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‘Across disciplines, beyond area studies’R.S. Newman aa La Trobe University ,Published online: 27 Feb 2007.

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BOOK REVIEW ARTICLE

'Across Disciplines, Beyond Area Studies'

R.S. NewmanLa Trobe University

Adas, Michael, Prophets of Rebellion: Millenarian Protest Movements against the EuropeanColonial Order, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1979, paperback edition 1987.XXVII, 243pp. Preface, foreword, acknowledgments, introduction, illustrations, maps,bibliography, index. Paper: $28.50

Ellis, Stephen, The Rising of the Red Shawls: a Revolt in Madagascar, 1895-1899,Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1985,214pp.

Hardiman, David, The Coming of the Devi: Adivasi Assertion in Western India, OxfordUniversity Press, Delhi: 1987. xi, 248pp. Introduction, bibliography, index. Cloth: $46.00

When I chose to review these three books, my idea was to take the case studies presentedby Ellis and Hardiman, on Madagascar and Gujarat respectively and put them into thetheoretical framework put forward by Adas, whose five, fascinating examples were drawnfrom New Zealand (Aotearoa), Indonesia, Burma, central India, and Tanzania. I felt that itwas interesting and useful to look at wars, revolts or conflicts between Western and colonialpeoples through the prism of what has been labelled 'millenarian protest', the reason beingthat this topic, more than many others, lies at the intersection of history, anthropology,politics, and religious studies. In addition, because millenarian or millenarian-like activityhas been so widespread throughout the world, its study forces scholars to go beyond thenarrower confines of traditional area studies interests. Admittedly, there are pitfalls. Fewpeople feel comfortable dealing in so many disciplines, each with their own methodology,tradition, and caveats. Even fewer have the language skills and cultural backgroundknowledge to deal at an expert level with the wide variety of millenarian movements. I donot claim to be one of those rare people. Nevertheless I feel, like Paul Hogan, that 'it's a hardjob but somebody has to do it'. An interest in Indian Ocean studies spurred me on. With theexception of the Maori protests of the 1860s, all of Adas's examples came from the IndianOcean area, as do the two newer works I chose. I felt that it would be useful to look at'millenarian protest' around the whole rim of the Indian Ocean in one review in order to addto the argument that the Indian Ocean should be seen as a mega-cultural area encompassingSoutheast Asia, the Subcontinent, East Africa, the Islamic Middle East and Madagascar.

This is all well and good as a group of ideas, but writing a review which holds togetherand points in the preferred direction has proven to be difficult. For a start, there is littleoverlap. Precisely because people from different academic and area studies traditions study

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the same topic they tend to write very different books. As Adas (originally published in1979) precedes the other two, he obviously could not refer to their work. Ellis seems not tohave heard of Adas: the latter does not appear even in Ellis's bibliography, which is a pity.Hardiman refers to Adas in one note (p. 153) and contradicts Adas's view of messianicleadership. This one stimulating reference tantalises all the more because it shows the scopefor an interesting debate. Hardiman does not mention Ellis.

The titles of the three volumes reveal another difference in direction. Adas firmlyfocuses on prophets of rebellion, i.e. the individuals who inspired movements. He says hiscentral purpose 'is to explore the relationships between the rise of prophetic leaders andviolent protest', (p.xix) Both Ellis and Hardiman focus instead on the movements or events,as is evident in their action-oriented titles; 'rising' and 'coming1. Neither identifies amessianic leader or prophet as central to the particular events he describes. Lest a readerconclude that Ellis and Hardiman are similar even if they differ from Adas, let me quash thatright away. Hardiman's aim is primarily derived from the subaltern studies school — 'towrite a history of the adivasis [tribal aborigines, in this case of Gujarat] in which they are thesubject', (p. 10). He disagrees with Indian nationalist and Marxist versions of the same eventsand tries to see the self-assertion of the adivasis from their point of view, leading inexorablyto a religious focus. Prophecy, visions, propitation, 'letters from God', mediums and theGoddess (Devi) herself all play strong parts in Hardiman's story. While religion is not absentfrom Ellis's discussion of Madagascar, his approach is necessarily different. The Rising ofthe Red Shawls is one of the first books written in English on a specific episode in Madagascarhistory, almost all the rest having been general histories of the country. Ellis states 'Therising of the menalamba was one of the key events in modern Malagasy history. It helped todetermine the pattern of French colonization and Malagasy attitudes to it. It also exposedsome of the main elements and conflicts in Merina society', (p.10) [The Merina were themost powerful of the many groups inhabiting Madagascar, all of whom spoke a commonlanguage]. Because of the importance of the rising and because it is 'under-reported' inEnglish, Ellis's main aim is political-historical; to describe the rising, its causes, nature andconsequences, (p. 10). While providing some discussion of milenarian movements and theirattempts to re-interpret history, Ellis is basically engaged in description. Despite theseproblems, it still seems to me that it is worth considering the three books together and I willdo so.

Before going on to discussion of the three volumes and the issues they raise, let me praiseall three volumes. I chose the three by their subject matter with no prior knowledge of theirstyle or worth. I found it a great pleasure to read all of them. Adas's work is seminal becauseit stretches across area studies boundaries and it introduces new ideas on millenarian protestor at least applies them in new ways. It is rich in detail and in places written with a real senseof drama. Ellis's work covers a fascinating episode of history in a country very little-knownto Anglophone readers. Beyond that, his book is well-researched and well-written andprovides good maps, so necessary for readers venturing onto new ground. Hardiman's workis on a small event in a vast country. Nevertheless his points are well-taken, he writes veryclearly, and his research is impressive. His book, too, contains good maps.

Now let us turn to Prophets of Rebellion and some of the ideas Adas raises. In the interestsof brevity I will not discuss all the major points he brings up and will exclude in particularsuch topics as the way millenarian movements move towards violence, the suppression of thatviolence and its aftermath, and his attempts at a general typology of such movements. RatherI have chosen five other areas.

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Book Review Article

Common background elements

Adas lists five variables that were present in all the movements he studied. These are(p.42) a) domination by agents of a foreign civilisation who had superior technology andorganisational techniques, b) exposure to new policies and institutions linked to globalcapitalism, c) rise of new social groups, new institutions and modes of organisation, d) newstandards of status, value and morality and e) an undermining of tradition which led todisorientation, the lack of a previously-existing cultural consensus, bewilderment, insecurity,and ultimately, an idealising of the precolonial past. He describes each of these phenomenafor the five case studies. I will attempt to apply them afterwards to Ellis's and Hardiman'sdata.

Relative deprivation

Drawing on Aberle's studies of American Indian religion and millenarian tendencies,Adas uses a theory of relative deprivation to explain why particular individuals and groupswere led to social protest (p.44). The word 'relative' is important because it was seldom themost sorely oppressed or worst-disadvantaged who led protests. Rather, as is well-known, itwas members of 'previously established indigenous groups' who came to 'feel that a gapexisted between what they felt they deserved in terms of status and material rewards and whatthey possessed or had the capacity to obtain', (p.44) The previously established groups, i.e.the traditional elites, had been displaced by various forms of colonial bureaucratic control.For example, the British controlled the Chota Nagpur region of central India through Hinduand Muslim landlords, while in Java, the Dutch co-opted most of the former nobility andofficials but whittled away their power and slowly annexed their lands.

Lack of alternative methods of quick change

Adas recognises that the deprivation referred to above occurred in nearly all colonialsocieties, yet millenial or prophetic rebellions took place in only some. In his third chapterhe deals with the question of why this was so. As an answer he offers the particularunresponsiveness of the colonial bureaucracies involved. The Germans in Tanzania, theBritish in Chota Nagpur, and to a considerable extent the Dutch in Java of flie 1820s relied tooheavily on indirect rule by corrupt local elements and were ignorant of the real state ofaffairs. In Aotearoa, settlers interfered significantly with governmental decision-makingand frustrated all Maori hopes. In Burma, while the British bureaucracy functioned well, itdid not prevent the destruction of the rice economy and the Burmese farming classes. Indianmoney lenders, merchants and landowners, along with some local counterparts, sat on top ofBurmese society like vultures. Neither constitutional-legal solutions nor Christianity provedequal to the task of bringing some justice to the five societies, although these varied greatly intheir ability to respond.

...the groups under consideration all lacked the social and economic standing that wouldhave given them a share of, or at least access to, political power. They had no effectiveways within the colonial system [emphasis Adas's] to influence policy decisions orstimulate much-needed reforms, (p.91)

Prophets and millenarian visions

Deprivation, oppression, and traditional tendencies to millenial protest and belief are notthe only elements necessary for millenarian rebellions. Adas claims that prophets or leadersin established 'socioreligious organisations' must come together with the former factors. He

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devotes Chapter Four to a discussion of the role of both prophets and millenarian visions inoffering an escape from intolerable circumstances. He says (p. 112) that 'the prophetarticulated and embodied millennial expectations: the millenarian vision in turn provided thebasis of the prophet's appeal and authority1 and further (p. 113) that 'in all cases resistancewas intimately linked to a desire to restore legitimate rule, which was by definition based onancestral and supernatural sanctions'. Each prophet's life and his teaching are examinedbefore common features are discussed, and they are related to other leaders of movementsnot described in Prophets of Rebellion, for example the Mahdi of Sudan, the AmericanIndians of Handsome Lake, Wovoka, and Tenskwatawa, Antonio Conselheiro of Brazil, andthe leader of the Taiping rebellion, Hung Hsiu-ch'uan. While Adas's arguments here arewell-made, one cannot help but think that his examples have been chosen with his particulartheoretical points in mind. Ellkis and Hardiman present cases that differ from Adas'sfindings here.

Mobilisation via symbol, ritual, talismans and sympathetic magic

Adas provides a wealth of detail on such matters as omens portending social upheavals andthe various rituals and talismans that gave legitimacy to the prophets and their movements.Such legitimating symbols were mostly derived from tradition, but in the case of the Maoriand Indian adivasi, were from Christian or Hindu sources. Other sorts of ritual — oathtakingor pre-battle ceremonies — established solidarity within the movements and invokedsupernatural assistance in their struggle. Another important area (p. 139) was the use oftalismans, material objects as well as magical incantations or ritual gestures, to provideinvulnerability or invisibility. For example, Burmese rebels 'tattoed themselves with specialdesigns that would make them invisible to the British1 (p. 152) and the adivasi leader 'told hisfollowers that if they gathered special bamboo stalks, they could be fired like rifles', (p.153)Finally, some groups imitated European behaviour in an attempt to prevail by sympatheticmagic, similar to the techniques used by Melanesian Cargo Cultists. Such people hadmakeshift uniforms, bugle calls, salutes, drill parades, and used rubber stamps in an effort toovercome Europeans by "being' them. (pp. 157-8)

Having introduced some of the phenomena that Adas found to be spread across the fiveprophetic rebellions he studied, let us now look at the works of Ellis and Hardiman to see ifthey fit the picture Adas draws.

The French conquered Madagascar in 1895, overthrowing a local monarchy centred atAntananarivo, whose rulers and base support were Merina. The Merina, over the course ofthe 19th century, had become the dominant people of the huge island. Western contact,cultural influence, and economic domination had begun long before 1895. Thus by the timethe Rising of the Red Shawls (menalamba) began, at the end of 1895, most of the backgroundelements existed which Adas describes as common to millenarian or prophetic rebellions.The French (and to a considerable degree the British) had introduced their religion,technology and organisational techniques long before General Duchesne completed his nine-month campaign in September 1895 with the capture of the Merina capital. Global capitalismhad long impinged on Malagasy society even if full integration into the world system had towait until the conquest was completed. Ellis entitles his first chapter 'The Decline ofImerina' (Imerina is the region inhabited by the Merina) and describes the undermining oftradition that had been steadily taking place for sixty years. New social groupings and powerstructures had developed, based on certain ascendant groups. New standards of status, valueand behaviour had certainly arisen. The royal family and those close to it had becomeChristian while many districts, villages or families kept their loyalty to the traditionaltalismans.

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Generally these corresponded to marginal groups, noble, commoner or slave, whosehistory provided them with specific reasons to suspect the intrusion of central power andthe denial of tradition which Christian conversion represented, (pp.59-60)

Disorder and banditry were rife. After the French conquest, a puppet regime was set upwhich only quickened the pace of anti-colonial developments. But the rot or the extent ofalienation was deeper than mis. As far back as 1870, Imerina: (says Ellis)

closely resembled a colonial society. It was ruled by an indigenous elite, but one so fardistant from its citizens in taste, means of subsistence, and religion, as to be quite foreign.The menalamba movement was in many respects a revolt against this colonization fromwithin, (p. 156)

Close similarities exist with the adivasi rebellion in Chota Nagpur and to a lesser extent withJava and Tanzania where non-European, outside officials played a major role in creatingdiscontent.

Adas's use of 'relative deprivation' to explain prophetic rebellions is thus very apt in thecontext of Madagascar. It was not the slaves or subordinate ethnic groups (such as theBetsileo or Betsimisaraka) who turned against their overlords, but rather it was disgruntledclans or groups in Merina society who sought to regain lost status and power. The rising 'wasan expression of the despair of the freemen' (p. 153), a revolt by those who had the most tolose from internal colonisation. These people and groups, who formed the menalamba, hadlittle alternative. The French, newly-victorious conquerors, were remote and completelyunfamiliar with Malagsy socio-political realities. The ancien regime, now subordinate to theEuropeans, was as corrupt and rapacious as ever and the Christian churches were seen to bein league with that same elite. Thus, there were no other ways, within a new and hardly-formed colonial system, for the disaffected elements of Merina society to obtain justice.

The most interesting connections between Adas's work and The Rising of the Red Shawlshave to do with the millenarian, prophetic and mobilisation-via-symbols-etc. areas ofdiscussion. Ellis pinpoints a number of menalamba leaders: there was no one outstandingperson, no prophetic or visionary leader emerges whatsoever. Yet, the story of thisMadagascar rebellion is full of millenarian, religious overtones and fits Adas's framework inall other ways. For example, the body of rebels was a combination of religious dissidentswith outlawls, united by patriotism behind the talismans and religious leaders representativeof an earlier age. (pp. 81-2) 'One theme common to all the insurgents was their revival oftraditional astrology, closely connected with the talismans', (p.82) Many other thingsillustrate the millenial nature of the menalamba. Insurgents changed their names to eithermore traditional or more military sounding ones (though Ellis notes that some may have gotthe idea from The Pilgrim's Progress which was very influential among Merina Protestants).Oaths were sworn to the Merina monarchy or the sacred earth of Madagascar. Red earth wassmeared on clothes, hence the name 'menalalmba' or red shawls. Many rebels believed thatthe queen was surrounded by evil men but a few loyal advisors (imaginary) existed and issuedsecret directives to the rebel leaders. A holy mountain historically connected to ancient clansand a mythological people (the Vazimba) was renamed 'little Antananarivo'. By re-establishing the royal capital on pure ground, the rebels 'expressed their wish to reconstruct agovernment whose model lay far in the past...' (p.94) This is the key point; the Madagascarrebels of 1895-99 wanted to bring back a virtuous, un-exploitive government Many plannedto do this by re-creating the kind of rule they believed had existed during the 'golden age' ofKing Andrianampoinimerina, founder of the Merina dynasty whose last queen had just been

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co-opted by the French and who would eventually die in exile. In the restored society of thenew age, harmony, social and territorial status quo would be restored. In pursuit of thisrestoration or remaking of the past, some rebels believed that bullets would not touch them iftalismans blessed their clothing.

Adas writes that in all the cases he studied, rebels wanted to restore legitimate rale whichwas automatically linked to ancestral and supernatural sanctions or blessings. TheMadagascar case described by Ellis fits this perfectly. The use of symbol, ritual, talismans,and sympathetic magic is also well-documented in Ellis's work. There remains a clash overwhat really constitutes a millenarian or prophetic rebellion. Adas centres his definition on adominant figure who 'articulates and embodies' the whole thing. Ellis (p. 155) meanwhile,suggests that the menalamba were not exactly millenarian because a) there was no belief inbuilding a paradise on earth, b) the leaders were 'too calculating and had too firm a grasp ofpolitical reality1 and c) they did not believe in a messiah. Point c) parallels Adas, then, whilethe other two diverge or in the case of a) may be too narrowly defined as one might arguethat restoring harmony and a 'golden age' is Utopian if not exactly building paradise.

Before I state my own opinions on the matter, let us look at Hardiman's work. TheComing of the Devi concerns the teachings of a new Goddess, Salabai, who appeared inpresent-day Southern Gujarat and north western Maharashtra in 1922-23 among the tribal oradivasi people there. She made known her demands 'through the mouths of spirit mediums',(p.l) The Goddess asked people to stop drinking alcohol and eating meat and fish, to livecleanly and to avoid money lenders. Later, she told the adivasis 'to take vows in Gandhi'sname, to wear khadi cloth and to attend nationalist schools', (p.4) The adivasis among whomthe Devi appeared had long been low-status people. The British, who assumed control overthis region in the early 19th century, called them idle, slovenly, and little higher thanmonkeys, (p.68) They considered them to be an uncivilized people who had to be made tochange their whole way of life in their own best interests', (p.68) Over the next centurytaxes were imposed, the adivasis lost land to non-adivasi land speculators, they were kept offtraditional grazing and timber land, their lands were deforested, and rapacious British andIndian officials exacted free food and labour. Although, as Hardiman points out,moneylenders could not have been a new phenomenon in the area, combined with the otherchanges, their domination and land grabbing had attained new heights by the time the Devimovement began. Liquor, an essential part of adivasi culture, and once available freely, hadbeen turned into a highly taxed and controlled commodity as in Britain. This had the effect ofmaking the adivasis dependent on and indebted to a class of Parsi liquor dealers.

For all these and other reaons, the Devi 'proved a very open-ended force, emerging froma cosmos of belief and practice shared by peasant communities throughout this region butadaptable to a whole range of different aspirations and needs', (p.54) The connections toAdas's five common background elements are not quite as clear as in the Madagascar case butare still convincing. Domination by agents of a foreign civilisation, exposure to new policieswith links to global capitalism, the rise of new social groups and institutions, new standardsof status, value and morality -— these are all evident from Hardiman's description. The fifth,an undermining of tradition leading to disorientation, lack of consensus, insecurity, andidealising of the precolonial past, cannot be traced directly. Oppression had certainlyundermined tradition leading to demoralisation, but this does not seem to have led to anyidealising of the past, rather, the adivasis used the Devi's appearance as impetus to assert theirown power in a new way. Here Hardiman's conclusions differ from both Adas and Ellis. Ishall return to this shortly.

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The idea of relative deprivation cannot be applied well to Hardiman's work. The adivasipeople of south Gujarat were the lowest rung on the social totempole, differing in that wayfrom the Malagasy rebels of 1895-99 and from Adas's examples. However, Adas's pointabout rebels lacking alternative methods of quick change is emphasised by Hardiman in hisChapter 8, entitled "New Forms of Resistance'. To protest the liquor laws, which seriouslyaffected their traditional culture, there were no legitimate1 channels of protest (p. 131) otherthan moonshining, which was considered a crime by the police. Social reformers had beenactive in the area and a modicum of education had created a body of literate adivasis, mainlymales from better-off families. The absence of alternatives did not lead in this case toviolence. No prophet appeared either, rather it was the deity herself!

Because there was no messiah or inspired prophet, Adas might not have includedHardiman's case study in the field of 'prophetic rebellions' or millenarian movements.Certainly Hardiman seizes on Adas's insistence on this point to distance the Devi movementfrom the messianic fold, (p.153) Such phenomena as talismans and sympathetic magic,found in Madagascar, were not present in Gujarat. Though Adas and Hardiman, therefore,seem to reject the possibility of such a movement as the Devi's being within the scope ofprophetic-millenarian rebellions, it seems to me that there is a good case for calling it one.Hardiman himself provides some arguments. 'Through divine possession' the adivasis 'putforward on a new programme...in a most compelling manner'. 'Throughout the world thepoor and oppressed have often found their voice through such means', (p. 153) He says thatthe message of social reformers had been absorbed but never given articulation until the Deviappeared. 'The gap between ...old and ... new forms of consciousness had thus to be bridgedby a sudden inspired leap. This indeed was one of those moment of a "revolution inthought"', (p. 154) The Goddess, speaking through mediums all over the adivasi country,demanded that her followers perform certain acts, give up habits, boycott the moneylending,liquor-dealing Parsis, and support the Indian nationalist movement They had to change theirways, change their lives and so change the world. The fact that these changes came throughpeople who were possessed and that particular symbols and rituals were associated with themovement which were connected to those found in religious practice all over western India,partially links Hardiman's study to the others. To explain the Devi movement, Hardimandoes not favour the use of such concepts as sanskritisation (a commonly-used term in studieson India referring to an upward-mobility process by whole castes rather than individuals, aprocess in which lower groups emulate the social practices of higher ones) or re-vitalisation.He does mention 'synthesis' and that is where I think the main link to Adas and Ellis lies. Inaddition I think this is a key to developing a larger, more inclusive definition of millennial orprophetic movements. If such a definition seems weak because it is too much a 'catch-all', itdoes not have the flaw of excluding obviously linked phenomena because they do not fit anarrow set of criteria.

Hardiman points out that

any given social system is a synthesis arising out of pre-existing social systems. Theinteraction between adivasi and Hindu society produce [d] over the years a fresh synthesiswhich [was] neither purely adivasi nor purely Brahmanical in content. Movements suchas that of the Devi can thus be regarded as being specific to particular historical periodswhen the contradiction between adivasi and non-adivasi elements became particularlyintense, leading to a strong thrust towards synthesis, (p. 160)

Of course all large, historical processes involve synthesis. However, if we narrow thesort of synthesis we are talking about to only that produced by the use of traditional religiousideas or practices in combination with new or newly-valued knowledge, attitudes or

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expectations often derived from the experience of domination by outsiders, we still produce afield wide enough to encompass all three of these works. In addition to Adas's ideas on whatmakes a prophetic rebellion, laid out earlier in this review, we can absorb Ellis's observationsthat the menalamba lacked prophetic leadership and resembled a modern, anti-colonial,nationalist revolt in many ways. We can also accept Hardiman's study as being one of asimilar kind.

The age of millenarian, prophetic, or possession cults of a political kind is not over by anymeans. Most fail before coming to scholarly or international attention. Alice Lakwana'srevolt in Uganda in 1987 would fit all of Adas's criteria. With a wider, 'synthetic' definition,many such cults could be included with fascinating and relevant results for Anthropology,History, Politics, and of course Area Studies. Both Adas and Hardiman have taken innovativestances within their fields, reaching out to other disciplines. Ellis is more mainstream-historical but does not shirk from borrowing from anthropology either. My remarks shouldnot be taken as criticism of the worth of their work. In the end, the variety of experience andapproach displayed in these three volumes provide a resounding proof that we constantlylabour under the restrictions of narrow, self-imposed disciplinary boundaries. Until wemove across disciplines and beyond area studies, we cannot hope to study adequately thesocial forces and cultural patterns that unite all human beings.

BOOK REVIEW ARTICLES FOR THE NOVEMBER ISSUE

Because of the sudden death of Dr Cushman it is possible that we are unaware of ReviewArticles which have already been submitted. If you have submitted or have negotiated towrite a Review Article for tire November issue of the Review or for a future issue, pleasecontact Patsy Hardy, History Department, R.S.S.S., A.N.U. Phone: (062) 49 3055.

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