Indian Historical Review
Journal Data
| Type | JOURNAL |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Sage |
| ISSN | 0376-9836 / 0975-5977 |
| Scopus | 21100400140 |
| Wikidata | Q6020500 |
| OpenAlex | S28935041 |
| MAG | 28935041 |
| Website | http://www.uk.sagepub.com/journals/Journal201961 |
| Total publications | 685 |
| Coverage period | 1999 - 2026 |
| Country | IN |
| Language | EN |
| Indexing | Scopus indexed |
| Cited by | 214 |
| Impact factor | 0.111 |
| SJR | 0.101 (Q4) |
| SNIP | 0.087 |
| CiteScore | 0.1 |
| h-index | 9 |
| i10-index | 9 |
| Female authorship share | 41.2% |
This journal focuses on Indian history, which often includes social and cultural historical research. Social and cultural history with ethnographic or theoretical scope is a cognate area for social anthropology. It offers regular, though not central, anthropological intersection
History · Agricultural Economics and Practices · Ancient Near East History · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Asian Geopolitics and Ethnography · Asian Studies and History · Chinese history and philosophy · Colonial History and Postcolonial Studies · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Eurasian Exchange Networks
Rajendra Chola I (1012–1044 ce ) in South India
In South India, the Imperial Cholas reigned between 985 and 1044 ce . Raja Raja Chola I (r. 985–1014 ce ) is widely celebrated as a symbol of Tamil pride. However, his son and successor, Rajendra Chola I (r. 1012–1044 ce ), is not accorded equal recognition. Notably, it was Rajendra—not Raja Raja—who dispatched two trade missions to China, strengthening maritime diplomacy. Rajendra is often criticised for his military aggression, particularly the…
Recontextualising Migration Journeys: The Temporal Experience of the Balti of Uttarakhand and Shimla
The Balti people (Scheduled Tribes of India, 1989) are neither refugees nor in exile. They have crossed borders permanently and live on both sides of India and Pakistan after the partition. The political histories of both of these areas, Ladakh and Baltistan, were fused together till 1947, the Ladakh Wazarat being divided into Leh, Kargil and Skardo districts, Leh being the capital of Ladakh. This article is an ethnographic case study of the Balt…
The Engagement of Physical Educationwith Indian Nationalism(c. 1900–1947)
This article examines the relationship between physical education and Indian nationalism between c. 1900 and 1947, arguing that in the hegemonic struggle of the Indian national movement, the idea of a fit and healthy body was deeply embedded in the vision of nation-building. Colonial representations of the Indian body as effete and effeminate provoked a critical nationalist response that increasingly foregrounded physical culture as a means of re…
Hidden Royalty: The Dom Raja at the Heart of the Dom Community
This article tells the story of the Dom Raja and his unique place within the Dom community of Varanasi, a group often pushed to the margins of society. Despite being excluded from the mainstream, the Dom Raja’s presence stands as a testament to resilience and continuity. More than just a leader, he embodies a sense of dignity and pride for his people. For generations, his lineage has been a pillar that holds the community together, not just throu…
Marginal Realities and Revolutionary Rhetoric: Dalit Sikh Reflections on Partition, Naxalism and Secessionist Turmoil in Punjab
The partition of India and the division of Punjab spurred the reorganisation of the state. Similarly, unmet promises and feudal repercussions following the formation of Punjab in 1966 later on fuelled Naxalism, which, in turn, somehow contributed to the rise of the Khalistan movement. These events were chronicled through numerous narratives based on diverse experiences. This article explores the different understandings and alternative perspectiv…
The Contributions of Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay’s Patriotic Consciousness to the Development of Bengali Nationalism: A Historical Observation
Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay was the greatest pioneer of Indian nationalism. He was able to create a national emotion through his various writings. His various novels, satirical works and essays highlighted the incomparable ideal of patriotism. How he made efforts to rescue Bengalis in particular and Indians in general is the main subject of this article. It is quite true that the path shown by Bankimchandra led to the rise of militant nationalism…
The Quest for Antiquity and Identity: Re-assessing Kanaklal Barua’s History Writing in Twentieth-century Assam
Through the works of Kanaklal Barua (1872–1940), this article attempts to explore the trends of history writing in colonial Assam. Produced in the heydays of Indian nationalism, Barua’s writings can be used to reveal the idea of framing Assamese regional identity while pursuing the antiquity of the region. This article also seeks to uncover the way Barua laid emphasis on the ancient kingdom of Pragjyotisha-Kamarupa, in addition to the ‘Ahom past’…
Impact of Colonial Railways on Urbanisation in India: A Study of Select Colonial Towns
It is indeed a prevalent fact that the inception of the rail transport system in the nineteenth century apparently reoriented the fate of numerous urban places of varying size classes. Towns which relished the visible regional prevalence for decades found themselves neglected when railways bypassed them. On the contrary, small market centres of purely local interest suddenly attained unprecedented gravity of importance as the railway lines rerout…
Ruling the Unruly Winds: 1864 Cyclone and Meteorological Modelling in the Indian Ocean
The European voyagers took a lot of interest in studying trade winds and monsoons. But they were still very uncertain about the frequently occurring cyclones in the tropics. The expansion of the British colonial empire in the Indian Ocean during the late nineteenth century paralleled a significant enhancement of meteorological observation systems. While merchant and naval ships routinely documented weather data in logs, the formal development of …
Sociopolitical and Cultural Influence of Two Prominent Sufis in Early Eighteenth-century Shahjahanabad: A Critical Analysis
The eighteenth century witnessed a steep decline in the Mughal Empire and a consequent diminishing of power of groups oriented towards the Mughal court. This political decline was also felt by the Muslim religious elites. Here, we shall confine our study only to two important personalities who enjoyed respect and love from all sections of the community. How they saw, perceived and reacted to the situation is a concern of the present study. These …
Revisiting the Anti-colonial Resistance Movement of Sambalpur
The resistance movement of Sambalpur is a fascinating chapter in the history of the freedom struggle of India. The present article has made an attempt to understand the movement from a new perspective by comprehensively analysing the nature of the state and society in pre-colonial India, the atrocities of the Maratha rule in the region and the new notions of state and society brought by colonialism. The roots of the resistance movement in Sambalp…
Ports, Partnerships and Profits: India’s Maritime Trade with Iran in the Nineteenth Century
The period between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries witnessed trade and commerce through the overland and overseas routes. The ports in the western Indian Ocean had trading linkages with the ports in the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. The Mughals and Safavids (who ruled Iran between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries) took proactive measures to promote trade and commerce in these regions. The rise of Surat on India’s western coast was …
Against the Flow of the Brahmaputra River: Cholera and ‘Coolies’ in the Tea Plantations of Colonial Assam
In the nineteenth century, the tea gardens of Assam were one of the major commercial developments in colonial Assam. With the expansion of tea gardens, the demography of the province was changed as large numbers of immigrants were transported to the tea gardens mainly from eastern and central India. The Assam province, tea gardens and the history of diseases and medicines are deeply intertwined, but the intersection has not yet been explored much…
Making of the Indian Nation: Bankim’s Idea of Nation as Mother in Colonial Bengal
This article endeavours to explore a hitherto untouched field of research on the Indian freedom movement in general and the making of the Indian nation in its own cultural sphere in particular, that is, the detailed study of the idea of Nation as Mother of the famous novelist Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay in the late nineteenth-century colonial Bengal. No work on the details of the idea of the Nation as Mother in colonial Bengal has been produced …
The Chauri-bearer Attendants of Buddha: Different Phases of Iconographic Development in Buddhist Art of Western Deccan
In the early phase of Buddhist art, symbols were used to represent Buddha, in which two attendants or devotees were usually displayed with these symbols; this tradition also continued with Buddha images. Initially, these attendants were depicted as Yakshas or divine attendants. Many examples of this depiction are found in early sculptures of Buddha from the Kushana period. In the course of development, the place of these attendants was taken over…
The State, Power Structure and the Kandha Tribe of Kandhamal, Odisha
This article examines the relationship between the state and the Kandha tribe of Odisha across three historical phases: pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial. Adopting a diachronic perspective rarely employed in anthropological studies, the article traces the political dynamics and sociocultural transformations of the Kandha over time. It highlights their interactions with two significant non-tribal communities: the Pano, later classified as a…
From Mallapurāṇa to The Science of Wrestling. Volume I: Changing Facets of Indian Wrestling Manuals
Wrestling is one of the oldest games and forms of physical culture on the Indian subcontinent and has a long and steady history. While its historicity is well documented, we know little about how the tradition of wrestling was passed on textually from one generation to another, what wrestling practices were lost between eras and what modifications in Indian wrestling texts took place under colonialism. This article compares two Indian wrestling m…
The Idea of Deliberation in Indian Context: An Examination
The article engages with the ideal of deliberation within the theoretical contours of deliberative democracy, situating its inquiry in the intellectual and political traditions of ancient India. Drawing upon canonical texts such as the Rig Veda, Atharva Veda, Arthashastra and Mahabharata, it interrogates the embedded deliberative practices characterised by dialogical engagement, rational reciprocity and consensus-oriented decision-making. These t…
Fortuitous Parallels or Historical Connections? The Prehistoric Indus Valley and Minoan Crete
Ancient societies rarely developed in isolation. There have been contacts between them through maritime trade and human migrations. They went through similar stages of evolution, namely, birth, growth, decline and disappearance or disintegration. Striking similarities and parallels between the Indus Valley and Minoan Crete have been shown to exist. They were discussed in this review by a well-known Greek archaeologist, late Professor Costis Davar…
Delineating the Roots of Democracy in Indian Tradition
This article delineates democratic principles within the rich historical and cultural traditions of India. It also examines how ancient and early medieval traditions, social structures and political systems promoted ideas of participation, debate and representation, laying the foundation for democratic practices in modern India. Exploring the roots of representative democracy is often linked to Greek tradition. Some scholars believe that democrac…
Trade and Travel in Northeast India
The article presents a detailed study of trade and travel in pre-colonial and colonial northeast India. Concentrating on the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, it details how critical items like salt, iron and silk were traded by travellers. It also discusses the slave-trade that was undertaken during this time. The article suggests that to understand the relationship between trade and travel in this context, it is important to note that northe…
Re-examining the Aryan Invasion Theory Through the Internal Evidence of the Ṛgveda
‘The theories propounded by the Aryanists and Dravidianists are utterly groundless and mere dreams of very learned men, and perhaps even more imaginative than learned’. —John Crawford 1861 1 ‘The theory is a perversion of scientific investigation. It is not allowed to evolve out of facts. On the contrary, the theory is preconceived, and facts are selected to prove it. The theory of the Aryan race is just an assumption and no more’. —B. R. Ambedka…
Kashmir: Locating the Roots
Kashmir has a rich past, the history of which can be traced back to prehistoric times. It has been designated as one of the earliest cradles of Indian civilisation. Despite this, the history of ancient Kashmir has not been accorded its due, which remained a closed book for most of us. The earliest Sanskrit literature of the valley is the Nilamatapurana that helps us to construct the social, religious, and spiritual history of this ancient land. T…
The Government of India Act 1935: The Construction of Indian Women as ‘Minority’
There are several scholarly works devoted to the Government of India Act 1935, enabling us to identify specific influences behind particular clauses of the aforesaid Act. Unfortunately, there is no scholarly exposure as to what made the British Raj construct Indian women as a ‘special constituency’ and placed them alongside a potpourri of ‘special’ constituencies, designed to balance out antagonistic elements in the Indian body polity. Going by t…
The Marwaris: Tracing the Rise and Growth of the Trading Communities from Marwar
The rise and growth of a community are of vital importance for a historian, as it apprises not only about that particular community but also about the socio-economic and cultural fabric in which the community operates. The central objective of this article is to see how the merchant communities from Marwar, who began as traders and bankers, went on to become leaders on the economic and political landscape of Indian history. The article attempts t…
Tradition and Archaeology: Early Maritime Contacts in the Indian Ocean
The Nation and its Fragments: Colonial and Post-Colonial Histories
Gunpowder and Firearms: Warfare in Medieval India
Colonial Constructions of the ‘Tribe’ in India: The Case of Chotanagpur
I. Public Power in Europe: Studies in Historical Transformations II. Power and Culture: Hegemony, Interaction and Dissent III. Religion, Ritual and Mythology. Aspects of Identity Formation in Europe IV. Professions and Social Identity. New European Historical Research on Work, Gender and Society V. Frontiers and Identities: Exploring the Research Area VI. Europe and the World in European Historiography
Serving the Nation: Cultures of Service, Association and Citizenship in Colonial India
Culture/Politics: The Irresoluble Double-Bind of the Indian Adivasi
Historia Elastica: A Note on the Rubber Hunt in the North-Eastern Frontier of British India
From scattered references in government documents and contemporary academic articles, this paper constructs a rough history of the wide and largely paralegal trade in Ficus elastica, or India-rubber, across the north-eastern frontier of British India. In order to avail of the resources beyond the revenue line, nearly every rubber firm operative in the area struck numerous informal arrangements with the chiefs of the local communities through a ne…
The Making of Indo-Persian Culture
Formal Writing, Questionnaires and Petitions: Colonial Governance and Law in Early British Malabar, 1792–1810
This article examines the culture of ‘formal writing’ in the making of colonial law in early British India. As part of establishing the Western governmental practices in the colony, the British introduced formal writing practices in the colonial administration. Situating on the debate of ‘continuity and change’, this article argues that ‘formal writing’ marked a significant departure from pre-colonial legal practices in India. This article first …
Situating Social History Orissa (1800 – 1997)
Guilds in Ancient India: A Study of Guild Organization in Northern India and Western Deccan from circa 600 b.c. to circa 600 a.d
The ‘Silk Road’: Historical Perspectives and Modern Constructions
As it is frequently the case in the modern world, the term ‘Silk Road’ or ‘Silk Roads’ is of colonial provenance. The elaborate network of ancient routes originating in the fourth millennium bc and linking various parts of the Eurasian landmass through Central Asia was re-imagined and reinvented in the late nineteenth century as a ‘Silk Road’ connecting China with the Roman Empire, thereby undermining the role of the steppe with its various nomad…
Escape from Terracentrism: Writing a Water History
‘Escape from Terracentrism’ traces the shifts in writing a history of the seas/oceans from maritime history, to oceanic histories and finally to a water history. In the process it pleads for a transnational approach to the study of regions, arguing that there is a fundamental disconnect between our present-day lives and water. Finally, the article discusses whether a history of the sea can be a theatre for world history or an arena for a new, de-…
Classical Indo-Roman Trade: A Historiographical Reconsideration
It is an attempt to reconsider in the light of the extant sources including the latest archaeological findings in India, Red Sea coast and Egypt, some of the long sustained assumptions about the In
Mobility in the Bay of Bengal World: Medieval Raiders, Traders, States and the Slaves
This essay presents south-eastern, deltaic Bengal as a slave-raiding zone in terms of certain specific trends visible in the seventeenth century Bay world. These were: rising international sea-borne trade, increased South Asian warfare, the burgeoning labour market in the Bay of Bengal, renewed migration, and increased mobility in the Bay of Bengal world. Not just in terms of seventeenth century trends, slavery here is also presented in the conte…
The Colonial State and Resource Frontiers: Tracing the Politics of Appropriating Rubber in the Northeastern Frontier of British India, 1810–84
The article, through an investigation of a plethora of colonial reports, correspondences and petitions, attempts to build a history of frontier spaces invested in resource appropriation. Discovered in the forests of the northeastern tracts of British India in the early nineteenth century, rubber entailed the culmination of a resource frontier whose effects simultaneously produced the disruptive as well as the dialogical in a multiplicity of extra…
Coins, Art and Chronology, Essays on the Pre-Islamic History of the Indo-Iranian Borderlands
Notes on Religious Ban on Sea Travel in Ancient India
Colonial Roots of the Aryan Invasion/Migration Theory and the Contemporary Archaeological Evidence in Western Sources
William Jones, famously, by identifying close linkages between Sanskrit and European languages, gave birth to research into the common ancestry between Indians and Europeans. In the earlier years of contention on the matter, India was considered the cradle of civilisation and Sanskrit as the mother of all Indo-European languages. With the rise in the imperial power of Europe over India, the cradle of civilisation began to shift outside India and …
The Dutch East India Company through the Local Lens: Exploring the Dynamics of Indo-Dutch Relations in Seventeenth Century Bengal
The Dutch East India Company (VOC) shared a history of two hundred years of coexistence with the locals in Bengal. And yet their official reports had little to say about this relation, except frequent complaints against the locals and the accompanying, inherent distrust. There has been, however, a significant amount of historiography that has developed in the recent decades on Indo-Dutch contacts based on the information available in the sources.…
Technological Momentum: Bengal in the Nineteenth Century
The nineteenth century was a very significant period in the history of modern India. It was during this period that the country witnessed the emergence of many intellectual currents in all aspects: religious, social, political, economic and cultural. For the colonial power, by the beginning of the nineteenth century, the empire had more or less been won. The job was to keep it, and to use it for profit. Colonialism was not the result of mere West…
Gendering the Rebellion of 1857: The ‘Loyal Indian Woman’ in ‘Mutiny Fiction’
The colonial ‘Mutiny novel’ was a highly popular literary genre in the nineteenth century. An important trope that recurrently appeared in these writings was that of the ‘loyal Indian woman’. This was constituted in the figure of the devoted ayah, the loyal dancing girl and the English hero's faithful concubine/wife. Additionally, there was the trope of female friendship across the race divide. Far from being a reflection of existing social relat…
Making History, Drawing Territory: British Mapping in India, c. 1756–1905
The Eickstedt Archive: German Anthropology in Colonial India
The Eickstedt archive is an inventory of a German anthropologist’s perception of India of the 1920s through photographs and written accounts. His understanding forms the leitmotif of this reading of the archive, which as such is a reading along the grain. This article attempts to locate the archive’s rationale, which vacillates between expectations of the ‘primitive other’ and a rising racial anthropology. Exploring the relationship between the a…
From Lineage to Territory: The Making of Territorial Self-consciousness in Kaliṅga
The evolution of territorial self-consciousness was among the most significant and historically far-reaching developments of the later half of the first millennium CE in the Indian subcontinent. However, discussions concerning this complex process have not had the benefit of systematic exploration. Although a handful of perspectives exist, they have been presented impressionistically in the context of debates on feudalism and state formation. In …
Subhas Chandra Bose: Accelerator of India's Independence
Sri Nagabhinandanam: Dr. M.S. Nagaraja Rao Festschrift: Essays on Art, Culture, History, Archaeology, Epigraphy and Conservation of Cultural Property of India and Neighbouring Countries
Colonial Connections of Protestant Missionaries in Travancore
The Development of “Harappan Culture” as an Archaeological Label: A Case Study of Kathiawar
Nationalism and Social Change—The Role of Poetry in Malayalam
The Hindu Nationalist Movement and Indian Politics 1925 to the 1990s
Scientific Communities in the Developing World
The Buddhist Art of Nāgārjunakonda
Pathways to India's Partition: The Foundations of Muslim Nationalism
Subhas Chandra Bose: Accelerator of India's Independence
The Architectural Heritage of Himachal Pradesh: Origin and Development of Temple Styles
Politics of Sharing Power: The Punjab Unionist Party, 1923–1947
Freedom, Trauma, Continuities: Northern India and Independence
History of Ancient Indian Science, Vol. I, Botanical Science and Economic Growth
The Muktesvara Temple in Bhubaneswar
Early Buddhist Art in India (300 b.c. to 300 a.d. )
Religion, Religiosity and Communalism
The Development of “Harappan Culture” As an Archaeological Label: A Case Study of Kathiawar
Sri Nagabhinandanam: Dr. M.S. Nagaraja Rao Festschrift: Essays on Art, Culture, History, Archaeology, Epigraphy and Conservation of Cultural Property of India and Neighbouring Countries
India Independent: The First Half Century of Political Development and Decay
History of the Śakta Religion
Colonial Connections of Protestant Missionaries in Travancore
Nationalism and Social Change—The Role of Poetry in Malayalam
Professor Qeyamuddin Ahmad (9 September 1930 – 27 August 1998)
Roosevelt, Nehru and India's Freedom Movement