Genealogies of the “Paika Rebellion”: Heterogeneities and Linkages

Abstract

The “Paika Rebellion” of 1817 in Orissa, India has been depicted by colonial officers as a local disturbance caused by the dissatisfaction of one powerful individual deprived of traditional privileges who instigated the pāikas. The nationalist reconstruction has depicted the event as a popular freedom movement involving various castes and classes of Orissan society. This has culminated in a current move to declare the “Paika Rebellion” the First Indian War of Independence. I would like to suggest a third perspective, which focuses on the heterogeneities and linkages of the Rebellion. It is important to note that the “Paika Rebellion” was a meeting point of plural genealogies: “tribal” revolts to protect autonomy, “peasant” resistance to secure livelihood, restorative attempts by the traditional landed class, and ruling class efforts to defend and expand authority. Appreciating the plural genealogies of the Rebellion leads to more perceptive understandings of the heterogeneous characteristics of popular movements and their aftermaths in modern India. Lastly, in order to go beyond colonial and dominant-caste centred perspectives, I propose that we name it the “Orissa Uprising of 1817”.

Bigger than Bitcoin: A Theoretical Typology and Research Agenda for Digital Currencies

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“…13 By 1996, legal scholars had worked to outline the contours 4 Pickering, 1844. 5 Goldberg, 2014. 6 Yang, 2011. 7 Perlin, 1983. 8 Hogendorn and Johnson, 2003. 9 Tanabe, 2020. 10 Simkovic, 2009Stango, 2003. 11 Niggle, 1991;Cömert, 2013. 12 of an "anonymous electronic cash," 14 and computer scientists worked to find security issues associated with these systems, in efforts to make peer-to-peer and large-scale transactions more efficient than traditional payments.…”