Indian Movements: Some Aspects of Dissent Protest and Reform (An Old and Rare Book)

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The present volume reflects one in the series on "Studies in Indian and Asian Civilizations" undertaken by the Indian Institute of Advanced Study under its group project programme of A Sourcebook of Indian and Asian Civilizations. During the Fourth Plan period four works were prepared, and published: (i) Indian Civilization: The First Phase-Problems of a Source- book, (ii) Understanding Indian Civilization-A Framework of Enquiry, (iii) Brahmanic Ritual Traditions, and (iv) Transmission of the Mahabharata Tradition. During the Fifth Plan period it was decided to undertake two specific themes for investigation, (1) Dissent, Protest and Reform Movements, and (2) Determinants of Social Status in India. For the former a preliminary step was to hold a Planning Conference, which was followed by a week-long Seminar, and then the assignment to various scholars commissioned studies for in-depth investigation of specific themes. Of the fifteen topics chosen only eight were received, and these form the present volume.

It was not easy to find scholars who were free to take up this work or were at that moment interested in it. But it was due to the persuasive capacity of the former Director, Professor SC Dube, that it was possible to put together these essays, and find the scholars. Professor Dube was intimately associated with the planning and organization of the themes, seminars and so on, that were taken up for study during the Fifth plan period. Dr B N Saraswati, a colleague on the Scheme, has also contributed in a large measure to the work undertaken in this joint project. As Coordinator of the Scheme my thanks are due to them, and to all the scholars associated with the Scheme. Of course, the credit goes to the contributors of this volume who found time to write these essays, which we hope will initiate further work along these lines.

THE INDIAN Institute of Advanced Study under its group research project of A Sourcebook OF INDIAN AND ASIAN CIVILIZATIONS, initiated investigations into the theme of 'dissent, protest and reform movements during the first half of the Fifth Plan period. A first step was to organize a two-day Planning Conference in September 1974-its report being published in 1975-with the objective of clearing up various issues and identifying topics which could be taken up under a programme of multi-disciplinary research. The programme included organizing a one-week national seminar, the commissioning of a series of studies and the Institute's scholars writing mono- graphs. The seminar was held in September 1975-its proceedings published in 1977-and subsequently scholars were com- missioned to write essays on selected topics. This volume is a result of their studies. We may briefly recapitulate some of the issues discussed both at the conference and in the seminar. At the outset what caused a great controversy were semantic problems. In part these arose quite expectedly from the diversity of approaches expressed from the point of view of so many disciplines. Then, there was serious objection to the use of the words dissent, protest, reform, and non-conformism in the Indian context, basically because these originated in the context of European and Christian civilizations. Moreover, because the Indian situation is quite different, especially in the broad context of Hinduism, it was suggested that their validity was doubtful, i.e., the socio-cultural processes involved in India were very different. But many others thought that if definitions are made very clear, then, they may be used in the Indian context, keeping in mind, of course, their historical background, i.e., we could begin with certain operational definitions and test them carefully against certain well known paradigms.