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Juliet Got It Wrong: Conversion and the Politics of Naming in Kumaon, ca. 1850–1930

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 December 2015

Sanjay Joshi
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Abstract

Through the historicization of one episode, this essay addresses a variety of questions related to class, caste, gender, religion, and social life as well as cultural attitudes in Kumaon between the mid-nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries. The politics of naming—who among the Christian converts of Almora changed their names and who retained their pre-conversion names—is central to this essay. Behind each name retained or changed was a story. The essay juxtaposes many different stories drawn from a variety of sources—missionary records, nationalist sources, fiction, and families' own archives. Rather than place these stories into the better-known master narratives of colonialism and nationalism or even of religion and conversion, this essay tries to highlight issues that are much more local and contextual yet resonate with concerns of other people and places. Through historicizing the local and the everyday, I argue for not conflating the ordinary and the mundane with the trivial or the unimportant. Touching on themes common to different parts of Asia, this essay highlights local histories of a region often neglected in the history of the subcontinent.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 74 , Issue 4 , November 2015 , pp. 843 - 862
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 2015 

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References

1 Sung by Gohar Karnataki, the song first appeared in the film Miss 1933. See Earthmusic Network, “Search for Bollywood Film Songs in the Movie Miss 1933,” http://www.earthmusic.net/hindi-film-songs.php?movie=Miss+1933 (accessed January 6, 2015). See also IMDb, “Miss 1933,” http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0262623 (accessed January 6, 2015).

2 Chaturvedi, Vinayak, “Vinayak & Me: Hindutva and the Politics of Naming,” Social History 28, no. 2 (2003): 155–73CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 The girls' school was renamed Adams' School after an Indiana-based benefactor who provided funds for the school in 1927. See Nora B. Waugh (possible author), “Almora the Beautiful” General Commission on Archives and History, Geographic Collection, File no. 1461_1_2: 31, Madison, N.J.

4 See, among many others: Partha Chatterjee, The Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1993); Gyanendra Pandey, The Construction of Communalism in Colonial North India (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2006); Sen, Sudipta, “Uncertain Dominance: The Colonial State and Its Contradictions (with Notes on the History of Early British India),” Nepantla: Views from South 3, no. 2 (2002): 391–406Google Scholar; Talbot, Ian, “The Punjab under Colonialism: Order and Transformation in British India,” Journal of Punjab Studies 14, no. 1 (2011): 3–10Google Scholar.

5 Sanjay Joshi, Fractured Modernity: Making of a Middle Class in Colonial North India (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2001); Dilip M. Menon, “Caste and Colonial Modernity,” in The Blindness of Insight: Essays on Caste in Modern India (Pondicherry: Navayana, 2006); Saurabh Dube, Untouchable Pasts: Religion, Identity, and Power among a Central Indian Community, 1780–1950 (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998); Rowena Robinson, Christians of India (New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2003); B. Sahay, Census of India, 1941: United Provinces Tables, Volume V (Delhi: Manager Publications, 1942); Peter van der Veer, ed., Conversion to Modernities: The Globalization of Christianity (New York: Routledge, 1996); Gauri Viswanathan, Outside the Fold: Conversion, Modernity, and Belief (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1998).

6 Ranajit Guha, “Chandra's Death,” in Subaltern Studies V, ed. Ranajit Guha (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1987), 135–65; Ranajit Guha, The Small Voice of History: Collected Essays (Delhi: Permanent Black, 2009); Chakrabarty, Dipesh, “Minority Histories, Subaltern Pasts,” Postcolonial Studies 1, no 1 (1988): 15–29CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 Partha Chatterjee, A Princely Imposter? The Kumar of Bhawal and the Secret History of Indian Nationalism (Delhi: Permanent Black, 2002).

8 A. C. Turner, Census of India, 1931: United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, Volume XVIII, Part II (Allahabad: Superintendent, Printing and Stationery, United Provinces, 1933), 22.

9 Dane Keith Kennedy, The Magic Mountains: Hill Stations and the British Raj (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996).

10 See Edwin T. Atkinson, The Himalayan Gazetteer (Dehradun: Natraj Publishers, [1882] 1996); Badridutt Pande, History of Kumaon, 2 vol. (Almora: Shree Almora Book Depot, 1993). For a different reading, see Maheshwar P. Joshi, “Culture Constructed by Intellectualism and the Intellectualism of Culture: The Case of Central Himalaya,” in Karakorum-Hindukush-Himalaya: Dynamics of Change, Part II, ed. Irmtraud Stellrecht (Koln: Rudiger Koppe, 1998), 527–50.

11 For comparisons, see Joshi, Fractured Modernity, op. cit. note 5, and Sanjay Joshi, ed., The Middle Class in Colonial India (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2010). See also C. J. Fuller and Haripriya Narasimhan, Tamil Brahmans: The Making of a Middle-Class Caste (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2014).

12 The number of Joshis and Pandes cited in this essay's footnotes perhaps testifies to the success of their endeavor!

13 Ira Pande, Diddi: My Mother's Voice (Delhi: Penguin India, 2005), 6.

14 See The Tenth Report of the Mirzapore Mission Containing an Account of the Orphan and Free Schools and the Printing and Bookbinding Establishments Together with a Financial Statement for the Year, 1850 (Mirzapore: Orphan School Press, 1851), 1–2, Council for World Mission Library School of Oriental and African Studies, London, I. 89.

15 The Mirzapur mission reported in 1851, “Since our last report Mr. Budden has been entirely separated from this mission … and as friends in Kumaon had offered to support him as a labourer in that province on the condition that he settled at Almorha [sic], it was arranged that he should without further hesitation or reference enter on that sphere. Since that time, the London Missionary Society has expressed its cordial approbation of the course pursued, and with their sanction, the Almorha [sic] Mission commences in its existence as a self-sustained institution from the 1st of January 1851.” Ibid.

16 Fourth Statement Regarding the Kumaon Mission Commenced in Almorah in 1850 Embracing a Period of Twelve Years, with Abstract of Accounts for 1867 (Benares: Medical Hall Press, 1868), 13–14, Council for World Mission Library School of Oriental and African Studies, London, B. 4/30.

17 Almora Akhbar started publication in 1871. Missionary enthusiasm at the debating club and other institutions is evident in “Report of the Almorah Mission” for 1870, in The Second General Report of the Missions in Benares, Mirzapore, Almorah, Singrowlee, and Ranee-Khet in Connexion with the London Missionary Society for the Year 1870 (Mirzapore: Orphan School Press, 1871), Council for World Mission Library School of Oriental and African Studies, London (CWML), A. 3/2 (1870). For one reaction to their student securing an important position in the government, see Report of the Almorah Mission in Connexion with the London Missionary Society for the Year 1871 (Mirzapore: Orphan School Press, 1872), CWML A. 3/2 (1871). By the early twentieth century, the paper was critiquing the policies of the local administration and was shut down in 1918 for its supposedly seditious views. See Joshi, Nirmal, “Purane Akhbar: Bhule bisre panney” [Forgotten pages from old newspapers], Purvasi 10 (1989): 63–64Google Scholar.

18 Joshi, Fractured Modernity, op. cit. note 5; Fuller and Narasimhan, Tamil Brahmans, op. cit. note 11.

19 J. H. Budden's decennial report on the Almora Mission, 1880, Council for World Mission Library School of Oriental and African Studies, London, North India Reports Box 1 (1866–1897). See also “Report of the Almorah Mission for 1880” in the Twelfth General Report of the Missions of the London Missionary Society at Benares; Mirzapore and Singrowlee; Almorah and Ranee Khet: for the Year 1880 (Mirzapore: Orphan School Press, 1881).

20 See J. H. Budden to Ralph Wardlaw Thompson, February 25, 1889, Council for World Mission Library School of Oriental and African Studies, London, North India (United Provinces) Correspondence Box 14a (1889–1890), Folder 1889.

21 G. M. Bulloch, Almora, to Thompson, LMA, London, February 4, 1889, Council for World Mission Library School of Oriental and African Studies, London, North India (United Provinces) Correspondence Box 14a (1889–1890), Folder 1889.

22 Ibid.

23 Selections from the Vernacular Newspapers Published in the North-Western Provinces and Oudh (Allahabad: N.-W.P. and Oudh Government Press, 1889), 690–91.

24 G. M. Bulloch to Thompson, September 22, 1891, Council for World Mission Library School of Oriental and African Studies, London, North India (United Provinces) Correspondence (1891–1892), Folder 2, July through December 1891, Box 14 B; Selections from the Vernacular Newspapers Published in the North-Western Provinces and Oudh (Allahabad: N.-W.P. and Oudh Government Press, 1891), 110–11.

25 Report of the Almorah Mission in Connexion with the London Missionary Society for the Year 1871, op. cit. note 17.

26 “Report for 1884,” Council for World Mission Library School of Oriental and African Studies, London, North India Reports Box 1 (1866–1897).

27 “Report for 1886,” Council for World Mission Library School of Oriental and African Studies, London, North India Reports Box 1 (1866–1897).

28 Louisa G. Meachem to Thompson, Foreign Secretary, LMS, May 30, 1891, Council for World Mission Library School of Oriental and African Studies, London, North India (United Provinces) Correspondence Box 14b (1891–1892).

29 Viswanathan, Outside the Fold, op. cit. note 5; Pandita Ramabai Sarasvati, The High Caste Hindu Woman (Philadelphia: J. B. Rodgers Printing Co., 1887).

30 Pant Clan, “The Pant Clan from Maharashtra,” manuscript history maintained by the Pant family, shown to me by Captain J. K. Pant at Shanti Cottage, Almora.

31 Kay Miles, The Dynamo in Silk: A Brief Biographical Sketch of Begum Raana Liaquat Ali Khan (Karachi: All Pakistan Women's Association, 1974).

32 Pant Clan, “The Pant Clan from Maharashtra,” op. cit. note 30.

33 Miss Lakshmi Devi Pant recalled that her grandmother told her how she would sneak out to the now-ostracized Durga (now Sarah) Pant with special festive food (singal) and gifts (bhetarn) traditionally sent to brides from their natal homes on these occasions. My mother, Prema Joshi, in a formal interview, also recalled that Tara Dutt Pant's son, Daniel, who was their neighbor, would request to be allowed to watch the ceremonies in their home on the day of the Bagwali festival—one of the most important days in the ritual calendar among Kumaoni Brahmins. Both interviews, May 9, 2004, Tilakpur, Almora.

34 See Pande, Shireesh, “Yashaswi swatantrata senani Mohan Joshi” [Renowned freedom fighter Mohan Joshi], Purvasi 14 (1993): 65–68Google Scholar; Joshi, Sushil Kumar, “Parvat putra Victor Mohan Joshi” [Son of the mountains Victor Mohan Joshi], Purvasi 17 (1996): 91–92Google Scholar; and various articles in the special issue of Shakti in memory of Victor Mohan Joshi (Shakti, February 12–14, 2004) for details of Victor Mohan Joshi's biography, nationalist career, and activities. For details of what may have been the conversion of his father, see G. M. Bulloch to Thompson, October 20, 1891, Council for World Mission Library School of Oriental and African Studies, London, North India (United Provinces) Correspondence (1891–1892), Folder 2, July through December 1891, Box 14 B.

35 For his mother's preference, see Pande, “Yashaswi,” op. cit. note 34, 65. Victor Mohan Joshi's own preferences are evident in how he signs his name to many articles published in Shakti, and also referenced in Joshi, “Parvat putra,” op. cit. note 34.

36 Shekhar Pathak, “Victor Mohan Joshi: Ek adhyayan” [Victor Mohan Joshi: A study], Ankur (page proofs): 37 (corrected page proofs for what appears to be a commemorative volume on Joshi on his birth-centennial). My thanks to Miss Meena Joshi for providing this.

37 Prem Singh Garhiya, “Ek paati: Swargiya Joshi ke saathi ki” [A leaf: From a comrade of the late Joshi], Ankur (page proofs): 38.

38 See Pande, “Yashasvi,” op. cit. note 34, 65. The one exception is “Isa masih ka darshan aur desh prem” [Christian faith and patriotism], Shakti, February 12–14, 2004, 2.

39 Mohan Joshi, “Teen drishya” [Three scenes], Shakti, August 12, 1919.

40 Shakti, August 12, 1919.

41 Shakti, August 5, 1919.

42 Joshi, “Teen drishya,” op. cit. note 39.

43 The London Missionary Society, Almora, (United Provinces, India) Report of Work during the Year 1910 (and Decennial Review) (Allahabad: Allahabad Mission Press, 1911), 4, Council for World Mission Library School of Oriental and African Studies, London, A. 3/2 (1910).

44 “The Almora Mission,” Council for World Mission Library School of Oriental and African Studies, London, A. 3/2 (1905).

45 Shakti, April 22, 1919.

46 Wade Crawford Barclay, The Methodist Episcopal Church, 1845–1939, 4 vol. (New York: Board of Missions of the Methodist Church, 1957), 4:1133–34.

47 Govind Ballabh Pant, Juniya: Gramya jivana-sambandhi upanyasa [Juniya: A novel about rural life], 4th imprint (Lucknow: Ganga-Granthagara, 1956).

48 Pande, Ramesh Chandra, “Aparajaya natakkaar Pt. Govind Ballabh Pant” [The indefatigable playwright: Govind Ballabh Pant], Purvasi (2013): 43–44Google Scholar; Prasad, Jagdishwari, “Ek vismrit sant sahityakar” [A forgotten saint-litterateur], Purvasi (1997): 107–8Google Scholar.

49 Menon, “Caste and Colonial Modernity,” op. cit. note 5.

50 Sharankumar Limbale, Towards an Aesthetic of Dalit Literature: History, Controversies and Considerations, trans. Alok Mukherjee (Delhi: Orient Longman, 2004); Laura R. Brueck, Writing Resistance: The Rhetorical Imagination of Hindi Dalit Literature (New York: Columbia University Press, 2014); Anand, S., “On Claiming Dalit Subjectivity,” Seminar 558 (February 2006)Google Scholar, http://www.india-seminar.com/2006/558/558%20s.%20anand.htm (accessed July 12, 2015); Rawat, Ramnarayan, “The Problem,” Seminar 558 (February 2006)Google Scholar, http://www.india-seminar.com/2006/558/558%20the%20problem.htm (accessed July 12, 2015).

51 The tone of the protagonist in Pant's novel is much more subdued than the anger evident in the complaint made by a representative of the Shilpakars of Kumaon in the pages of Shakti. See note 56, below. At the same time though, Pant's representations of Dalit subjectivity is quite different from those of his class-caste confreres. A correspondent for Shakti also, not too gently, warns the Shilpakars that the time of the English is over, and thus they had better join the winning side. See “Shilpakaron ko nek salah: Mahatmaji ke jhande ke neeche ao” [Well-meaning advice to the Shilpakars: Come under the Mahatma's flag], Shakti, November 28, 1932.

52 L. D. Joshi, Khasa Family Law in the Himalayan Districts of the United Provinces of India (Allahabad: Superintendent, Government Press, 1929); Shiva Darshan Pant, The Social Economy of the Himalayans, Based on a Survey in the Kumaon Himalayas (London: Allen & Unwin, 1935); R. D. Sanwal, Social Stratification in Rural Kumaon (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1976); Pande, Vasudha, “Stratification in Kumaun circa 1815–1930,” NMML Occasional Paper, History and Society, n.s., 37 (2013)Google Scholar.

53 Sanwal, Social Stratification, op. cit. note 52, 29.

54 “Report on Crime in Kumaon,” G. M. Traill, Commissioner of Kumaon, to R. S. Glyn, July 21, 1822. Pre Mutiny Records, Kumaon Division. Judicial Letters Issued, Vol. 25 (1822–1825), para. 30, Uttar Pradesh State Archives, Lucknow (UPSA). Also, “Memoranda on Slaves, Wives, Widows, &c,” F. J. Shore to G. M. Traill (Commissioner of Kumaon), March 30, 1828, Home Miscellaneous Records, pp. 99–135 and 137–41. Oriental and India Office Records. See also Pre Mutiny Records, Kumaon Division, Miscellaneous Letters Received, Vol. 52, 1836, pp. 15–23, UPSA.

55 “Report on Crime in Kumaon,” op. cit. note 54. See Indrani Chatterjee, Gender, Slavery and Law in Colonial India (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1999), chap. 5, for the complicated and self-serving relationship between the Company regime and the “abolition” of slavery in British India. See also Indrani Chatterjee and Richard M. Eaton, Slavery and South Asian History (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006).

56 Shakti, February 11, 1919. Against the assertion of such rights, the local Municipal Board in Almora even posted written notices prohibiting lower castes from using upper-caste water sources. See Naval Viyogi and M. Anawar Ansari, History of the Later Harappans and Silpakara Movement, 2 vol. (Delhi: Gyan Publishing House, 2010), 605.

57 Shakti, August 5, 1919. For a very different perspective on Almora's Shilpakars, see Viyogi and Ansari, History of the Later Harappans, op. cit. note 56.

58 Pant, Juniya, op. cit. note 47, 33.

59 Ibid., 108, 131–34, 165–67.

60 Ibid., 99, 120, 139, 175, 176.

61 Ibid., 91.

62 van der Veer, Conversion to Modernities, op. cit. note 5; Menon, “Caste and Colonial Modernity,” op. cit. note 5.

63 See Sanwal, Social Stratification, op. cit. note 51, 63–66, for real-life parallels.

64 Pant, Juniya, op. cit. note 47, 95.

65 On being berated by his wife for his frequent indebtedness, Juniya modifies this commandment to “You will not eat in debt, or eat leftovers, nor wear others' cast-off clothes.” Ibid., 102.

66 In 1911, there were 603 male and 814 female Indian Christians in the Almora District. Among those of the London Mission Church, there were 273 Indian men and 321 Indian women. E. A. H. Blunt, Census of India, 1911: Vol XV, United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, Part II, Imperial Tables (Allahabad: Superintendent Government Press, 1912), 764, 767. The 1941 census recorded only 50 Christian men and 231 Christian women in the Almora municipal area. Sahay, Census of India, 1941, op. cit. note 5, 38–39.

67 For one example, see Oakley to Thompson, October 26, 1891, Council for World Mission Library School of Oriental and African Studies, London, North India (United Provinces) Correspondence (1891–1892), Folder 2, July through December 1891, Box 14 B. For more on this, see Rhonda Anne Semple, Missionary Women: Missionary Women: Gender, Professionalism and the Victorian Idea of Christian Mission (Woodbridge, Suffolk, England: Boydell Press, 2003).

68 Pande, Vasudha, “Law, Women and the Family in Kumaun,” India International Centre Quarterly 23, no. 3/4 (1996): 106–20Google Scholar; Dharmanand Pande, ed., Kurmanchal Kesari Badridutt Pande janmashtabdi smarika – sandarbh granth [A birth-centennial commemorative volume for Kurmanchal Kesari Badridutt Pande] (Almora: Dharmanand Pande, 1984).

69 Pant Clan, “The Pant Clan from Maharashtra,” op. cit. note 30.

70 Ibid., emphasis added.

71 Lakshmibai Tilak, I Follow After: An Autobiography, trans. E. Josephine Inkster (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1999).

72 Interviews with Miss Lakshmi Devi Pant and Mrs. Prema Joshi, op. cit. note 33.

73 Pande, Diddi, op. cit. note 13.

74 Pant, Juniya, op. cit. note 47, 49.

75 Ibid., 82.

76 Ibid., 96.

77 Ibid., 96, passim.

78 Ibid., 103.

79 Ibid., 120.

80 “अगर इस गाँधी बुड्ढे ने ज्यादा चूं-चूं करी तो मैं Home चल दूँगी” (Agar is Gandhi buddhe ne jyaada chun-chun kari to mein ‘Home’ chal dungi) is what she reportedly said.

81 Of course, by that time, American Methodists rather than the London Missionary Society were running the institution, but perhaps such distinctions did not matter to Miss Sunday.

82 It is very interesting to note that another upper-caste writer from Almora, the enormously popular Shivani, commented on this too, claiming that no one ever took offense at Gaurda's verses. Shivani, He Dattatreya! (Delhi: Saraswati Vihar, 1985), 60–61. Perhaps the comment says as much about the limited social interaction the upper-caste elite of Almora had with the lower orders of society, as anything else. It is very unlikely that the folks in Hiradungri would not take offense at this slur.

83 Hiradungri Ramya Pradeshaa / Umen rooni kas kas mensa / Harua Henry Jasua Jackaa / Kve ni jarnan chyal chhan kaeka.

84 Shivani suggests that the Gaurda's verse was a barb commenting on many children at the mission being illegitimate progeny of the town's Brahmins (Shivani, op. cit. note 82, 61). I prefer my own reading, as Shivani's reading does not take into account the telling first names of the folks mentioned. Much like “Juniya,” “Harua” and “Jasua” are first names that indicate a lower class and caste status. They are all diminutives, and only such diminutives are considered necessary for lower-caste and lower-class persons.

85 For one example, see Pant, Juniya, op. cit. note 47, 80.

86 My respondent, proud of his Brahmanical heritage, repeatedly spoke disparagingly of “साले डुमरे” (bloody dums) and lamented that now that dums had become Christians people like him belonged nowhere: “डुमरे इसाई बन गये , हम कहीं के नहीं रहे” (Dumrey Isai ban gaye, hum kahin ke nahin rahey). Interview on May 9, 2004, Almora.