Studies on Modern Asia and Africa – Serie

This 7-volume collection originally published between 1963 and 1979 contains a mix of titles on Asia and Africa. The individual titles cover topics including the Commonwealth, education, history, law, literature, politics, and society. Drawing on a great depth of knowledge and research, these titles were written by experts in their respective fields.

Originally published in 1968, we were witnessing a new – and welcome – emphasis on Comparative Law, both in the Universities and even the practising profession, together with a quickened interest in the law of family relations. This volume provided a wealth of information for anyone wishing to study these relations in a widely comparative context. The chapters cover not only the basic law of marriage and divorce in a number of developing countries both in Asia and Africa, but also discuss in considerable detail the ways in which matrimonial property is regulated under different systems. This was a highly topical subject at the time, when our own law of matrimonial property was under criticism and active reconsideration. The book also treats such subjects as the eclipse of the patriarchal family in contemporary Islamic law, religious law and the modern family in Israel, the juristic basis and context of Parsi family law, and contemporary family law in Southern Africa.

Originally published in 1968, we were witnessing a new – and welcome – emphasis on Comparative Law, both in the Universities and even the practising profession, together with a quickened interest in the law of family relations. This volume provided a wealth of information for anyone wishing to study these relations in a widely comparative context. The chapters cover not only the basic law of marriage and divorce in a number of developing countries both in Asia and Africa, but also discuss in considerable detail the ways in which matrimonial property is regulated under different systems. This was a highly topical subject at the time, when our own law of matrimonial property was under criticism and active reconsideration. The book also treats such subjects as the eclipse of the patriarchal family in contemporary Islamic law, religious law and the modern family in Israel, the juristic basis and context of Parsi family law, and contemporary family law in Southern Africa.

Originally published in 1975, much of Western scholarly writing on Japan had in recent years concerned the study of modernisation. The papers in this volume, which were prepared by leading specialists from Europe and Israel, concentrate on the problems arising from modernisation, rather than on an analysis of the process itself. The historical papers deal with various aspects of the political and international tensions that link modernisation to Japanese expansion and the Second World War: the civil war of 1868; early newspapers and nationalist opinion; the Washington Conference; politics in the 1930s; the bombing of Japan in 1945. Those on literature examine some related themes concerning national attitudes, as expressed in drama and the novel, especially in the context of the relationship of modern ideas and institutions to traditional culture and society. Similar questions are raised by the discussion of new post-war religions, as well as in papers on the use of leisure and on industrial relations in contemporary Japan. Finally, there are two contributions dealing with the economic consequences of the industrial miracle that has marked the latest phase of modernisation, one on balance of payments difficulties and one on current plans to deal with the problems of urban growth. Many of these papers present the results of hitherto unpublished research of great importance to students of modern Japan.

Originally published in 1975, much of Western scholarly writing on Japan had in recent years concerned the study of modernisation. The papers in this volume, which were prepared by leading specialists from Europe and Israel, concentrate on the problems arising from modernisation, rather than on an analysis of the process itself. The historical papers deal with various aspects of the political and international tensions that link modernisation to Japanese expansion and the Second World War: the civil war of 1868; early newspapers and nationalist opinion; the Washington Conference; politics in the 1930s; the bombing of Japan in 1945. Those on literature examine some related themes concerning national attitudes, as expressed in drama and the novel, especially in the context of the relationship of modern ideas and institutions to traditional culture and society. Similar questions are raised by the discussion of new post-war religions, as well as in papers on the use of leisure and on industrial relations in contemporary Japan. Finally, there are two contributions dealing with the economic consequences of the industrial miracle that has marked the latest phase of modernisation, one on balance of payments difficulties and one on current plans to deal with the problems of urban growth. Many of these papers present the results of hitherto unpublished research of great importance to students of modern Japan.

Originally published in 1975, this book was something of a pioneering study. It examines the three main traditions of African educational development – indigenous, Islamic and ‘Western’ – and the resulting harmonies and conflicts that arise from these traditions. Its contributors are all specialists writing about their own particular area of interest covering many countries of tropical Africa. They include a number of well-known African scholars as well as some comparatively new names in the field of African Studies at the time. A feature of the book is the attention that it gives to the education of women – an aspect of ‘nation-building’ that had often been rather neglected.This study is an inter-disciplinary work, calling into contribution History, Sociology, Anthropology, Law, Linguistics, and Medicine, as well as Education. It seeks to show how complex the educational situation is in Africa – and how this complexity needs to be appreciated as a background to educational planning. Nobody who has read this volume will be inclined to dismiss educational reform in Africa as ‘a relatively simple matter’ – a point of view too frequently implied by those who have not studied the subject in depth. ‘Off with the old – on with the new’ cannot be so easily implemented as critics within and without the continent sometimes seem to think. More constructively, however, this volume provides many useful insights into ways in which social tension may be reduced and harmony promoted in, and through, education.Although it is likely to be of most immediate value to those who are concerned with African education and its administration (especially in teacher-education), the book constitutes a significant contribution to understanding problems of ‘development’.

Originally published in 1975, this book was something of a pioneering study. It examines the three main traditions of African educational development – indigenous, Islamic and ‘Western’ – and the resulting harmonies and conflicts that arise from these traditions. Its contributors are all specialists writing about their own particular area of interest covering many countries of tropical Africa. They include a number of well-known African scholars as well as some comparatively new names in the field of African Studies at the time. A feature of the book is the attention that it gives to the education of women – an aspect of ‘nation-building’ that had often been rather neglected.This study is an inter-disciplinary work, calling into contribution History, Sociology, Anthropology, Law, Linguistics, and Medicine, as well as Education. It seeks to show how complex the educational situation is in Africa – and how this complexity needs to be appreciated as a background to educational planning. Nobody who has read this volume will be inclined to dismiss educational reform in Africa as ‘a relatively simple matter’ – a point of view too frequently implied by those who have not studied the subject in depth. ‘Off with the old – on with the new’ cannot be so easily implemented as critics within and without the continent sometimes seem to think. More constructively, however, this volume provides many useful insights into ways in which social tension may be reduced and harmony promoted in, and through, education.Although it is likely to be of most immediate value to those who are concerned with African education and its administration (especially in teacher-education), the book constitutes a significant contribution to understanding problems of ‘development’.

The story of the transformation of the old British Empire into the modern Commonwealth had often been told from the point of view of Great Britain and the ‘white dominions’. No attempt had so far been made to describe the decisive role of India in the shaping of the multi-racial Commonwealth of today. Originally published in 1965, the main theme of this work by an Indian author is the growth of the idea of Commonwealth in India from 1885, the year in which the Indian National Congress was organized, to 1929, when Congress declared ‘complete independence’ to be its goal. What did the British Empire mean to early Indian nationalists? How did the ideal of self-government of India on the Dominion model grow? What was India’s continued association with the Commonwealth valued in India and in Britain? Answers to these and similar questions are attempted in this book.Despite its great importance, the role of India in the Commonwealth in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries had received little attention from scholars. Dr Mehrotra’s clear, incisive, informed and balanced study was therefore the more welcome, not only for its source, but because it lent a new dimension to our understanding of India’s part in defining and enlarging the idea of Commonwealth. It is an important contribution to Commonwealth and to modern Indian history.

The story of the transformation of the old British Empire into the modern Commonwealth had often been told from the point of view of Great Britain and the ‘white dominions’. No attempt had so far been made to describe the decisive role of India in the shaping of the multi-racial Commonwealth of today. Originally published in 1965, the main theme of this work by an Indian author is the growth of the idea of Commonwealth in India from 1885, the year in which the Indian National Congress was organized, to 1929, when Congress declared ‘complete independence’ to be its goal. What did the British Empire mean to early Indian nationalists? How did the ideal of self-government of India on the Dominion model grow? What was India’s continued association with the Commonwealth valued in India and in Britain? Answers to these and similar questions are attempted in this book.Despite its great importance, the role of India in the Commonwealth in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries had received little attention from scholars. Dr Mehrotra’s clear, incisive, informed and balanced study was therefore the more welcome, not only for its source, but because it lent a new dimension to our understanding of India’s part in defining and enlarging the idea of Commonwealth. It is an important contribution to Commonwealth and to modern Indian history.

India inherited a system of representative and responsible government from Britain, a large part of which was incorporated in the new constitution of independent India. But in the early 1960s it was already becoming clear that this political system could not long continue without change; and the probability is that the change would be considerable. A system deriving its inspiration from a homogenous, tight little nation-state like Britain could scarcely fit a sub-continent of heterogeneous elements like India.Already, under a deceptively smooth surface, important changes in the nature of Indian political life were taking place. Originally published in 1963, the purpose of these collected studies was to explore, in the rapidly changing situation, the intimate relationship of Indian politics and society and to indicate the ways in which the deeper social and political currents were moving. As an aid in assessing the degree of change in the modern political life of India, several studies of traditional attitudes towards politics in the Hindu and Muslim empires are included, along with an assessment of the central meaning of the fundamental British statement of policy in the Montagu Declaration of 1917. Against this background, the greater part of the volume discusses the practices and trends of the previous few years.

India inherited a system of representative and responsible government from Britain, a large part of which was incorporated in the new constitution of independent India. But in the early 1960s it was already becoming clear that this political system could not long continue without change; and the probability is that the change would be considerable. A system deriving its inspiration from a homogenous, tight little nation-state like Britain could scarcely fit a sub-continent of heterogeneous elements like India.Already, under a deceptively smooth surface, important changes in the nature of Indian political life were taking place. Originally published in 1963, the purpose of these collected studies was to explore, in the rapidly changing situation, the intimate relationship of Indian politics and society and to indicate the ways in which the deeper social and political currents were moving. As an aid in assessing the degree of change in the modern political life of India, several studies of traditional attitudes towards politics in the Hindu and Muslim empires are included, along with an assessment of the central meaning of the fundamental British statement of policy in the Montagu Declaration of 1917. Against this background, the greater part of the volume discusses the practices and trends of the previous few years.

Among the tribal populations of India there is none which rivals in numerical strength and historical importance the group of tribes known as Gonds. In the late 1970s, numbering well over four million, Gonds extend over a large part of the Deccan and constitute a prominent element in the complex ethnic pattern of the zone where Dravidian and Indo-Aryan populations overlap and dovetail.In the highlands of the former Hyderabad State (now Andhra Pradesh) concentrations of Gonds persisted in their traditional lifestyle until the middle of the twentieth century: feudal chiefs continued to function as tribal heads and hereditary bards preserved a wealth of myths and epic tales. It was at that time that Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf first began his study of this group of Gonds, spending the better part of three years in their villages. While observing their daily life and their elaborate ritual performances, he also saw the threat which more advanced Hindu populations, infiltrating into the Gonds’ habitat and competing for their ancestral land, were posing to their way of life.During the thirty years prior to publication the author had frequently revisited the Gond region and in 1976-7 he undertook a detailed re-study of social and economic developments in the villages he knew best. His long-standing familiarity with many individual Gonds has allowed him to draw in this book, originally published in 1979, an intimate picture of the life of a specific village community and to trace the fates of individual men and women over a long stretch of time. While his earlier book The Raj Gonds of Adilabad: Myth and Ritual concentrated mainly on the Gonds’ mythology and ritual practices, the present volume devotes more space to a detailed analysis of the operation of social forces and the traditional structure of a society characterised by a high degree of cohesion. In 1979 the Gonds were once again being subjected to the pressure of outside forces and Professor von Fürer-Haimendorf lays special emphasis on the analysis of the process of social change forced upon the Gonds by settlers from outside. The last part of the book thus represents a case history of the transformation of a tribal society under the impact of modernisation and relentless population growth.

Among the tribal populations of India there is none which rivals in numerical strength and historical importance the group of tribes known as Gonds. In the late 1970s, numbering well over four million, Gonds extend over a large part of the Deccan and constitute a prominent element in the complex ethnic pattern of the zone where Dravidian and Indo-Aryan populations overlap and dovetail.In the highlands of the former Hyderabad State (now Andhra Pradesh) concentrations of Gonds persisted in their traditional lifestyle until the middle of the twentieth century: feudal chiefs continued to function as tribal heads and hereditary bards preserved a wealth of myths and epic tales. It was at that time that Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf first began his study of this group of Gonds, spending the better part of three years in their villages. While observing their daily life and their elaborate ritual performances, he also saw the threat which more advanced Hindu populations, infiltrating into the Gonds’ habitat and competing for their ancestral land, were posing to their way of life.During the thirty years prior to publication the author had frequently revisited the Gond region and in 1976-7 he undertook a detailed re-study of social and economic developments in the villages he knew best. His long-standing familiarity with many individual Gonds has allowed him to draw in this book, originally published in 1979, an intimate picture of the life of a specific village community and to trace the fates of individual men and women over a long stretch of time. While his earlier book The Raj Gonds of Adilabad: Myth and Ritual concentrated mainly on the Gonds’ mythology and ritual practices, the present volume devotes more space to a detailed analysis of the operation of social forces and the traditional structure of a society characterised by a high degree of cohesion. In 1979 the Gonds were once again being subjected to the pressure of outside forces and Professor von Fürer-Haimendorf lays special emphasis on the analysis of the process of social change forced upon the Gonds by settlers from outside. The last part of the book thus represents a case history of the transformation of a tribal society under the impact of modernisation and relentless population growth.

The 1960s, in retrospect, may be chiefly remembered for the unprecedented constitutional developments it witnessed in countries emerging from colonial rule. Originally published in 1963, an examination of these constitutional developments from the authoritative pens of the previous Legal Adviser to the Colonial and Commonwealth Relations Offices, and the Legal Adviser to the Colonial Office at the time was, therefore, particularly timely – for no two men in human history can have had to draft so many constitutional instruments.One after another of these new constitutions had, moreover, included certain ‘Fundamental Rights’, so a discussion of this subject by a recognised academic authority, together with an examination by an ex-Chief Justice of Allahabad of the constitutional writs which have been so widely used in India to protect these rights, was particularly appropriate. An erudite examination of the origins of the famous phrase ‘Justice, Equity and Good Conscience’ by the Reader in Oriental Laws in the University of London, fittingly concludes the first half of this volume.Legal developments in these emergent countries, had, however, by no means been limited to the sphere of constitutional law. So the series continues with contributions on the legal profession in African territories, by a former President of the Law Society, and on the problems posed by Islamic law in that continent, by the Professor of Oriental Laws. Criminal Law is represented by a consideration of ‘Liability under the Nigerian Criminal Code’ by an ex-Chief Justice of the Western Region; matters economic and sociological by papers on ‘Legal Development and Economic Growth in Africa’ and ‘Women’s Status and Law Reform’ by two experts in Africa law; and developments in Asia by an examination of recent legislation on family law in Pakistan, and of the sources of Chinese Law in Hong Kong, by other members of the staff of the School of Oriental and African Studies.