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Part anthropological history and part memoir, this book is a unique
study of the polity of the colonial-princely state of Kanker in
central India. The author, a scion of the erstwhile ruling family
of Kanker, delves into the oral accounts given in the ancestral
deity practices of the mixed tribe-caste communities of the region
to highlight popular narratives of its historical polity. As he
struggles with his own dilemmas as ethnographer-king, what comes
into view is a polity where the princely state is drawn out amidst
a terrain of gods and spirits as much as that of law courts and
magistrates, and political power is divided, contested and shared
between the raja/state and the people. This study constitutes not
only an intervention in the larger debate on the relationship
between state formations and tribal peoples, but also on the very
nature of history as a knowledge practice, especially the
understandings of power, authority and sovereignty in it. Combining
intensive ethnography, complementary archival work and crucial
theoretical questions engaging social scientists worldwide, the
author charts an unusual explanatory path that can allow us to
obtain a meaningful understanding of societies/peoples that have
historically been marginalized and seen as different. This book
will be of interest to students and researchers of history,
anthropology, politics, religion, tribal society and Modern South
Asia.
Part anthropological history and part memoir, this book is a unique
study of the polity of the colonial-princely state of Kanker in
central India. The author, a scion of the erstwhile ruling family
of Kanker, delves into the oral accounts given in the ancestral
deity practices of the mixed tribe-caste communities of the region
to highlight popular narratives of its historical polity. As he
struggles with his own dilemmas as ethnographer-king, what comes
into view is a polity where the princely state is drawn out amidst
a terrain of gods and spirits as much as that of law courts and
magistrates, and political power is divided, contested and shared
between the raja/state and the people. This study constitutes not
only an intervention in the larger debate on the relationship
between state formations and tribal peoples, but also on the very
nature of history as a knowledge practice, especially the
understandings of power, authority and sovereignty in it. Combining
intensive ethnography, complementary archival work and crucial
theoretical questions engaging social scientists worldwide, the
author charts an unusual explanatory path that can allow us to
obtain a meaningful understanding of societies/peoples that have
historically been marginalized and seen as different. This book
will be of interest to students and researchers of history,
anthropology, politics, religion, tribal society and Modern South
Asia.
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