- Salt Lake City, Utah, United States
Benjamin B Cohen
University of Utah, History, Faculty Member
In the late sixteenth century and again in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the rulers of Golconda and Hyderabad (India) faced a problem of urban congestion around the Musi River. The river impeded movement between growing... more
In the late sixteenth century and again in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the rulers of Golconda and Hyderabad (India) faced a problem of urban congestion around the Musi River. The river impeded movement between growing urban areas on either bank and during the monsoon it flooded making transport nearly impossible. To resolve this issue, they constructed four bridges across the Musi, often with assistance from local British officials. These bridges served as critical infrastructure technology for urban transport and mobility. Forms of state power, from a sultan to an indigenous prince to colonial officials, all worked to finance, design, and build these bridges thus allowing urban Hyderabad to both encompass and grow beyond the challenges of the river.
Clubs in India are often regarded as antiquarian institutions left over from a bygone era with little to teach us about the past or present. Yet, In the Club presents a different picture of India s clubland. This book offers a... more
Clubs in India are often regarded as antiquarian institutions left over from a bygone era with little to teach us about the past or present. Yet, In the Club presents a different picture of India s clubland. This book offers a comprehensive examination of social clubs across India. It argues that clubs have been key contributors to India s colonial associational life and civil society, and remain important nodes in public culture today. Using government records, personal memoirs, private club records, and club histories themselves, In the club explores colonial club life with chapters arranged thematically. Legal underpinnings bind clubs within, and to each other, across regional and national borders. Many clubs occupy prime locations and maintain their historic interiors. All clubs faced financial crises as they increasingly entered the global marketplace. No club could function without servants and staff, while issues of race and class in clubs continues to be debated today. Women s clubs occupy an important place in clubland, while many clubs continue to thrive today in their postcolonial milieus. This book will be critical reading for scholars of history and sociology as well as social scientists interested in colonialism, associational life and civil society in India. It will also be of interest to intellectually engaged club members, aspiring members, or just those curious about the inner-workings of clubs across India and beyond.
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In the late sixteenth century and again in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the rulers of Golconda and Hyderabad (India) faced a problem of urban congestion around the Musi River. The river impeded movement between growing... more
In the late sixteenth century and again in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the rulers of Golconda and Hyderabad (India) faced a problem of urban congestion around the Musi River. The river impeded movement between growing urban areas on either bank and during the monsoon it flooded making transport nearly impossible. To resolve this issue, they constructed four bridges across the Musi, often with assistance from local British officials. These bridges served as critical infrastructure technology for urban transport and mobility. Forms of state power, from a sultan to an indigenous prince to colonial officials, all worked to finance, design, and build these bridges thus allowing urban Hyderabad to both encompass and grow beyond the challenges of the river.
Research Interests:
Social clubs began in India in the late eighteenth century in the wake of British colonial expansion. Clubs flourished in colonial India’s two great administrative divisions: those areas under direct control and the indirectly controlled... more
Social clubs began in India in the late eighteenth century in the wake of British colonial expansion. Clubs flourished in colonial India’s two great administrative divisions: those areas under direct control and the indirectly controlled princely states of India. This article explores the role of clubs in Hyderabad city, the capital city of India’s largest and wealthiest princely state. Here, club dynamics operated differently. By the nineteenth century, princely state urban capitals supported two centres of power: the local Indian ruler and that of the British Resident. These multiple centres of power forced clubs in this urban environment to be less attentive to difference among members (race and class) and more attentive to reaching across divisions. An examination of clubs in a princely state urban environment, thus, reveals an Indo-British clubland, largely marked by forms of social coexistence and cooperation.
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Page 1. Kingship and Colonialism in India's Deccan: 1850-1948 Benjamin B. Cohen Page 2. ejecting simplified notions of "civilizational... more
Page 1. Kingship and Colonialism in India's Deccan: 1850-1948 Benjamin B. Cohen Page 2. ejecting simplified notions of "civilizational clashes." this book argues for a new perspective on Hindu, Muslim, and colonial power ...
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The ability to capture, store and distribute water safely is fundamental to the health of urban and rural settlements alike. This is true for Hyderabad city, located in India's semi-arid Deccan region. I argue that an exegesis of the... more
The ability to capture, store and distribute water safely is fundamental to the health of urban and rural settlements alike. This is true for Hyderabad city, located in India's semi-arid Deccan region. I argue that an exegesis of the nineteenth-century conservation plans for Hyderabad's large, built water reservoir, Hussain Sagar, reveal multiple hydrosocial processes at work: class structures related to proximity and use of the lake's water; health concerns triggered by the water's ebb and flow; and enforcement challenges related to issues of shared governance. This article shows how conservation of a scarce resource brought together princely and colonial officials (often parsed along historiographical lines) to address a shared concern within an urban context. Such urban environmental cooperation offers a new princely urban perspective on the binaries of princely-colonial and/or ruler-ruled.
The ability to capture, store and distribute water safely is fundamental to the health of urban and rural settlements alike. This is true for Hyderabad city, located in India's semi-arid Deccan region. I argue that an exegesis of the... more
The ability to capture, store and distribute water safely is fundamental to the health of urban and rural settlements alike. This is true for Hyderabad city, located in India's semi-arid Deccan region. I argue that an exegesis of the nineteenth-century conservation plans for Hyderabad's large, built water reservoir, Hussain Sagar, reveal multiple hydrosocial processes at work: class structures related to proximity and use of the lake's water; health concerns triggered by the water's ebb and flow; and enforcement challenges related to issues of shared governance. This article shows how conservation of a scarce resource brought together princely and colonial officials (often parsed along historiographical lines) to address a shared concern within an urban context. Such urban environmental co-operation offers a new princely urban perspective on the binaries of princely–colonial and/or ruler–ruled.
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In 1934 William Barton published a historical survey of the princes of India. Barton had ample experience with the princes, and with Hyderabad, serving among other positions as that state’s Resident from 1925 to 1930. In recounting... more
In 1934 William Barton published a historical survey of the princes of India. Barton had ample experience with the princes, and with Hyderabad, serving among other positions as that state’s Resident from 1925 to 1930. In recounting Hyderabad’s history, Barton described the time a century earlier when “[t]he country was overrun by disbanded mercenaries, Arabs, Pathans, Rohillas. The Hindu feudatories, of whom there were several of importance, were everywhere in revolt.”1 The Hindu feudatories that Barton refers to were among others, the Gadwal, Wanaparthi, and Shorapur samasthans. Barton’s comments highlight Hyderabad’s multiethnic composition that included not only the state’s Hindu and Muslim nobility, but also communities of Arabs and Africans as well as Pathans, Rohillas, and Sikhs. The revolts taking place in the countryside included skirmishing between these different groups, as well as robbery and banditry. Larger scale skirmishes were aided by the ready supply of mercenaries ...
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The six years from 1922 to 1928 witnessed the death of kings at Wanaparthi, Gadwal, and Jatprole. With the help of the Court of Wards, or though their own arrangements, each family ensured the succession of rulers. The process of... more
The six years from 1922 to 1928 witnessed the death of kings at Wanaparthi, Gadwal, and Jatprole. With the help of the Court of Wards, or though their own arrangements, each family ensured the succession of rulers. The process of succession was vital to the survival of a samasthan. Various issues plagued Hyderabad’s samasthans in the early twentieth century. Having an heir meant the continued survival of the family and the samasthan itself. If the raja produced no heir, they frequently adopted a relative from a village that had special connections to the ruling house. In Wanaparthi difference of opinion within the family raised questions about the very nature of the samasthan and the applicability of Hindu or Muslim law in the succession process. Further, this case brought to light the production and use of the samasthan’s history itself to facilitate reaching a settlement. At Gadwal, a dispute between its rani and Osman Ali Khan shed light on the interference by the Nizam and Resid...
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By the late nineteenth century, the petty warring among Hyderabad’s elites had subsided. As the samasthans had survived by the military support they could provide and the armed forces they controlled,what would now fill the vacuum created... more
By the late nineteenth century, the petty warring among Hyderabad’s elites had subsided. As the samasthans had survived by the military support they could provide and the armed forces they controlled,what would now fill the vacuum created by a more peaceful Deccan? The answer to this predicament had already been in play for centuries, but now took on fresh importance. The samasthan families as well as other participants in Hyderabad’s nobility capitalized on ceremony, pomp, and bluster. These ceremonial activities began to absorb the attention and wealth once expended on military adventures.1 This occurred concomitant with the “high noon” of the Raj, which brought its own need for ceremony and imperial display. The ways in which these processes materialized was a form of “ornamentalism” or, “hierarchy made visible.”2 A composite court culture emerged that contained elements of Hindu, Muslim, and European practice. The samasthan families used a variety of strategies to take advantage of this increasingly ceremonial world. Recognizing status, reaffirming rank, exchanging gifts, and other negotiations over power were largely meted out in the durbars held at different levels of power in Hyderabad State, and in British India as well.
Historians and sociologists of Europe have explored the role of events, incidents, and scandals in time. Yet, historians of India have less explored the study of scandal. The reason for this is the relative dominance of certain topics –... more
Historians and sociologists of Europe have explored the role of events, incidents, and scandals in time. Yet, historians of India have less explored the study of scandal. The reason for this is the relative dominance of certain topics – colonial subjugation, the nationalist movement, independence, and partition of the subcontinent – among historians of India. However, scandals in particular – and events and incidents more generally – offer scholars insight and utility into particular times and places.
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Conventional views of regions and regionalism begin with geography, history, language or other categories of organization. In this article, I offer a new(?) concept: the colonial region and its concomitant sentiment of colonial... more
Conventional views of regions and regionalism begin with geography, history, language or other categories of organization. In this article, I offer a new(?) concept: the colonial region and its concomitant sentiment of colonial regionalism. The colonial region is one formed under colonial rule to suit administrative needs. It may directly encompass some form of pre-existing region, or it may cobble together a variety of smaller areas—some perhaps regions of their own, others not—into one greater region. A colonial region is thus an artificial one, not necessarily taking into account local realities. Many of the presidencies, provinces, and princely states might thus be considered as forms of colonial regions. Such regions often have long lives, and over time, inhabitants within a colonial region come to take on a sense of identity and pride in that region. This article examines colonial regionalism in the Madras Presidency along the axes of pride in physical and human assets.
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In 1882 under Salar Jung’s guidance, the Hyderabad government adopted an administrative mechanism, the Court of Wards. The Court of Wards served as a kind of babysitter for young heirs, administrator for their estates, and shelter from... more
In 1882 under Salar Jung’s guidance, the Hyderabad government adopted an administrative mechanism, the Court of Wards. The Court of Wards served as a kind of babysitter for young heirs, administrator for their estates, and shelter from the personal interests of the Nizams. For the heirs, it was literally ma-bap (mother-father). It was where legal practice settled many of the disputes rather than leaving them to the whims of the Nizam or armed conflict between family members. Implemented in much of India, the Court was a modified version of British law that allowed the Company and Crown to expand its control in the princely states. It foreshadowed India’s secular democratic underpinnings, and in Hyderabad, had profound effects on the samasthans; it would remain the key to their survival well into the twentieth century.
This introduction outlines some major ways in which regions and regionalism have been defined. It provides a brief overview of the contents of this special edition of India Review.
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Scholarship on institutional history rarely brings the academe to a heightened state of excitement. However, when institutions cross spans of time and place while intersecting with multiple cultural identities and levels of power, things... more
Scholarship on institutional history rarely brings the academe to a heightened state of excitement. However, when institutions cross spans of time and place while intersecting with multiple cultural identities and levels of power, things can become more captivating. An ideal institution for examination of this very process is the Court of Wards. Originally devised in Tudor England, the Court was later brought to India by members of the East India Company and put into wide use throughout the subcontinent. In India, its purpose was to shelter child heirs and their estates, eventually returning heir and estate to autonomy when ruling age was reached. However, while the Court in England and in India has received some critical review, we can extend its investigation one step further by examining its use in the ‘other India’, that of the princely states. How did this administrative unit become adopted and adapted to some of India's 560 princely states? To what degree were the Court an...
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In September of 1857, as the mutiny against the Company spread in north India, samasthan Raja Rameshwar Rao of Wanaparthi penned a letter to the governor general, Charles Canning, at Fort William, Calcutta. His letter demonstrated loyalty... more
In September of 1857, as the mutiny against the Company spread in north India, samasthan Raja Rameshwar Rao of Wanaparthi penned a letter to the governor general, Charles Canning, at Fort William, Calcutta. His letter demonstrated loyalty to the Queen and Company, and animosity rhetorically expressed against the mutineers.
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... Despite its namesake, this clubwhile comprised mostly of British womenhad for its patron the governor of Madras, Shri Jaya ... at the Calcutta Swimming Club's facilities and enjoyed the patronage of Her Excellency the governor... more
... Despite its namesake, this clubwhile comprised mostly of British womenhad for its patron the governor of Madras, Shri Jaya ... at the Calcutta Swimming Club's facilities and enjoyed the patronage of Her Excellency the governor of West Bengal, Shrimati Padmaja Naidu. ...
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Introduction 1. Club rules 2. Around the club 3. The business of clubbing 4. Servants and staff 5. Race, class and the club 6. Women and the club 7. Postcolonial clubbing Glossary Bibliography Index
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Social clubs began in India in the late eighteenth century in the wake of British colonial expansion. Clubs flourished in colonial India's two great administrative divisions: those areas under direct control and the indirectly controlled... more
Social clubs began in India in the late eighteenth century in the wake of British colonial expansion. Clubs flourished in colonial India's two great administrative divisions: those areas under direct control and the indirectly controlled princely states of India. This article explores the role of clubs in Hyderabad city, the capital city of India's largest and wealthiest princely state. Here, club dynamics operated differently. By the nineteenth century, princely state urban capitals supported two centres of power: the local Indian ruler and that of the British Resident. These multiple centres of power forced clubs in this urban environment to be less attentive to difference among members (race and class) and more attentive to reaching across divisions. An examination of clubs in a princely state urban environment, thus, reveals an Indo-British clubland, largely marked by forms of social coexistence and cooperation.
... time included: Shahid Amin (Oxford), David Arnold (Lancaster), Partha Chatterjee (Calcutta), Ranajit Guha (Sussex and ANU), David Hardiman ... Spivak (Emory), David Lloyd (Berkeley) Bernard Cohn (and more recently Dipesh Chakrabarty,... more
... time included: Shahid Amin (Oxford), David Arnold (Lancaster), Partha Chatterjee (Calcutta), Ranajit Guha (Sussex and ANU), David Hardiman ... Spivak (Emory), David Lloyd (Berkeley) Bernard Cohn (and more recently Dipesh Chakrabarty, Chicago), Ajay Skaria (Virginia) and ...
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... Half-way down where the road runs over the dam of the great Hosain Sagar tank (which if it gave way, as was feared ... Hindu) priests called upon the (Muslim) Nizam is further testament to the positive communal relations that... more
... Half-way down where the road runs over the dam of the great Hosain Sagar tank (which if it gave way, as was feared ... Hindu) priests called upon the (Muslim) Nizam is further testament to the positive communal relations that Hyderabad State boasted of under Mahbub Ali Khan's ...
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... Despite its namesake, this clubwhile comprised mostly of British womenhad for its patron the governor of Madras, Shri Jaya ... at the Calcutta Swimming Club's facilities and enjoyed the patronage of Her Excellency the governor... more
... Despite its namesake, this clubwhile comprised mostly of British womenhad for its patron the governor of Madras, Shri Jaya ... at the Calcutta Swimming Club's facilities and enjoyed the patronage of Her Excellency the governor of West Bengal, Shrimati Padmaja Naidu. ...
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In this article I explore the role of Africans in the Nizam of Hyderabad’s armed forces at the end of the nineteenth century. In particular I focus on their representation in newspaper and eye-witness accounts during their participation... more
In this article I explore the role of Africans in the Nizam of Hyderabad’s armed forces at the end of the nineteenth century. In particular I focus on their representation in newspaper and eye-witness accounts during their participation in the annual langar procession in Hyderabad city. Tens of thousands of local Hyderabadis as well as Britons and other foreign guests witnessed this procession that involved thousands of individuals drawn from the Nizam’s military members. I argue that by this time Africans in Hyderabad city had transitioned from active soldiers in the Nizam’s forces to a form of spectacle. Accounts of Africans reveal the ways in which their racial identity marked them as different from their Indian counterparts and how they embodied a kind of spectacle that was consumed by both Indians and Britons alike during the procession.