Abstract
The sixty years or so that lie between the foundation of the Indian National Congress in 1885 and the achievement of independence in August 1947 witnessed perhaps the greatest transition in our country’s long history. A transition, however, which in many ways remained grievously incomplete, and it is with this central ambiguity that it seems most convenient to begin our survey.
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Further Readings
The N.A.I. and the N.M.M.L. now have between them the private papers of most Viceroys and Secretaries of State in microfilms. For the papers of Governors and lower-level officials, however, the, researcher still has to go to the I.O.L. (London) or the Cambridge South Asia Study Centre. The N.A.I. holdings of the Government of India files are in some ways superior to those of the I.O.L.; a useful guide here is Low, Iitis and Wainwright, Government Archives in South Asia (Cambridge, 1969). The N.M.M.L. has built up a magnificent collection on 20th Century Indian history, including private papers of Indian politicians and businessmen, the All-India Congress Committee files, documents of the States People’s Movement and labour and kisan organizations, recorded interviews of political activists, and microfilms of unpublished theses. Contemporary pamphlets lie scattered in many libraries, and proscribed publications may be read at the N.A.I., I.O.L. and the British Museum. Newspaper preservation leaves much to be desired, though there are valuable collections at the National Library (Calcutta), N.M.M.L., I.O.L. and the British Museum.
Excerpts from contemporary documents, mainly official, may be read in C. H. Philips (ed.) Evolution of India and Pakistan 1858–1947 (London, 1962);
see also B. L. Grover (ed.), A Documentary Study of British Policy towards Indian Nationalism (Delhi, 1967), from which I have taken the quotations from Dufferin and Reay. Constitutional documents are easily available, in
A. C. Banerji (ed.), Indian Constitutional Documents 1757–1947, 4 vols. (Calcutta, 1961), and
Gwyer and Appadorai (ed.) Speeches and Documents on the Indian Constitution, 2 vols. (London, 1957). The more advanced student will find fascinating material on the last years of British rule in the official papers printed in
N. Mansergh (ed.), Transfer of Power 1942–47 (Nine volumes published so far, London, 1970 onwards). The Indian Council of Historical Research has planned two multi-volume series of documents, taken more from non-official sources, on the national movement and on the last decade of British rule (Towards Freedom project) but these are still at the preparatory stage.
The recent spurt in research has rendered largely out-of-date old textbooks and surveys like P. Spear, Oxford History of India (New Delhi, 1974),
P. Sitaramayya, History of the Indian National Congress, 2 vols. (Bombay, 1946–47) or
R. C. Mazumdar (ed.) British Paramountcy and Indian Renaissance (Bombay, 1974) and Struggle for Freedom (Bombay, 1969). A similar comment has to be made about the two general histories of the national movement, written from sharply opposed points of view;
Tarachand, History of the Freedom Movement in India, 4 vols. (Delhi, 1961–72) and
R. C. Mazumdar, History of Freedom Movement, 3 vols. (Calcutta, 1962–63).
Bipan Chandra, Modern India (New Delhi, 1971), though written for schools, is a valuable introduction.
R. P. Dutt, India Today (Bombay, 1947; revised edn, Calcutta, 1970) and
D. R. Gadgil, Industrial Evolution of India in Recent Times (Bombay, 1944) remain useful as general surveys of economic developments.
M. N. Srinivas, Social Change in Modem India (California, 1966) provides an introduction to relevant sociological concepts.
Official attitudes are surveyed on the basis of private papers in S. Gopal, British Policy in India 1858–1905 (Cambridge, 1965),
while Hutchins, Illusion of Permanence (Princeton, 1967), has many illuminating insights. Among the numerous studies of individual Viceroys, mention may be made of
Ronaldshay, Life of Lord Curzon, Vol. II (London, 1928);
M. N. Das, India under Minto and Morley (London, 1964);
S. Gopal, Viceroyalty of Lord Irwin (Oxford, 1957); and the recent study of Chelmsford by
P. Robb, The Government of India and Reform Policies Towards Politics and the Constitution 1916–21, London, 1976). R. Coupland’s old study of constitutional developments, Constitutional Problem in India (London, 1944), is still useful in its own limited field.
The official edition of the Collected Works of Gandhi (New Delhi, 1958, onwards) now runs into 70 volumes, while the Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru (New Delhi, 1972 onwards) have gone up to 13 volumes so far. Many Indian leaders have left autobiographies: Surendranath Banerji, A Nation in Making (Calcutta, 1925, 1963);
Bepin Chandra Pal, Memories of My Life and Times (2nd edn., Calcutta, 1973);
Lajpat Rai, Autobiographical Writings (ed. V. C. Joshi, Delhi, 1965);
M. K. Gandhi, Story of My Experiments with Truth (First English edn., Ahmedabad, 1927);
J. Nehru, An Autobiography (London, 1936);
Subhas Bose, The Indian Struggle (Calcutta, 1935, 1964);
Maulana Azad, India Wins Freedom (Bombay, 1959), and
Rajendra Prasad, An Autobiography (Bombay, 1957). The massive biographical literature includes
S. Wolpert, Tilak and Gokhale (California, 1962);
B. R. Nanda, Gokhale, The Indian Moderates and the British Raj (Delhi, 1977); Tendulkar’s 8 volumes biography of
Gandhi, The Mahatma (Delhi, 1960–63); Pyarelal’s works on Gandhi’s first and last phase (Ahmedabad, 1956–58);
M. Brecher, Nehru: A Political Biography (London, 1959) and
S. Gopal, Jawaharlal Nehru, Vol. I (London, 1976).
John Strachey, India (London, 1888),
V. Chirol, Indian Unrest (London, 1910), and
Verney Lovett, A History of the Indian Nationalist Movement (London, 1920, 1968) make interesting reading as typifying unabashed imperialist historiography. A number of State Governments after 1947 commissioned official histories of the freedom movement for their own regions; these at times contain useful source-materials, particularly Government of
Bombay, Source-materials for a History of the Freedom Movement in India, Vols. I, II (Bombay, 1959) and
M. Venkatarangiyya, Freedom Struggle in Andhra Pradesh, 3 vols. (Hyderabad, 1965). The first generation of Marxian work on modern Indian history is represented, apart from R. P. Dutt, by
M. N. Roy, India in Transition (1922; new edn., Bombay, 1971)
A. R. Desai, Social Background of Indian Nationalism, (Bombay, 1959 and
Balabushevich and Dyakov (ed.), A Contemporary History of India (New Delhi, 1964). Soviet historians have also published a volume on Tilak:
Reisner and Goldberg (eds.), Tilak and the Struggle for Indian Freedom, (New Delhi, 1966) and several books on modern economic history,
V. Pavlov, Indian Capitalist Class (New Delhi, 1964);
A. Levkovski, Capitalism in India, (New Delhi, 1966).
For interpretations on nationalism in terms of regional elites, see Anil Seal, The Emergence of Indian Nationalism: Competition and Collaboration in the Later 19th Century (Cambridge, 1968);
J. H. Broomfield, Elite Conflict in a Plural Society-20th Century Bengal (Berkeley, 1968); and
Judith Brown, Gandhi’s Rise to Power—Indian Politics 1915–1922 (Cambridge, 1972),
Brown’s second book, Gandhi and Civil Disobedience; The Mahatma in Indian Politics 1928–34 (Cambridge, 1977), tries to combine, rather uneasily, the early and the revised ‘Cambridge’ approach. The revised version, emphasizing locality and faction, was announced in Gallagher, Johnson, Seal (eds.), Locality, Province and Nation (Cambridge, 1973), and developed in
Gordon Johnson, Provincial Politics and Indian Nationalism: Bombay and the Indian National Congress 1880–1915 (Cambridge, 1973);
F. Robinson, Separatism among Indian Muslims: The Politics of the United Provinces Muslims, 1860–1923 (Cambridge, 1974);
C. J. Baker and D. A. Washbrook, South India 1880–1940 (Delhi, 1975);
C. A. Bayly, Local Roots of Indian Politics—Allahabad 1880–1920 (Oxford, 1975);
D. A. Washbrook, The Emergence of Provincial Politics: Madras Presidency 1870–1920 (Cambridge, 1976); and
C. J. Baker, The Politics of South India, 1920–1927 (Cambridge, 1976). The recently published Gallagher memorial number of Modem Asian Studies,
Baker, Johnson, Seal, (eds.) Power, Profit and Politics: Essays on Imperialism, Nationalism and Change in 20th Century India, (Cambridge, 1981) seems to indicate yet another shift, with political analysis in terms of factions largely abandoned, except in Seal’s two articles, in favour of economic history.
D. A. Low has edited two important collections of essays, Soundings in Modern South Asian History (California, 1968) and Congress and the Raj: Facets of the Indian Struggle 1917–47 (London, 1977); while Ravinder Kumar (ed.), Essays on Gandhian Politics: The Rowlatt Satyagraha of 1919 (Oxford, 1971) is another major product of scholarship based on Canberra.
Robin Jeffrey (ed.), People, Princes and Paramount Power: Society and Politics in the Indian Princely States (Delhi, 1978),
James Manor, Political Change in an Indian State: Mysore 1917–55 (Delhi, 1977) and
Byorn Hettne, Political Economy of Indirect Rule: Mysore 1881–1947 (London, 1977) venture into so far largely neglected terrain. Recent studies of Imperial policy-making include
R. J. Moore, Crisis of Indian Unity 1917–40 (Oxford, 1974) and
P. S. Gupta, Imperialism and British Labour (London, 1975). Among American scholars, special mention has to be made of J. R. McLane’s excellent study, Indian Nationalism and the Early Congress (Princeton, 1977). W. Hauser’s thesis on the Bihar Provincial Kisan Sabha remains unpublished, but is available in microfilm at the Nehru Museum.
Peter Hardy’s The Muslims of British India (Cambridge, 1972) is a valuable introduction to the problems of Indian Muslims; see also
Zia-ul-Hasan Faruqi, The Deoband School and the Demand for Pakistan (Asia, 1963) and
Aziz Ahmed, Islamic Modernism in India and Pakistan 1857–1964 (London, 1967). More recent publications include Rafiuddin Ahmad’s interesting attempt at a ‘history from below’ of rural
Islam, The Bengal Muslims 1871–1906: A Quest for Identity (Delhi, 1981), and two studies of the post-First World War period,
Mushirul Hasan’s Nationalism and Communal Politics in India, 1916–1928 (Delhi, 1979) and
D. Page, Prelude to Partition: All-India Muslim Politics, 1921–32 (Delhi, 1981).
Bipan Chandra’s Rise and Growth of Economic Nationalism in India: Economic Policies of Indian National Leadership 1881–1915 (New Delhi, 1966) and Nationalism and Colonialism in Modern India (New Delhi, 1979) represent a strand in recent Indian Marxist history-writing which is very sympathetic towards nationalist leaders. Regional studies written from within a broadly Marxian framework include
Sumit Sarkar, Swadeshi Movement in Bengal 1903–08 (New Delhi, 1973);
Amalendu Guha, Planter Raj to Swaraj: Freedom Struggle and Electoral Politics in Assam 1826–1947 (New Delhi, 1977);
Majid Siddiqi, Agrarian Unrest in North India-United Provinces 1918–22 (New Delhi, 1978); and
Gyanendra Pandey, The Ascendancy of the Congress in Uttar Pradesh 1926–34—A Study in Imperfect Mobilization (Delhi, 1978). I have used David Hardiman’s important Sussex thesis, Peasant Agitations in Kheda District, Gujarat, 1917–34, available in typescript at the Nehru Museum; since this book went to press, Hardiman has published a revised version as Peasant Nationalists of Gujarat; Kheda District, 1917–1934 (Delhi, 1981). Stephen Henringham’s thesis, Protest and Control in North Bihar, India, 1917–42 (Australian National University, 1978) is also available in microfilm at the N.M.M.L., and has now been published as Peasant Movements in Colonial India: North Bihar 1917–1942 (Canberra, 1982). Hitesh Sanyal’s as yet incomplete work on rural Gandhians in South-West Bengal is so far available only in a number of papers in Bengali (Anya Artha, 1974–75 and Chaturango 1976–77). A major contribution to the emerging trend of ‘history from below’, which came out after this book went to press, is
Ranajit Guha, (ed.), Subaltarn Studies I: Writings on South Asian History and Society (Delhi, 1982).
C. H. Heimsath’s Indian Nationalism and Hindu Social Reform (Princeton, 1964) offers a convenient summary of its rather limited theme. A more important recent study is
Kenneth Jones, Arya Dharma: Hindu Consciousness in 19th Century Punjab (California, 1976). For British educational policy and its impact, see
Aparna Basu, The Growth of Education and Political Development in India 1898–1920 (Delhi, 1974). Out of the vast and growing literature on caste movements, mention has to be made of
Rudolph and Rudolph, The Modernity of Tradition (Chicago, 1967);
R. L. Hardgrave, The Nadars of Tamilnadu (California, 1969);
Robin Jeffrey, Decline of Nayar Predominance—Society and Politics in Travancore 1847–1908 (Delhi, 1976);
E. F. Irshchik, Politics and Social Conflict in South India: The Non-Brahman Movement and Tamil Separatism 1916–29 (California, 1959);
Rajni Kothari (ed.), Caste in Indian Politics (Bombay, 1970); and
Gail Omvedt, Cultural Revolt in a Colonial Society: The Non-Brahman Movement in Western India (1873–1930) (Bombay, 1976).
Eric Stokes, Peasants and the Raj (Cambridge, 1978), and the collection edited by
A. R. Desai, Peasant Struggles in India (Delhi, 1979) may serve as introductions to the rapidly developing field of peasant studies.
R. C. Dutt’s Economic History of India in the Victorian Age (London, 1904; reptd. Delhi, 1960), is still often useful, while
D. H. Buchanan, The Development of Capitalistic Enterprise in India (New York, 1934) was a pioneering study. For agrarian history,
Daniel and Alice Thorner’s Land and Labour in India (Bombay, 1962) offers a stimulating introduction, D. Rothermund’s Government, Landlord and Peasant in India— Agrarian Relations under British Rule 1865–1935 (Wiesbaden, 1978) conveniently summarizes official policy, while more advanced students will find fascinating statistical material in
D. Narain, The Impact of Price Movements in Areas under Selected Crops in India 1900–1939 (Cambridge, 1963) and
G. Blyn, Agricultural Trends in India, 1891–1947: Output, Availability and Productivity (Philadelphia, 1966).
Amiya K. Bagchi’s Private Investment in India 1900–1939 (Cambridge, 1972) represented a major breakthrough and is essential reading for twentieth century Indian economic history.
Among journals, the most useful for the period covered in this volume are Indian Economic and Social History Review, Indian History Review, Economic and Political Weekly, Journal of Asian History, and Modern Asian Studies.
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Sarkar, S. (1989). Introduction. In: Modern India 1885–1947. Cambridge Commonwealth Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-19712-5_1
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