Honour and emotions in twentieth century Hindu nationalism in north India, 1900-1980

The research project explores the concept of ‘national honour’ of colonial nationalist Hindus, represented in ‘agents,’ -political, religious, and cultural organizations   from 1900 to 1980. Central to the research is the examination of social engineering within several mercantile elites of the period with special reference to the Gujarati corporate order, whose concept of honour was articulated as ‘abru,’ – meaning creditworthiness, as well as honour. Its notions of honour could be historically traced back to the functional role played by the Mahajan organization of Gujarat. The study will examine how the honour concepts stemming  from older  traditions were transferred into a nationalist phase acquiring new meanings and shaping the notion of hierarchy and status for a modernist and colonial Hindu nation.
Competing honour systems existed in the colonial Hindu political world attempting to gain control over symbolic meanings playing out against the values and practices embedded in the social and cultural imaginary of the colonial Hindu society. How much did the colonial conditions, power relations and the commercial interest of the English contribute to the growth and representation of the moral values of the indigenous corporate order in mainstream nationalism? What reasons led to the spread of these bourgeois norms and to the annihilation and marginalization of competing Hindu honour systems? Answers to these questions will be sought by analyzing the way verbal and non-verbal languages, religious symbolisms and practices were followed throughout the nationalist period, while focusing mainly on the honour concept of the Gujarati merchantile order of the Jaina-Bania-Brahmana communities.