Wendy Singer’s book is a clear and concise look at post-independence India, addressing all the key themes of the period – industrial development versus the agrarian sector; religious conflict; the rise of political parties; caste tensions. All issues are discussed in a chronological framework, beginning with the making of the constitution in the first five years of independence, through to India’s role in the 1971 civil war in Pakistan, the two-year Emergency declared in 1975, the rise of the middle class in the 1980s, and economic and local government reforms in the 1990s. The Assessment section of the book draws the themes together and reflects on recent events – such as the testing of nuclear weapons.
Introduction
Chapter One — Implementing a Secular State
Concurrences — Partition and the Constituent Assembly
Partition: The Problem with Historiography
Partition and the Constitution
One Hundred Million Votes
Zamindari Abolition and Land Reform
Conclusion
Chapter Two — Consolidating the Nation
Kashmir and Hyderabad
The China War
Goa: The Last European Colony?
The Communist Party in Kerala and Regional Assertion
Conclusion
Chapter Three — Modernism, Government, and the Arts
Chandigarh and Modernism
Le Corbusier’s Influence on Indian Architecture
Founding Museums, Promoting the Arts
National Museums
Nationalist Literature in a Multi-Cultural Nation
Film
Conclusion
Chapter Four — Green and Other Revolutions
Green Revolution
Naxalbari Rebellion
Revolt in East Pakistan
Pakistan’s Internal Conflict
Total Revolution and JP
The Anti-Price Rise Movement
Towards Equality
Conclusion
Chapter Five — Democratic Watersheds
The Emergency
The Proclamation of Emergency
The 1977 Election
Backward Classes and the Janata Government
The BJP and the Mandir Issue
Conclusion: Mandal/Mandir and Changes in Governing
Chapter Six — Women, Men and the Challenges of the 1980s and 90s
The Shah Bano Controversy in Political Context
Responses to the Muslim Women’s Bill
Women and Parliamentary Politics
Panchayats and Reservations
Interpreting New Panchayats
Women in Politics: Growth of Regional Parties
Mayawati and Phoolan Devi, Leaders of Depressed Classes
Conclusion
Conclusion
Documents
Sources for Further Reading
References
Index
For the past twenty years, Wendy Singer has studied Indian politics, living in Bihar and Andhra Pradesh while conducting this research. She has written books and articles on a range of related topics, initially focusing on the 1930s and more recently turning to the post-independence period. Her books include Creating Histories: Oral Narratives and the Politics of History Making (1997)and A Constituency Suitable for Ladies and Other Social Histories of Indian Elections (2006).