Webs of History : Information Communication and Technology from Early to Post Colonial India

Contents Preface. Introduction/Amiya Kumar Bagchi Dipankar Sinha and Barnita Bagchi. 1. Dynamics of information and communication technology in the Harappan period/R.C. Thakran. 2. Information exchange and administration case studies from early India/Ranabir Chakravarti. 3. Storage and retrieval of information literacy and communication in pre modern Kerala/Kesavan Veluthat. 4. Forms of audio visual recording in medieval Bengal/Ratnabali Chatterjee. 5. Communication and commerce the Armenian world trade in the seventeenth century/Ruquia Hussain. 6. The Dutch East India Company's Communication Network over Land and Sea/Ishrat Alam. 7. Primitive newspapers the eighteenth century Akhbarat/Iqbal Husain. 8. M/s Khemkaran Mansaram the world's first ever news selling agency during the eighteenth century Maratha rule/G.T. Kulkarni. 9. The introduction of semaphore telegraphy in Colonial India/Gunakar Muley. 10. The railways in the colonial communications system of India a reappraisal/Sanchari Roy Mukherjee. 11. State intelligence network and surveillance in Colonial India/Basudeb Chattopadhyay. 12. Confronting the colonial communication order Gandhiji the Green Pamphlet and Reuter/Saumendranath Bera. 13. History of communication for development/Ishita Mukhopadhyay. 14. On forgetting history information and communication technology and the colonisation of politics in post colonial India/Dipankar Sinha. 15. Gender history and the recovery of knowledge with information and communication technologies/Barnita Bagchi. 16. Enemies of an information society through the ages/Amiya Kumar Bagchi. Notes on contributors. This volume collects essays relating to the interface of information communication and technology in India from the early period to the present. The twenty first century is widely recognised as the era of information and communication revolution which in turn has been primarily attributed to the spectacular progress in technology. However such a revolutionary and momentous change has its roots in history culture and the society in which it takes place. The volume meticulously tracks down the process in a multiverse site like India by weaving the past and the present treating them in ruptures as well as continuities. While revealing that technological innovations and practices date back to pre modern times the volume also challenges the conventional wisdom that such interface is a gift of modernity. The contributors to the volume scholars with diverse disciplinary backgrounds offer innovative approaches in re engaging themselves with a theme that is as much a part of our heritage as it is of current relevance. The issues and questions posed here while enriching the understanding of administrators social workers journalists and lay readers will also lead to further academic research. The volume will be essential reading for students and teachers of history mainstream social sciences cultural and gender studies. 298 pp.…