“Culture, Commerce and Empire: Exploring the Coromandel Coast”, the National Seminar held on 8th and 9th February 2017 at Puducherry (1).
Technical session conducted on 08-02-2017 (Wednesday): After lunch, the technical session was started with the paper presentation. The “Abstract volume” and the program list were provided. As per them, there were 28 papers, but, 9 had not turned up. At the end, there were 21 papers were presented and thus, it is evident that two were accommodated, but listed earlier.
Section | Theme | Chaired by[1] (as per the program) | Actually chaired by |
I | Culture and commerce in Colonial India | B. B. Mohanty | Venkata Ragotham |
II | Renaissance and the Making of Modern India | K. Srinivas | Do |
III | Pre-Colonial, Colonial and Post colonial India | D. Subramanyam Reddy | G. J. Sudhakar |
IV | Science, Technology and Empire Building | Deepak Kumar | Deepak Kumar |
V | Colonialism and its Multifarious Impact | Shri Krishan | Shri Krishan |
VI | Emergence of New cultural practices, public spaces and architecture | G. J. Sudhakar | Venugopala Reddy |
Audience view on 08-02-2017
The first paper “The Indigenous merchants and the English East India Company on the Coromandel Coast in the Seventeenth century” was presented by S. Babu[2]. Under Session – I chaired by G. J. Sudhakar. He argued that the commodification of convicts’ labour through enforced work on various public works and the indoor labour within the prisons went beyond the colonial concerns of punishment, reform and disciplining of the delinquents to constitute a captive body of enforced labourers available at beck and call of the colonial state.
Then, G. J. Sudhakar[3] presented, “Socio-political views of Vivekananda and an overview of the work of the Ramakrishna Mission”. He explained how Swami Vivekananda with his Vedantic universalism treated all equal and tried to achieve such goal thriugh the establishment of Si Ramakrishna Mission rendering services to all.
Next paper, “Fishing and fisher folks on the Coromandel Coast (fromcolonial period to present): A social history” was presented by Shri Krishan[4].
Vineeth Thomas[5] presented a paper on the position of Dalits in the pre-colonial period. He was rather confused about the semantics of SC, “dalit” and other expressions.
Raman P. Sinha[6] presented his paper on “The Making of a culture in Pre-colonial India: A case study of Dakkani”. He pointed out as to how Dakkani (Proroto-khari- boli Hindi-Urudu) literary corpus was created in large numbers during the 14th to 18th centuries in the Deccan India.
Sudharshan Kumar[7] presented a paper on “Maritime networks of Kollam in the Pre-Colonial period”, pointed out the role of maritime relations of Kollam in the pre-colonial period based on inscriptions.
The last paper “From Cholas ocean to Lake to “Bay of Bengal”: The Chnge in the Colonial Cartography, Historiograhy and Maritime Ethics” was presented by K. V. Ramakrishna Rao[8], where he explained with maps as to how the name of “Bay of Bengal” came from earlier expressions of golfo di bangala, sinus ganteticus, Ganga-darya, Mahadadhi, Cholas’ lake, Cholas’ ocean. Thus, the concept of “Coromandel” was changed to attain the present cnntation. There were querries, clarification and lively discussion about the papers presented.
The “Historia” – T-shirt and the Students: “Historia”, the Greek word was borrowed into Classical Latin as historia, meaning ‘investigation, inquiry, research, account, description, written account of past events, writing of history, historical narrative, recorded knowledge of past events, story, narrative’. The colur red has been chosen for the shirt. Red is the color of fire and blood, so it is associated with energy, war, danger, strength, power, determination as well as passion, desire, and love. Red is a very emotionally intense color. It enhances human metabolism, increases respiration rate, and raises blood pressure. In fact, I was asking many students as to how it came, how the T-shirt was designed and so on. A Google search showed some designs. The students of the History department have designed, ordered and worn the T-shirts during the seminar. Incidentally, I too wore a red shirt on the first day. Yes, the students have been young, energetic, with strength, power, determination as well as passion, desire, and love for history and they were seen everywhere like birds and flowers rendering their services.
Technical session conducted on 09-02-2017 (Thursday): The second day proceedings started with the paper presentation as follows:
G. Chandrika | Edward Green Balfur: Surgeon, scholar and environmentalist[9]. |
T. Sandeep | Conception, obsevation and reflection: the cartographic representation of south India under the European colonialism[10]. |
Kale Sanjay | Introduction of Technical Education in Shipbuilding Industries: An Inevitable outcome of Industrial revolution[11]. |
Krisha Kumar Panjaje | Naval warfare in the colonial coast in the eithteenth century. |
Manoj Kumar Sahu | Early colonial intervention in health services in Odisha[12]. |
Sovon Sanyal | Nature of colonialism and anti-colonialalism in India: Studies on the Revolts of 1878 and 1857[13]. |
However, Sanyal’s paper topic was changed to “Reading an Indo-Portuguese novel in the light of the Revolts of 1878 and 1857”.
Bitin Thakur | Colonialisation and its effect on Indegenous culture – Reconsidering the statement of Doodnath Tewarry[14]. |
A. Arul Jothi |
After lunch, the following papers were presented:
N. Chandra | The cultural impact of the French Empire in Puducherry: A postcolonial Reading[15]. |
Nivedita Ejilane | The influx of French culture, Architecture, Cuisine and Recreation in Pondicherry[16]. |
G. Balajee | The New Architecture of colonial Madras[17]. |
G. Balajee’s papar was the last one and the technical session was wound up, getting ready for the valedictory function.
Valedictory Function (4.00 on 6.00 pm): The valedictory function was held in the same auditorium. Dr / Prof / HOD Chandramouli, Rila Mukherjee, Venugopal Reddy, Subramanyam Reddy and Venkata Ragotham were on the dais. The special address was about “Armagaon and Pulicat: The first fortified ports and factories of the Dutch and the English on the Coromandel Coast od India” was delivered by Subramanyam Reddy. He gave many details as to how Alfondo de Souza came with soldiers and tried to loot Tirumala but went away; as the Dutch was dominating at the Pulicat, the British moved from Armagoan to Machlipatnam; how Mallayaa Chetti was dominating; how varities of textiles were manufactured for export; and finally pointed out that both ports were now disappeared and become neglected villages / spots.
Audience during the valedictory – from LHS
“Envisioning the Maritime silk Roads” – Rila Mukherjee: The valedictory address, “Envisioning the Maritime silk Roads” was delivered by Rila Mukherjee. She emphasized that research should be oriented towards “interpretation with critical thinking useful to the present reality with active engagement with the present”. She went on explaining as to how Silver had connected the world. It created the Eurasian silver century long before the First Global Age between 1400 and 1800.
Even earlier, when Arab and Persian traders traded across the Indian Ocean from the seventh-eighth centuries, silver coins had been the trade currency of the Indian Ocean, while usage of copper cash was the norm in Southeast Asia. China, lacking adequate sup-plies of both, repeatedly tried to break into the Indian Ocean trade by way of its paper currency, but was not successful;
silver remaining the currency of long distance Indian Ocean trade until the nineteenth century. A ‘lesser’ currency—the kauri shell or cypria moneta—bridged the gap between silver and local currencies all along the Indian Ocean littoral. One of the more intriguing aspects of the monetary history of early medieval Bengal is the almost total disappearance of silver coming in from Bagan (a medieval kingdom in present Myanmar) from the 9th century by the traditional land routes into Bengal. China chronically required metals during the 7th to 10th centuries and getting from India.
How India was important in the maritime trader – Venkata Ragotham: The presidential address was delivered by Venkata Ragotham and he gave many important points to ponder over. He pointed out that till 19th century, India was exporting goods, but now exports people. He gave specific examples to prove as how India was dominating in the export of steel, sugar, salpetre etc. With the story of Walters Scott, he brought out the uniqueness of Indian steel, “Wootz”.
He asked why should India now import steel fro m China and Korea. With the establishment of sugar mills at Jamaica, the importance of Indian sugar was reduced by the British. The slave trade was controlled by the Arabs. In India, actually, the rulers prevented export of men as slaves. He pointed out that the Raja of Thanjavur intervened the export of slaves through Karaikal. He showed how the “House of Commons” became rich citing the scandal of Warren Hastings. The sugar profits were used to buy tea and coffee that enriched China. Thus, Opium exported from India to balance the trade of tea. Therefore, the research should be oriented to facts, instead wasting time of hypothetical “nation-state” debates, he emphasized. The function was ended with vote of thanks and National Anthem.
K. V. Ramakrishna Rao
11-02-2017
[1] All are Dr / Prof / HOD and therefore for brevity, they are not repeated here in the list.
[2] Abstract Volume, p.2.
[3] Abstract Volume, p.11.
[4] Abstract Volume, pp.17-18.
[5] His paper was nether listed nor included in the abstract volume.
[6] Abstract Volume, p.15.
[7] Abstract Volume, p.16-17.
[8] Abstract Volume, p.17.
[9] Abstract Volume, p.21.
[10] Abstract Volume, p.24.
[11] Abstract Volume, p.23.
[12] Abstract Volume, p.25.
[13] Abstract Volume, p.31.
[14] Abstract Volume, p.33.
[15] Abstract Volume, p.35.
[16] Abstract Volume, p.37.
[17] Abstract Volume, p.38.
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