Author: Gyanesh Kudaisya
Publisher: Sage Publications
Year: 2006
Language: English
Pages: 471
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: INTRODUCTION
One:
Introduction
The "Heartland" and its Setting; Five Constructions of the
"Heartland"; Review of Literature; Structure of this Book
PART II: THE COLONIAL "HEARTLAND"
Two:
The framework of Pax Britannica in Uttar Pradesh
Colonial Policing; Urban environment and Colonial
Authority; Colonial Authority and Criminal Laws;
Conclusion: A Colonial Framework for UP
Three:
The Institutions of the Colonial "Heartland"
Colonial Army and Public Order; Colonial Policing:
"The Thin Blue Line"; Landlords as Agents of Control;
Baiting the Politician; Conclusion
PART III: THE NATIONALIST "HEARTLAND"
Four:
"Civil Disobedience" and "Civil Martial Law"
In Uttar Pradesh, 1930-34
Public discourse, Colonial Authority; Contesting Authority:
The Spatial dimension; Colonial Responses up to
March 1931; From the Gandhi-Irwin Pact to
"No-Rent"; Reasserting Authority:
"Civil Martial Law"; Conclusion
Five:
The Congress ministry and the Erosion of the
Colonial "Heartland", 1937-39
The New Institutional Context; The New Idiom of
Authority; Public Discourse or "Sedition"?; Khadi
Or Khaki?: Police Allegiance and the Congress;
The Congress and the "Steel Frame"; Contesting
Colonial Authority: The communal Divide;
Tiger by the Tail
Six:
Colonial Authority, war Years and Transition
Introduction; New Instruments of Public Order; The
Poetics of Food Control; Political Support and the
War Effort; congress Prepares for Satyagraha;
The Anti-War Campaign; Individual Civil
Disobedience; Setting the Stage for Transition
PART IV: THE POSTCOLONIAL "HEARTLAND"
Seven:
The making of a "Regional"
Postcolonial Polity, 1947-54
Independence Day Celebration; Renaming the
"Heartland"; dismantling the Muslim "Heartland";
The "Hindi Heartland"; States Reorganization
And UP’s Regional Identity; Conclusion
Eight:
Conclusion
Epilogue: The Republic of Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh: A Political Chronology
Key Political Figures - biographical Notes
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
About the Author