A History of Colonial India: 1757 to 1947

301 Pages·2021·2.796 MB·English

by  Himanshu Roy (editor), Jawaid Alam (editor)

A HISTORY OF COLONIAL INDIA
This volume brings together interdisciplinary perspectives on British colonial rule in
India. It draws on sociology, history and political science to look at key events and
social processes between 1757 and 1947 to provide a comprehensive understanding
of colonial history. It begins with the introductory backdrop of the British East India
Company, when its ship docked at Surat in 1603, and ends with partition and independ-
ence in 1947.
A compelling read, the book explores a range of key themes which include:
• Early colonial polity, economic transformation, colonial educational policies, and
other initial developments.
• The revolt of 1857 and its aftermath.
• Colonial subjectivities and ethnographic interventions, colonial capitalism and its
institutions.
• Constitutional developments in colonial India.
• Early nationalist politics, the rise of the Indian National Congress, the role of
Gandhi in nationalist politics, and the Quit India movement.
• Social movements and gender politics under colonial rule.
• Partition of India and independence.
Accessibly written and exhaustive, this volume will be essential reading for students,
teachers, scholars and researchers of political science, history, sociology and literature.
Himanshu Roy is Atal Bihari Vajpayee Senior Fellow at the Nehru Memorial Museum
and Library, Teen Murti House, New Delhi, India. His publications include Peasant in
Marxism, Secularism and its Colonial Legacy in India, State Politics in India, Indian
Political System, Indian Political Thought and Patel.
Jawaid Alam is Associate Professor of History at the Department of History and Culture,
Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi, India. His publications include Jammu And Kashmir 1949–
64 (ed.), Kashmir and Beyond 1966–84 (ed.), and Government and Politics in Colonial
Bihar.

A HISTORY OF COLONIAL
INDIA
1757 to 1947
Edited by Himanshu Roy and
Jawaid Alam
First published 2022
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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© 2022 selection and editorial matter, Himanshu Roy and Jawaid Alam; individual
chapters, the contributors
The right of Himanshu Roy and Jawaid Alam to be identifed as the authors of the
editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted
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infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-1-138-36568-1 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-15967-6 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-24651-0 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003246510
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by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India
CONTENTS
Notes on contributors vii
Preface viii
Introduction xi
1 Interpreting colonialism and nationalism 1
NIRAJ KUMAR JHA
2 Early colonialism 22
HIMANSHU ROY
3 Colonial Education 41
SONALI CHITALKAR
4 Contested histories of 1857 and the (re) construction of the Indian
nation-state 57
DEEPSHIKHA SHAHI
5 Theorizing the 1857 revolt 70
HIMANSHU ROY
6 Understanding the colonial subjects 76
A. C. SINHA
7 Constitutional development in colonial India 92
MAHENDRA PRASAD SINGH AND KRISHNA MURARI
8 Nationalist politics: early phase 113
JAWAID ALAM
9 Gandhi and nationalist politics 130
JAWAID ALAM

v
CONTENTS
10 Quit India Movement 166
UMA SHANKER SINGH
11 Colonialism and the women’s question 185
MADHU JHA
12 Social movements in colonial India 195
DINESH KUMAR SINGH
13 Political voices, colonial state and partition of India 221
BHUWAN KUMAR JHA
14 Decolonization and colonial legacies 250
RAHUL TRIPATHI
Conclusion 263
Index 270
vi
CONTRIBUTORS
Sonali Chitalkar is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Miranda House,
University of Delhi, India. Her publications include Delhi Riot 2020: The Untold
Story (co-author).
Bhuwan Kumar Jha is Assistant Professor of History (Selection Grade), Satyawati
College and Fellow, Centre for Global Studies, Delhi University. He has been a
Fellow at the Nehru Memorial Museum & Library. He has recently authored a
book on the history of CRPF titled Nation First (Rupa, 2021) and co-authored
Hindu Nationalism in India (Routledge, 2020).
Madhu Jha is Associate Professor of Political Science at Lakshmibai College, University
of Delhi, India. Her publications include Women in Decision Making: Where
Numbers Matter.
Niraj Kumar Jha is Associate Professor of Political Science at Maharani Laxmi Bai
Government College of Excellence, Jiwaji University, Gwalior, India.
Krishna Murari is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Shaheed Bhagat Singh
College, University of Delhi, India. His recent publications include Political Process
in Contemporary India (co-author) and Constitutional Government and Democracy
in India (co-author).
Deepshikha Shahi is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Janki Devi Memorial
College, University of Delhi, India. Her recent publications include Kautilya and
Non-Western IR Theory and Advaita as a Global International Theory.
Dinesh Kumar Singh is Associate Professor of Political Science at Kamla Raja
Government Girls PG College, Jiwaji University, Gwalior, India.
M. P. Singh is a National Fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla,
India. He retired as Professor of Political Science at the Department of Political
Science, University of Delhi. His publications include Federalism in South Asia (co-
author) and Democracy, Development and Discontent in South Asia (co-ed.).
Uma Shanker Singh is Assistant Professor of History at Dyal Singh College, University
of Delhi, India. His publications include Emerging Discourse in Social Sciences and
Management (co-ed.) and Globalization: Different Perspectives and Dimensions
(co-ed.).
A. C. Sinha is retired Professor of Sociology at North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong,
India. His recent publications include Nepali Diaspora in a Globalized Era (co-ed.)
and Indian Nepalis: Issues and Perspectives (ed.).
Rahul Tripathi is Professor of Political Science at the Department of Political
Science, Goa University, India. His publications include Monetary and Payments
Cooperation in South Asia, Democratization, Peace and Regional Cooperation (co-
ed.), and 50 years of Panchayati Raj in Goa (co-ed.).

vii
PREFACE
Himanshu Roy
New classes and new generations interpret history as per their context and needs.
The changing interpretation of India’s colonial history is part of it which has passed
through different phases of ideological interpretations – colonial, nationalist, Marxist,
and subaltern. Today, it stands at the post-subaltern stage.
The colonial interpretation of Indian history, which had begun in an organized
form after the formation of the Asiatic Society, became the dominant discourse of
pedagogy in the frst half of the 19th century. A section of the Indian civic elite partly
concurred with it.1 It was dominantly negative, and had painted India as unchanging
and dark. The 1857 rebellion, fortunately, catapulted a change in terms of the growth
of Indian nationalism, and of its discourse2 through reinterpretation of India’s past in
a glorifed form. It also expedited the development of modern Hindi and other regional
languages that interpreted local and national Indian history through local cultural
perspectives. The colonial state, on the other hand, to reinforce their negative interpre-
tation of India after the rebellion of 1857, began an ethnographic study from 1871 to
‘understand’ its colonial subject in a similar way that the Company had initiated meas-
ures, since 1780, to understand India’s religions, scriptures and people. The modern
Indian nationalism that began in the literary writings of Indians in the mid-1860s also
created another trend of derivative discourse on Hindu nationalism that subsequently
fostered the ideology of Hindu Mahasabha, Rashtriya Swamsewak Sangh (RSS), Jana
Sangh and Bhartiya Janata Party. But it remained a non-dominant trend of academic
discourse till 1990. The writings of Vivekanand, Tilak, Aurobindo, Bipin Chandra Pal,
Lala Lajpat Rai and Malviya were used as ideological resources for this school in the
process of interpreting India’s past to build up Hindu nationalism. These nationalists,
however, working under the ideological dominance of colonial regime, were building
up a counter-ideological challenge by using the local cultural resources of India’s past
while simultaneously educating the Indians for self-emancipatory reforms, or with an
emphasis on voluntary, reformative social change, rather than a change to be imposed
by the government. Tilak resisted reforms enacted by the colonial state but favoured
self-initiated reforms. Gandhi expanded this to the wider population by linking it to
his political programmes3 while mobilizing the people, politically, against colonial-
ism. There was, thus, an appreciation of India’s past but it was also a social-political
recognition of her weakness which required urgent attention. While Gandhi linked
it with his acts of political resistance, Tilak thought to take it up once India had her
Swaraj. It was during this phase of Tilak and Gandhi that the Marxian interpretation
viii
PREFACE
of Indian history began. Initially, it was childish, coarse and immature, but subse-
quently with the development of skills and knowledge, it acquired depth and became
nuanced.4 The rise of the labour and peasant movements and the their support to
the naval ratings in 1946 catapulted this ideological interpretation to the forefront of
the social science writings in the post-Nehruvian years which were later on coopted
by the nationalist discourse through the state patronage; and with that, its decline
began. A breakaway group, the subaltern school, emerged in the 1980s against the
elite interpretation; they reemphasized looking at history from below5 with a focus
on village community, marginalized castes, and autonomous roles for their freedom,
not guided and controlled by the dominant class and political parties. It was different
from the earlier Marxian interpretations of 1970s which had adopted nation as a more
important unit of interpretation than class. This school acquired dominance for almost
two decades. Its problem began with methodology, when it shifted to episodic and
fragmented interpretation with a focus on cultural studies. This shift from the original
changed the focus and depth of studies. It became lacklustre. In the past ffteen years,
a post-subaltern interpretation6 of society is being posited that constitutes the best of
the subaltern and pre-subaltern methodology of Marxism, which is specifc, universal,
political and economic, as well as cultural. It interprets the history from below and
analyzes the interest of the elites and subalterns.
This book brings together interdisciplinary perspectives of sociology, history and
political theories in interpreting different themes of colonial history. It weaves their
heuristic interpretations with methodological insights into a holistic pedagogical
volume while following different strands of non-colonial interpretation. It includes
themes, facts and arguments, beginning with the Introduction, which are usually not
part of mainstream narratives and analysis.
In the writing of this book, I beneftted from the lively discussions with Anil Nauriya,
then Senior Fellow at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML); Surajbhan
Bhardwaj and Rajesh Kumar, Associate Professors of History at the University of
Delhi; Mayank Kumar, then UGC Fellow at NMML; Rakesh Sinha, then Associate
Professor of Political Science at the University of Delhi and Amar Faroqui, Professor
of History at the University of Delhi. I thank them for their inputs on different themes
of this book.
I also thank Utpal Kumar and Krishna Murari, Assistant Professors of Political
Science at the University of Delhi, and Vikas Kumar, Research Scholar for their techni-
cal assistance, and the late Professor A. P. S. Chauhan from the Department of Political
Science and Public Administration at Jiwaji University, Gwalior for organizing the
workshop in 2010 to arrive at a common format of pedagogy.
Notes
1 It interpreted India as backward, unchanging with no history; the colonial administration
actuated a redemptive role, was benevolent; see also, Keshav Chandra Sen, in Readings in
the Constitutional History of India, S.V. Desikachar (ed.), Oxford University Press, Delhi,
1983, p. 303; and Raja Rammohan Roy, The English Works, Part IV, Sadharan Brahmo
Samaj, Calcutta, 1947, p. 83.
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