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Opere di Priya Atwal

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This probably wasn't the best book for me—someone who knows shamefully little about the history of the Punjab—to start learning about the history of the short-lived Sikh Empire. Priya Atwal clearly expects some baseline knowledge of it and of Sikhism that I don't quite have—while she gives a brief overview of the history of the revered figures known as the Gurus who helped establish the Sikh faith, it seemed obvious to me that there were elements of Royals and Rebels the significance of which I wasn't quite grasping because the area was to new to me. It didn't help that this read at points very much like a doctoral dissertation that's been revised into a monograph.

That said, there was much here that was of interest, with Atwal in particular interested in recovering the role of royal women in supporting the dynastic efforts of the Empire. Rather than passive figures secluded away in purdah, Atwal argues that these women were key players in high-level politics. There is certainly much here to support this, although I was not convinced by all of Atwal's line of argument. Atwal posits for instance that no Sikh woman ever ruled in her own name because of the interference of British colonisers on supposedly socially egalitarian Sikhs—but without at all downplaying the impact of imperialism on Punjabi society, what I gleaned from reading this book was that while there may have been a theoretical spiritual equality between Sikh men and women, there was also a patriarchal social framework undergirding both high politics and daily life.
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Segnalato
siriaeve | Jun 9, 2022 |

Statistiche

Opere
1
Utenti
31
Popolarità
#440,253
Voto
½ 3.5
Recensioni
1
ISBN
8