Author: Gyanesh Kudaisya
Publisher: Sage Publications
Year: 2006
Language: English
Pages: 472
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0761935460
Description
This book interrogates Uttar Pradesh's identity as India's Heartland and unravels the historical processes that have shaped this region. In looking at this constructed identity of the state it argues that UP's existence as a Region cannot be taken uncritically as a given, considering the complex and divergent traditions that have been constituent of the state. It makes the case that UP has been imagined in multiple ways and explores five such distinct, though overlapping, constructions through its modern history: UP as a Colonial Heartland, as a Nationalist Heartland, as a Hindu Heartland, as a Muslim Heartland, and finally as a Postcolonial Heartland. The book closely examines UP's transformation from a colonial to a postcolonial society, looking at issues of identities, mobilization and governance.
With its size, location and demography, UP has occupied a distinct position within India's body politic. In the last two decades, the state has seen dramatic political change, marked by fragmentation along lines of religion, region, class and caste. Region, Nation, Heartland offers insights into factors that lie behind this social and political churning, which promises to transform not just UP, but India itself. The book offers a fresh perspective into the dynamics of how regions have contributed to the projects of state and nation-building in South Asia.
Imaginatively written and drawing upon massive archival research, this book will be of considerable interest to scholars and students of modern history, political science and those with a serious interest in contemporary South Asia.
Contents
LIST OF MAPS
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
LIST OF GRAPHS
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
SERIES EDITORS’ PREFACE
PREFACE
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
PART I
1. Introduction
PART II
2. The colonial Heartland
PART III
3. The Nationalist Heartland
PART IV
4. The postcolonial Heartland.
CONCLUSION
EPILOGUE
GLOSSARY
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX