Patron : Vice-Chancellor, Professor Arun Kumar Grover Editor-in-Chief, Ronki Ram, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Professor of Political Science Editor, M.Rajivlochan, Professor, Department of History Editorial Board Prof. Sanjay Chaturvedi, Department of Political Science Prof. Devi Sirohi, Chairperson, Commission for Protection of Child Rights, Chandigarh. Prof. Jayanth N. Pethkar, School of Communication Studies Prof. Deepti Gupta, Department of English & Cultural Studies Prof. Meena Sehgal, Department of Psychology Prof. Smita Bhutani, Department of Geography Prof. Asha Moudgil, Department of Philosophy Shri Jatinder Moudgil (Technical Production Advisor), Manager, Panjab University Press Advisory Board : Prof. C. Rammanohar Reddy, Independent Intellectual Prof. M.M. Puri, Former Vice-Chancellor, Panjab University Prof. Sukhadeo Thorat, Chairman ICSSR, New Delhi Prof. Romila Thapar, Professor Emeritus of History, Centre for Historical Studies, School of Social Sciences, JNU, New Delhi Prof. Roger Wettenhall, Professor Emeritus in Public Administration and Visiting Professor, ANZSOG Institute for Governance, University of Canberra ACT, Australia Prof. Paul Giles, Oxford University, UK Prof. (Emeritus) Dharmendra Goel, Department of Philosophy, Panjab University Prof. (Emeritus) H.S. Shergill, Department of Economics, Panjab University Dr. Pramod, Director, Institute for Development and Communication (IDC), Chandigarh Prof. Makarand R. Paranjape, Professor, Department of English, School of SLLCS, JNU, New Delhi-110067 Profesor Paramjit Singh Judge, Department of Sociology, GNDU, Amritsar Prof. P. Vinod, Dean Central University, Hyderabad Prof. R.K. Mishra, Director, Institute of Public Enterprises, O U Campus, Hyderabad Prof. M.P. Bhardwaj, 744, Sector 12, Panchkula Prof. S.L. Sharma, 739, Sector 2, Panchkula Office Staff Rajni Bala Office Panjab University Research Journal (Arts) Department of Public Administration, Arts Block-III Panjab University, Chandigarh – 110014 Web: purja.puchd.ac.in and Email: [email protected] Copyright 2016:Panjab University Research Journal (Arts) It is hereby asserted that all the rights with respect to the material published in this journal are vested in the publisher. Therefore, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system or translated, in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. Inquiries regarding reproduction in any manner, in whole or part, in English or any other language may be addressed to the Editor-in-Chief, Panjab University Research Journal (Arts) However, the Editor-in-Chief takes no personal responsibility for the facts opinions or views expressed in the articles published in this journal. PURJA is a liberal journal and often publishes opinions and views of the writers that are not strictly in consonance with those of its editorial policies. Panjab University Research Journal (Arts) Volume XLIII Nos. 1 & 2 April-October 2016 Editor-in-Chief Editor Ronki Ram M Rajivlochan Panjab University Chandigarh (India) No issue was bought out from the year 2014 to year 2015 (i.e. Vol. XLI & XLII) Contents Article Author Page 1. Hari Ram Gupta Memorial Lecture, Panjab Upinder Singh 1-14 University, Chandigarh. The problem of war: perspectives from ancient India 2. Gandhi and Nehru – An Epitome of Anju Suri 15-22 Ideological Contradictions 3. The Ghadar: Role in Revolutionary Propaganda Karanbir Singh 23-32 4. Militancy and The Plight of Women in Suman 33-48 Jammu and Kashmir 5. An alternative Historiography: Articulating Debashree Dattaray 49-60 Dalit Identity in G. Kalyana Rao’s Untouchable Spring 6. Levels, Pattern and Distribution of Income Neha Jain, Gian Singh 61-72 of Scheduled Caste Households In Rural Punjab & Rupinder Kaur 7. Self Help Groups and Poverty: Simran Jaidka 73-84 A Consumption Based Analysis & R K Sharma 8. Disused School Management Committees: Neelam Kumari 85-106 A Micro Level Study 9. The Problems of Religious Minorities in India: Emanual Nahar 107-128 A Study of Christians in Punjab 10. Fiscal Decentralisation in India: The Genesis Priyanka Sethi 129-140 11. Gilgit-Baltistan: An Emerging Turf of Sino-Pak Jaskaran Singh Waraich 141-154 All Weather Strategic Partnership 12. 50 Years of 1965 Indo-Pak War: A Relook Kulvinder Singh 155-172 Book Reviews 13. India’s Defence and National Security by Reviewed by 175-178 Shekhar Dutt Rakesh Datta 14. The Indian Constitution By Madhav Reviewed by 179-182 Khosla Bhanu Pratap 15. The God Who Failed: An Assessment of Reviewed by 183-186 Jawaharlal Nehru’s Leadership By Madhav Godbole Vineet Keshwa Hari Ram Gupta Memorial Lecture, Panjab University, Chandigarh 1 The problem of war: perspectives from ancient India THE PROBLEM OF WAR: PERSPECTIVES FROM ANCIENT INDIA Upinder Singh Department of History, University of Delhi I consider it a great honour to deliver the Hari Ram Gupta Memorial Lecture at Panjab University. Professor Hari Ram Gupta is very well-known in the academic world as a historian who wrote prodigiously and insightfully on the history of the Punjab and the Sikhs. This lecture offers us a special occasion and opportunity to remember him and his contributions as a scholar, teacher and person, and I am grateful to the History Department of Panjab University for giving me the privilege of being part of this important event. The topic of my lecture is: ‘The problem of war: perspectives from ancient India’. Violence in its various manifestations has characterized all human history, and the ways in which various societies grappled intellectually with this phenomenon is therefore an important historical issue. That this has not been realized in the historiography of ancient India is due to at least three reasons. The first is that historians have failed to take cognizance of the phenomenon of violence as underlying the entire political and social history of ancient India. The second is that many decades of a preoccupation with economic and social history have led to a gross neglect of the history of ideas. And the third is that many have been mesmerized by an image of a non-violent ancient India in which Buddhism, Asoka and ahiṁsā are centre stage. This is a modern construct, rooted in the idealization of Buddhism by western scholars during the colonial period. Towards the end of the colonial period and even thereafter, this image found resonance with the role of non-violence in Gandhian nationalism; it therefore continued to be an image of our ancient past that we chose to project to ourselves and to the world. This is in spite of the unequivocal testimony of ancient sources that violence of various kinds was an intrinsic, and even accepted, part of life in ancient India, even if it was challenged from time to time. From this arises the question which is the focus of my current research and of my talk today: If violence was pervasive in ancient Indian (as in all) societies, how did ancient Indian societies deal intellectually with this problem? The English word ‘violence’ and the Sanskrit hiṁsā are both tinged with a negative implication, namely that the force used and the injury inflicted is at least to some extent excessive or unjustified. Because this is a very broad issue, I Panjab University Research Journal (Arts) Vol. XLIII, Nos. 1 & 2 2 Panjab University Research Journal (Arts) Vol. XLIII, Nos. 1 & 2 will focus today on one particular form of political violence, namely war, in two specific contexts – those of the Maurya (4th-2nd century BCE) and Gupta (c. 3rd to 6th century CE) empires -- in order to understand how certain texts generated by these empires dealt with the problem of war. Because war is closely linked to other, larger issues concerning political power, especially the nature of kingship and empire, I will also touch on them as well. The three sources I will take up for discussion are the inscriptions of Aśoka (3rd century BCE); a political treatise called the Nītisāra (c. 500-700); and a very beautiful and powerful poetic work – Kālidāsa’s Raghuvaṁśa (c. 400). The general point that I would like to emphasize is that the historian’s general approach towards ancient political systems, which is to use the conceptual vocabulary of history or anthropology, needs to be supplemented by a study of kingdoms and empires which looks at their conceptual universe ‘from within.’ I would also like to emphasize that ideas, including political ideas, are an important part of history, and have to be taken seriously, instead of being constantly reduced to something else, for instance legitimation strategy. These ideas cannot be comprehended through a piece-meal or selective rummaging; what is required is a close and nuanced reading of texts in their entirety, in a manner that is sensitive to their genre as well as to the rigorous demands of historical inquiry. Such an analysis would bring out the different perspectives contained within the rich ancient Indian intellectual tradition. The edicts of Aśoka In the history of ancient India, the Maurya empire (c. 324/321-187 BCE) stands out as the first virtually all-India empire, and the inscriptions of Aśoka (c. 268-232 BCE) as the earliest self-representations of imperial power. Most of Aśoka’s epigraphs are in the Prakrit language and the Brahmi script, but there are also a few Kharoshthi, Greek and Aramaic inscriptions1. Judging from the frequent use of the first person in the Prakrit inscriptions and their strong personal tone, it can be inferred that Aśoka played an important role in determining their content. The major issues of debate regarding the Mauryas are the nature of the empire, the extent of Aśoka’s pacifism, and the nature of Aśoka’s dhamma. The idea of a highly centralized polity has been abandoned in favour of a more realistic and textured view of the empire2. Questions have been raised with regard to the extent of Aśoka’s pacifism and its impact on the fortunes of the empire3.