https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20747850

Abstract

Abhilekh–2 (2024) is a documentary sourcebook that preserves, transcribes, and contextualizes rare historical materials relating to the social, religious, intellectual, and reformist currents within the Kutch Kadva Patidar community during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Drawing extensively upon archival newspapers, community journals, organizational records, correspondence, and reform literature, the volume provides researchers with access to primary-source evidence that would otherwise remain dispersed, inaccessible, or vulnerable to loss.

The collection is particularly valuable for the study of community formation, caste reform movements, vernacular print culture, religious contestation, educational initiatives, migration networks, and the emergence of modern associational life among Gujarati-speaking populations. Through the reproduction of contemporary writings, editorials, speeches, poems, institutional reports, and public debates, the volume illuminates how questions of identity, social organization, education, leadership, philanthropy, religious affiliation, and collective advancement were negotiated within a rapidly changing colonial and early modern context.

Beyond its significance for Patidar studies, Abhilekh–2 contributes to broader scholarship in the fields of South Asian history, sociology, religious studies, anthropology, migration studies, and print-culture research. The work enables scholars to examine grassroots perspectives often absent from official archives, while also facilitating comparative analysis of reformist discourse, community mobilization, and social transformation across western India. By preserving historically significant texts in a curated and accessible format, the volume serves both as an archival repository and as a critical research resource for future investigations into regional histories and vernacular intellectual traditions.

Re-print of compilation of old records / archival records of KKP community’s religious history relating to moving away from Satpanth religion towards Hindu religion.

Keywords: Kutch Kadva Patidar, Gujarat, community history, social reform, vernacular print culture, caste studies, migration history, religious movements, archival research, South Asian studies, historical documents, community archives.