Abstract
This is perhaps the only work in recent years which looks at the Great Indian Desert as a space of social, cultural and economic happenings. Otherwise, scholarly works on Rajasthan have confined to the production centres of economic importance, agricultural economy, court culture and political alliances. The work covers the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The research is an appreciable attempt for the fact that immense amount of effort has been put in to bring out this work which highlights the varied happenings of the great desert. It is a pioneer work wherein Thar region has been seen in a new light by breaking away from traditional methods where it was nothing beyond a centre of economic exchange and passage to connect major trading centres. The geographical landscapes of the Thar, the river basin around it and the shifts of local populace and visitors have never been paid attention. Effort has been made to collect and incorporate the details of pastures, crops and rainfall which help the reader to develop a fair understanding about the ecological set-up of the arid terrain.
The narration of the Thari cultural practices, terms and rituals (p. 43) keeps the reader curious and engrossed in the text. The research is based on Rajput states of Jodhpur, Jaisalmer and Bikaner. Often, the author brings in Ajmer. Looking at the connectivity of these states, the Thar has been seen as a region of mobility oscillating between gaining and losing significance. The comparison of the Thar region with the Gangetic plains is interesting wherein both the areas were under strict surveillance and significant for economic contributions; the former was a dense network of trade routes, passages and pastures and the latter was agriculturally dominant and profitable (p. 82). The initial chapters are a contribution to the process of ‘Rajputization of Communities’ and formation of the Rajput states in the Thar region. The canvas of Rajputhood is solely based on the work of Mahto Nansi, a major source for the Rajput states of seventeenth century. Nonetheless, it keeps the source base of work narrow and confined. The significance of the martial and marital acts, which were politically motivated, has been highlighted by various scholars. In this regard, the author is largely following the seminal work of Norman P. Ziegler (p. 98). The progeny of the high caste Rajputs from the low caste women were daroga, gola and sipahi who have been always ignored by scholars. This work casts these groups who altogether form a separate caste (p. 102) outside the larger Rajput entity. The work of R.P. Rana documents well the Bhomia unrest around Jaipur which was a major cause for thwarting the traders and trade activities. The book under review brings out the similar act of thikanedars in and around Jodhpur and Bikaner states (p. 108) in the eighteenth century. It helps the readers to draw an idea that during the eighteenth century, the entire region was facing the menace and disturbance of the thikanedars and the trade activities were constantly declining.
The work is a breakthrough for understanding the post-Mughal conspiracy of the British officials who wanted to pose the ‘patrimonial and feudal rule’ of Rajputs as a better substitute against the ‘despotic’ Mughals and ‘predatory’ Marathas (p. 118). Similarly, for Tod the Maratha court was nomadic in essence and lawless in governance and it created a base to place the Rajputs as the noble warriors and to form the valorous Rajput polity of the nineteenth century. The polity was governed by an aim that is of putting the nomadic groups of Thar into a sedentary lifestyle (p. 119). The political romanticisation of Rajputs was successfully done by Col. James Tod through the narrations of Rajput valour, chivalry and pride. It was mainly meant to use the Rajput states as an instrument for controlling the mobile groups of the Thar. The communities of Thar have been classified as travellers, pastoralists and sedentary communities, traders and carriers, menial artisanal groups and bardic and genealogist communities. The movement of travellers was not purposeless. The work is completely silent on the contribution of travellers in Thari society. Under the pastoral category, extensive illustrations about the Raikas (camel breeders) are constructive contributions (p. 126) but the other pastoral communities, such as Gujars, Raths, Ahir, Bishnois, Ghosis and Ghanchis have been treated briefly. The Bishnois fit in the ambit of the Jat community and their role as environmentalists and agriculturists is immense and the work is silent on it. The pastoral and sedentary communities were overlapping due to the caste hierarchy which became a dominant factor only in the nineteenth century. The economic contribution of pastoral communities is visible through their participation in the indigenous cotton, wool and leather industries and the mutual settlement amongst these communities for survival in the harsh weather conditions of the Thar and these industries were indigenous means of survival since ancient times (pp. 142–43). Even today, it continues to be the same. The economic activities around the various fairs (melas) of Thar region make an interesting reading (pp. 136–39).
The narration of the bardic communities in history writing was always limited to the charans and bhats. This research has extended to incorporate the various other communities under the ambit of history recorders and writers, and has credited various musician castes and their popular art forms which constitute a major section of the Thari culture (pp. 155–57). In Bhil and Meena narratives, the author mentions about the Rajput past of both the communities and the reasons of losing their Rajput status (p. 157), as both the communities, Bhils and Meenas, hold highly dignified and respectable status amongst the Rajput houses of Mewar (Udaipur) and Amber (Jaipur) respectively. During the early medieval period, the Rajputs of Mewar and Amber carved out their respective kingdoms in the midst of the settlement areas of these communities in the hills. Clearly, these martial communities were bestowed with the significant right of ‘Rajtilak’ (putting Tikka) on the forehead of king at the time of his coronation. This status was provided to these communities in order to keep them as staunch supporters of the state. Similar rights were enjoyed by the Godara Jats in the kingdom of Bikaner.
The contradiction in the argument is visible when the author is assuming contrary to the information available (p. 167). The Jats were inferior agriculturists when compared to the farmers of Punjab and contrary to it, the British preferred to settle Jats for the agricultural production, who would contribute better when compared to the other communities of the region (p. 167). Whereas the Jats have always been categorised as ‘the agriculturists par excellence’. The mechanism set in by the British to label the various Thari communities as ‘criminal’ has not been discussed. The theory of criminalising the mobile communities seems to have been picked up from the work of Nitin Sinha. Further, certain criminal acts of Banjaras, such as kidnapping, grain theft, disruption of the standing crops and cattle theft have been extended to all the other mobile communities moving in and around Thar (p. 177). Perhaps, all the mobile communities might not be doing similar criminal acts; an exception could be cattle theft due to pastoral nature of economy. A cursory mention here of the mobile community of Banjaras will help us to understand the relative significance of the Banjaras. The Banjaras were committing all these acts even under the Mughals and the state took initiates only to mediate between the sedentary agriculturists and nomadic Banjaras.
The research highlights that introduction of the railways led to the ‘breakdown of local trading networks’ and ‘decline of thriving markets’ (p. 185), which is a widely held view about the introduction of railways. The important trading centres of Rajasthan during medieval times were Bikaner, Nagaur, Ajmer, Churu, Nawalgarh, Setho ka Ramgarh, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Makrana, Jaipur, Pali, Chittor, Patan, Mateshnagar, etc., and all these towns continued to be significant trading centres even under the British Empire. So much to the extent that all these towns were connected by railways and Ajmer was a major administrative centre for British governance in western India. The author further discusses the importance of Ajmer, Naseerabad, Pallee, Jaipur and Sirohi and the efforts of the Rajputana agency to connect these towns for trade and military purposes. This argument brings up the contradiction in the author’s view about the introduction of railways (pp. 186–87). There are scattered errors in the text here and there (e.g., p. 151, 237, 269). The section on the salt production, trade and communities connected with salt trade has been done with great craftsmanship. The significance of the oral narratives and the written histories about the mobile communities and the Rajput kingdoms has been discussed in great detail, respectively. The narratives and the recorded histories of the Thari communities, such as Mirasis, Kanjars, Kalbailiyas, Maniyars, Bhils, Menas, Jats and the Marwari traders, who jointly form a major section of the Thar narratives and history writing activities, have been completely ignored. All these communities employ and maintain exclusive Bhats, Bhopas and Bhands for preserving their family histories and for recording of events and genealogical accounts. Even today, the families of Bhats, Bhands and Bhopas are held in high respect by the patron family and the record keeping is the main occupation of these communities. The family account keepers will record all the happy and sad happenings of the patron family, such as marriages, childbirths and deaths. Even today, in this computer age, the Marwari traders who are away from their native lands to try their luck in business in the far ends of foreign countries and Indian subcontinent do come annually to their ancestral place/hometowns and get the family records up to date. I think the importance of these groups for history writing is immense and deserves due attention which are lost in the midst of the chivalry accounts of the Devnarayanji, Pabuji and Tejaji, who being the cattle protectors, were able to attain the deity-hood. The animal protector deities of the Thar are listed well.
The glossary is not exhaustive and some words have been misrepresented, such as Jod, which actually stands for a water body for harvesting the rainwater and the collected water is used for animal-centric activities, such as drinking and bathing. The extensive grassland is called Joda which means an open stretch of land free of ownership possessions. The wild grass grows in it and it is used as pasture by the surrounding hamlets. The smaller grassland areas without any legal possession are called Jodi. The chappaniya kal which occurred in VS 1856 is dated as 1900 AD and it is wrong calculation, the actual year of famine occurrence should be 1799 AD and if it is 1900 AD the text fails to explain its exact occurrence. Begar means unpaid/free service, not forced labour. The list of contemporary place names and their nineteenth-century spellings is hastily prepared. The names of various places that have been mentioned in text are missing in list. The bibliography is impressive but archival data available in abundance for the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries at Rajasthan State Archives, Bikaner have not been put to adequate utilisation.