in Postcolonial Literatures) by Priyamvada Gopal (Jul 12, 2005)

Romantic Representations of British India (Routledge Studies in Romanticism) by Michael J. Franklin (Oct 31, 2006)

English Writing and India, 16001920: Colonizing Aesthetics (Routledge Research in Postcolonial Literatures) by Pramod K. Nayar (Oct 30, 2007)

Women, Identity and India's Call Centre Industry (Routledge Research on Gender in Asia Series) by JK Tina Basi (Jun 18, 2009)

Historiography and Writing Postcolonial India (Routledge Studies in South Asian History) by Naheem Jabbar (Aug 10, 2009)

Globalization and Religious Nationalism in India: The Search for Ontological Security (Routledge Advances in International Relations and Global Politics) byCatarina Kinnvall (May 14, 2009)

The Construction of History and Nationalism in India: Textbooks, Controversies and Politics (Routledge Advances in South Asian Studies) by Sylvie Guichard (Jul 30, 2010)

Nationalism and Post-Colonial Identity: Culture and Ideology in India and Egypt (Routledge Advances in Middle East and Islamic Studies) by Anshuman A. Mondal(Oct 20, 2003)

Party System Change in South India: Political Entrepreneurs, Patterns and Processes (Routledge Advances in South Asian Studies) by Andrew Wyatt (Jan 28, 2010)

In So Many Words: Womens Life Experiences from Western and Eastern India by Aparna Basu (Apr 29, 2008)

Maoism in India: Reincarnation of Ultra-Left Wing Extremism in the Twenty-First Century (Routledge Contemporary South Asia Series) by Bidyut Chakrabarty and Rajat Kumar Kujur (Nov 30, 2008)

Performers and Their Arts: Folk, Popular and Classical Genres in a Changing Indiaby Simon Charsley and Laxmi N. Kadekar (Jun 18, 2007)

Settlers, Saints and Sovereigns: An Ethnography of State Formation in Western India by Farhana Ibrahim (Jun 2, 2009)

Dance Matters: Performing India on Local and Global Stages by Pallabi Chakravorty and Nilanjana Gupta (Feb 3, 2010)

Retro-modern India: Forging the Low-caste Self (Exploring the Political in South Asia) by Manuela Ciotti (Apr 14, 2010)

Chaste Wives and Prostitute Sisters: Patriarchy and Prostitution among the Bedias of India by Anuja Agrawal (Oct 1, 2007)

Indias Middle Class: New Forms of Urban Leisure, Consumption and Prosperity (Cities and the Urban Imperative) by Christiane Brosius (Apr 14, 2010)

Religion and Commodification: 'Merchandizing' Diasporic Hinduism (Routledge Research in Religion, Media and Culture) by Vineeta Sinha (Sep 30, 2010)

Satyagraha: The Gandhian Faith in Non-Violence (Routledge South Asian Religion Series) by Jesse Van Der Valk (Jul 1, 2004)

Spirals of Contention: Why India was Partitioned in 1947 by Satish Saberwal (Feb 28, 2009)

Motherhood in India: Glorification without Empowerment? by Maithreyi Krishnaraj(Nov 3, 2009)

Of the five major sociologists whose views on Indian society are assessed in this work, originally published in 1979, Marx and Weber made a special study of the subject and had something definite to say about the future of Indian society. Herbert Spencer was primarily concerned with the effects of colonial rule on India's progress, while Durkheim and Pareto tended to observe Indian society from a comparative point of view. However, as this study shows, all five sociologists touched on two special aspects of Indian society -- Indian religion and the caste system. The other features of Indian society which they discussed in their various writings range widely from marriage and family structure, through village communities and the social structure of cities, to political organization, the educational system, economic conditions, and the future progress of Indian society. Dr Madan demonstrates the correctness of Marx's contention that the political subordination of India was the one great hindrance to the future progress of Indian Society. He points out, though, that Marx failed to see clearly the effects of the caste system on economic development, and shows that this aspect was more correctly assessed by Max Weber. On the other hand, in Dr Madan's view, Weber's observation that Indian religion was 'other-worldly' and therefore a great obstacle to progress in Indian society lacked incisiveness. By focusing on a neglected aspect of the writings of five of the great figures in sociology, the book gives a new insight into their work, and at the same time highlights many hitherto unrecognized facets of India's complex social structure.