FROM THE COLONIAL TO

THE POSTCOLONIAL
India and Pakistan in Transition

Dipesh Chakrabarty
Rochona Majumdar
Andrew Sartori

OXPORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
 Contents

Foreword
AN TH ON Y LO W Χ

Acknowledgements xiii

INTRODUCTION
From the Colonial to the Postcolonial: India and
Pakistan in Transition
D lPESH C H AK R ABAR T Y 1

PART I: QUESTIONS OF DEMOCRACY

1. Indian Constitutionalism: The Articulation of a

Political Vision
UDAY S. MEHTA 13

2. 'In the N ame of Polities': D emocracy and th e Power of the

M ultitude in India
DIPESH CHAKRABARTY 31

3. Election Law and th e 'People' in Colonial and

Postcolonial India
DAVID GILMARTIN 55

PART II: MINORITY IMAGININGS

4· The M inority as Political F orm

FAISAL D EVJI 85

5. Observant M uslims, Secular I n dian s: The Political

Vision of M aulana H usain Ahmad M adani, 1938- 57
BARBARA METCALF 96
viii Contents

6. Abul Mansur Ahmad and the Cultural Politics of

Bengali Pakistanism
ANDREW SARTORI 119

7. Ambedkar and the Politics of Minority: A Reading

ANUPAMA RAO 137

PART III: CASTE, CLASS, AND NATION

8. Cricket in India: Representative Playing Field to

Restrictive Preserve
BoRiA MAJUMDAR 159

9. 'South Indians are Like That Only': Communal Identity

in Late Colonial Bombay
NiKHiL RAO 182

10. Peasant Rebellions and the Muslim League Government

in East Bengal, 1947-54
A. H. AHMED KAMAL 201

PART IV: LAW, CAPITAL, AND SUBJECT FORMATION

11. Family Values in Transition: Debates around the

Hindu Code Bill
RocHONA MAJUMDAR 223

12. Capitalist Subjects in Transition

RITU BiRLA 241

PART V: REGIONS

13. 'Aryavarta', 'Hind', or 'Uttar Pradesh':

The Postcolonial Naming and Framing of a 'Region'
GYANESH KUDAISYA 263

14. The Imprint of the Past: Reflections on Regime

Change with Particular Reference to 'Middle India',
c. 1947-50
IAN COPLAND 287
 Contents ix
PART VI: WIDER PERSPECTIVES

15. Diaspora and Swaraj, Swaraj and Diaspora

JOHN D. KELLY
MARTHA KAPLAN 311

16. Towards a History of the Present: Southern

Perspectives on the Nineteenth and Twentieth
Centuries
DAVID WASHBROOK 332

Contributors
Index 361