In Women's Work; Men's Work; Betty Wood examines the struggle of bondpeople to secure and retain for themselves recognized rights as producers and consumers in the context of the brutal; formal slave economy sanctified by law. Wood examines this struggle in the Georgia lowcountry over a period of eighty years; from the 1750s to the 1830s; when; she argues; the evolution of the system of informal slave economies had reached the point that it would henceforth dominate Savannah's political agenda until the Civil War and emancipation.The daily battles of bondpeople to secure rights as producers and consumers reflected and reinforced the integrity of the private lives they were determined to fashion for themselves; Wood posits. Their families formed the essential base upon which; and for which; they organized their informal economies. An expanding market in Savannah provided opportunities for them to negotiate terms for the sale of their labor and produce; and for them to purchase the goods and services they sought.In considering the quasi-autonomous economic activities of bondpeople; Wood outlines the equally significant; but quite different; roles of bondwomen and bondmen in organizing these economies. She also analyzes the influence of evangelical Protestant Christianity on bondpeople; and the effects of the fusion of religious and economic morality on their circumstances.For a combination of practical and religious reasons; Wood finds; informal slave economies; with their impact on whites; became the single most important issue in Savannah politics. She contends that; by the 1820s; bondpeople were instrumental in defining the political agenda of a divided city―a significant; if unintentional; achievement.
#2192114 in Books Sage Publications Pvt. Ltd 2009-11-20Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 8.40 x .80 x 5.50l; 1.37 #File Name: 817829902X340 pages
Review
6 of 11 people found the following review helpful. Post-Hindu India: Dr. Ilaiah on the current Dalit-Brahman Civil war and end of HinduismBy Saba HusainPost-Hindu IndiaBook Review of "Post-Hindu India": Dr. Kancha Ilaiah on the current Dalit-Brahman Civil war in India and the end of HinduismDr. Kancha Ilaiah well written book creates new discussion about the future of the country called "India". Already wracked by Naxal-Maoist and 89 other insurgencies; Muslim marginalization; Sikh chagrin; Kashmiri secession; and Assamese rebellion-Brhamanic Bharat now faces the simmering and violent Dalit-Brahman Civil war and the end of Hinduism as we know it.[...]Dr. Ilaiah's critical analysis for the reason of "India's" backwardness and his honest and blunt discussion about the bleak future of Hinduism is an eye opener. Dr. Ilaiah sees no future for the country-and openly espouses violent rebellion to overthrow the curse of caste slavery. He eulogizes Islam which provided emancipation to the lower castes in Afghanistan; Pakistan and Bangladesh; and favors the mass conversion to Dalits and Shudras to any of the egalitarian religions; Christianity; Islam or Buddhism. Himself a Christian; he leaves the doors open to any of these options for the conversion. There will be an open forum to save and convert 450 million souls as they break out of the straight-jacket of Brahmanic slavery. All three religions will make a case; and the Dalits and Shudras will probably be swayed in all three directions. "Hinduism" will go the way of Jainism-existing as only a small minority religion in the land of its birth.Obviously; Ilaiah's will face a huge backlash from the Brahmans; as he did when he wrote "Why I am not a Hindu". Dr. Ilaiah's efforts to destroy slavery and emancipate 450 million souls has to be encouraged and supported at all levels by all civilized people on the planet. His Dalit Freedom Network is one vehicle that can use the money and resources to wage the war of liberation for the Dalits of India. Delhi should be treated like a pariah nation like South Africa-unless and until it destroys this oppression which is a thousand times worse than Apartheid. In 2009 no civilized country should be allowed to practice dehumanization of 450 million slaves.Why is world conscience asleep?Why is the UN silent?Why has America not placed sanctions on Delhi?In one of the most seminal books of this decade titled "Post-Hindu India";Dr. Kancha Ilaiah (author of the best selling "Why I am not a Hindu") describes the condition of "India"; its non-democratic nature; its non-scientific body; and its Brahman cruelty-he predicts that Hinduism because of its non-scientific and inhuman practices will seize to exist as a major religion of the world.Kancha Ilaiah is the chairman of the political science department at Osmania University; a social activist and author. He is a Buddhist[citation needed]and a major figure in the ideological movement against the Indian caste system.He was born into Kuruma Golla (an `other backward caste` and not a Dalit; or outcaste) family on October 5; 1952 and was brought up in a small south Indian village. His family's main profession was sheep husbandry. He earned his doctorate degree in political science at theOsmania University in Hyderabad; India. His Ph.D. thesis was based on Gautama Buddha's political philosophy.Dr. Ilaiah who lives in Hyderabad and is in touch with this author sees a major civil war brewing within Hinduism which have have unforseen consequences for "India" as a state.This book is entirely different from books that have been written on Indian civil societal relations; spiritual character; political economy; philosophical foundations; scientific roots; cultural essence; and historicity. It takes a journey from tribals upwards and looks at the pyramid of the communities in an inverse order.In this book each community that was/is historically treated as unclean by Hindu Spiritual Fascism emerges as not only more clean than the Brahmin self; but also more nationalistic than that self. It draws the battle lines between spiritual fascism and spiritual democracy and predicts the possible course of an inevitable civil war between the hegemonized and the hegemonizer in the realms of spiritual life; social life and political life. It holds the hegemonic forces responsible for the ensuing war of weapons. It puts altogether unknown weapons in the hands of Dalitbahujans to seize power in all fields from the forces that made the nation surrender before external forces. Each chapter in this book shows how we did not know the historical strength of castes that was seen to be unworthy of study and how such castes have the potential to re-position the very self of the nation. At the same time the author critiques the intellectual imagination of the dominant communities from an altogether new point of view.This book is an excise in new methodology; pedagogy; analysis; and synthesization of knowledge. Every chapter in this book reads like a new innovation in Indian social anthropology. It draws a different map for the future of this nation and its intellectual history.ISBN 978-81-7829-902-0 [...]The book Post-Hindu India" has 380 pages with the following chapters:IntroductionUnpaid TeachersSubaltern ScientistsProductive SoldiersSubaltern FeministsSocial DoctorsMeat and Milk EconomistsUnknown EngineersFood ProducersSocial SmugglersSpiritual FascistsIntellectual GoondasSymptoms of Civil War and End of HinduismConclusion: The Post-Hindu IndiaHis other book; Why I Am Not A Hindu purports to the life-experience of the Dalits and Other Backward Castes and alleges that their poverty-ridden experience holds little connection to the Brahmin religious experience[5]. By explaining this dichotomy from his own personal experience as an OBC; he advocates the "Dalitization" of Indian culture. As Ilaiah claims; the Dalit philosophy prizes productivity over personal pleasure and values the graciousness of community over the "elevation of Brahmin men" at the expense of women and Dalits/OBCs. Ilaiah asserts that this shift in societal thinking will enable India to become a more prosperous and egalitarian societ"...the Indian nation is on the course for a civil war; a civil war that has been simmering as an undercurrent of the caste based cultural system that Hinduism has constructed; creating tensions in every later of the caste society...the tensions between the lower and the upper classes are leading to clashes on an everyday basis. On one hand; the spiritual and poltical aspirations of historically deprived castes and communities are increasing; leading to the expansion of spiritually democratic religions like Christianity; Buddhism; and Islam. On the other hand; new political parties are shaping up to fight the hegemony of the upper castes."According to the author "the book essentially intends to show how Hinduism as a religion is on a course of its death; as a result of its failure to mediate between scientific thought and spiritual thought. In other words; it examines how Hinduism failed to mediate between reason and faith. It draws a particular conclusion about the looming demise of Hinduism; highlighting evidence of everyday clashes of caste cultures and conflict between productive ethic of the Dalit-Bhujan castes and the anti-productive and anti-scientific of Hindu Brahmanism. Concurrently it draws a general conclusion that if a religion does not have the inner strength to gradually move towards institutionalizing the spiritual democratic of equality and transformation within its inner structures; it is bound to fade away; leaving the available space to other religions that position their relationship between science and spirituality on a positive and democratic route"."The Hindu world is the poorest in terms of scientific innovations; and even a the end of the twentieth; its priestly castes are so primitive in their spiritual approach that there is no possibility of a revolutionary reform within Hinduism. So far no Hndi scientist has discovered anything that is equivalent to American or European scientists. Even the claims of Brahmanic pundits having discovered the zero and the Pushhpaka Vimana (the ancient aeroplane) have no substantial evidence; and may in fact be termed false claims.""The claims that the Vedic texts are embodiments of all scientific knowledge have led to the absence of a social base for modern scientific discoveries . It is because of Hindu casteism that India has remained a land barren of scientific discovery throughout modern history. It has survived on modern science begged and borrowed from other countries; and the Brhamanic intellectuals are solely responsible for this status of the nation."Of course; had Hinduism not managed to become a part of the identity of the Dalit-Bhujan population of the Indian subcontinent; the region would have mostly gone over to Islam as the social masses in Afghanistan; Pakistan and Bangladesh did. This would have happened even before the East India Company established itself in India; or at the latest; before the evangelical Christian missionaries arrived. The Dalit-Bhujan population would have found solace in Islam; as the religion offered them spiritual equality within the masjid; and did not restrict access to the spiritual book. In a way; the arrival of Willaim Carey in 1792 to India changed the course of he nation's Islamization.The Upper castes led by Brahmanic forces have greatly humiliated the large communities of Shudras...the historical humiliation meted out to Dalits is too well-known...a civil war situation has existed in India on an everyday basis for a long time now. The upper castes have been oppressing; humiliating; and exploiting the productive social beings quite consistently over a period of centuries."The Dalits have an enormous potential to lead the civil war in India...they have come to a stage of making what is theirs-what has been ignored-national and unversal."This is an indication of strength. Let us not forget that the Buddha; Jesus and Mohammad in spiritual sphere and Karl Marx on the political sphere became global with a group of committed conscious intellectuals who took up a campaign about them."Internally; the process of Hinduism's death has gained momentum with the emergence of the Rashtiya Swayamseval Sangh (RSS) and its Hindu terrorist network.The movement of India into the post-Hindu phase alone can release the forces of production and scientificity.Preliminary draft has been published. This book review will be updated2 of 5 people found the following review helpful. THE TRUTHBy Jake GayIt is hard to find the truth about India. For various reasons... For example: 1. India is like the parable of the blind people and the elephant; where each person touches a different part of the elephant and thus has a different view. 2. A certain section of Indian society does not want the truth to be known!Not many people are aware of the second viewpoint above. Worse; a lot of people believe the lies; and propagate those lies.This book seems to be the culmination of Kancha Ilaiah's work of synthesis that he seems to have been doing over years and decades. It cuts right to the bone; and gives one a clear-headed idea of the reality of the situation. India is indeed diverse and complex; but like any other complexity; it starts off with some fundamentals. This book will give you an idea of those fundamentals.
