Peasant pasts : history and memory in western India / Vinayak Chaturvedi.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Chaturvedi, Vinayak.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Dharalas--History--19th century--Historiography.

Dharalas.

Dharalas--History--20th century--Historiography.

Dharalas--Political activity.

Dharalas--Social conditions--19th century.

Dharalas--Social conditions--20th century.

Nationalism--India--Gujarat--Historiography.

Nationalism.

Historiography.

Social conditions.

Political participation.

History.

India--Gujarat.

Physical Description:

xvii, 307 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Berkeley : University of California Press, [2007]

Summary:

Peasant Pasts is an innovative interdisciplinary approach to writing the history of peasant politics, nationalism, and colonialism. Vinayak Chaturvedi's analysis provides an important intervention in the social and cultural history of India by examining the nature of peasant discourses and practices during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Through rigorous archival study and fieldwork, Chaturvedi shows that peasants in Gujarat were active in the production and circulation of political ideas, establishing critiques of the state and society while promoting complex understandings of political community. By focusing on the heartland of M. K. Gandhi's support, Chaturvedi shows that the vast majority of peasants were opposed to nationalism in the early decades of the twentieth century. He argues that nationalists in Gujarat established power through the use of coercion and violence as they imagined a nation in which they could dominate social relations. Chaturvedi suggests that this little-told story is necessary to an understanding of not only anticolonial nationalism but the direction of postcolonial nationalism as well.

Contents:

1 Ranchod 25

2 The Bhagat and the Miracle 28

3 Dharala/Koli/Swordsman 30

4 The Patidars and the Kanbis 34

5 Becoming a Colonial Emissary 39

6 The Mukhi and the Fouzdar 44

7 Monitoring Peasants 46

8 Prophesy Unfulfilled 48

9 Defeating the Plague, Controlling Dharalas 50

10 The Dakore Pilgrimage 52

11 The King's Procession 55

12 Ranchod's Letter 58

13 The Book Collection 62

14 Kashi Patra: A Circulating Letter 64

15 The Practice of Cutting Trees 67

16 Official Battle Narratives 69

17 Dharala Battle Narratives 72

18 The Arrests 75

19 Ranchod's Testimony 77

20 The Kingship 79

21 Friends and Enemies of the King 84

22 Symbols of Legitimacy 87

23 Oral Culture and Written Culture 91

24 The Criminal Case 94

25 The Aftermath 98

26 Politics Continued 101

27 Age of Darkness 103

28 Daduram 106

29 Surveillance 109

30 The Politics of Food 111

31 "The Dignity of Labor" 114

32 The Baraiya Conference Movement 116

33 Contesting Nationalism 118

34 Peasant Freedom 119

35 Police Reorganization 120

36 The Criminal Tribes Act 122

37 Underground Activities 127

38 "My Land Campaign" 128

39 The Labor Strike 130

40 The Kheda Satyagraha 132

41 Strikes and Raids 136

42 Nationalizing Dharala Raids 140

43 A Second "No-Revenue Campaign" 142

44 Deporting Dharalas 144

45 The Punitive Police Tax 146

46 "To Forget Past Enmities" 148

47 Ravishankar Vyas 151

48 The Last "No-Revenue Campaign" 153

49 The Coming of the Postcolonial 156

50 Becoming Indian 158

51 Small Discoveries 163

52 Chaklasi 169

53 Daduram's Legacies 172

54 Returning to Kheda 184

55 Kalasinh Durbar 186

56 Raghupura 189

57 Local Knowledge 193

58 Hidden Histories 198

59 Erasing the Past 201

60 Narsiram 203

61 Seeing Daduram 207

62 Dayaram 212

63 Narsi Bhagat 218

64 History without Ends 224.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 283-299) and index.

ISBN:

9780520250765

0520250761

9780520250789

0520250788

OCLC:

70866984

Online:

Publisher description