Political Imaginaries in Twentieth-Century India

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Political imaginaries : a program for twentieth-century political history / Manu Goswami and Mrinalini Sinha -- Anatomy of a politics of the people / Mrinalini Sinha -- Mass satyagraha and the problem of collective power / Karuna Mantena -- Conspicuous communism / Manu Goswami -- National wealth or national poverty? The politics of economic measurement in late colonial India / Eleanor Newbigin -- Law and the political imaginary in mid-twentieth century southern India / Kalyani Ramnath -- Institutionalizing democratic uncertainties : 'election time(s)' in the life of Indian democracy / Anupama Roy & Ujjwal Kumar Singh -- Voting and the visual : electoral symbols, legal discourse, and the sovereign people / David Gilmartin -- Representations of electoral politics : notes on the conceptual career of the 'vote bank' / Satish Deshpande -- Dispossession and democracy : the Land Acquisition Act and the future of India's land wars / Michael Levien -- Remembering the emergency and the question of politics / Mary E. John -- Radicalizing democracy in India : three political imaginaries / Partha Chatterjee -- Democracy and the moment of politics / Aditya Nigam -- The new conjuncture / Nivedita Menon.

"This volume reconsiders India's 20th century though a specific focus on the concepts, conjunctures and currency of its distinct political imaginaries. Spanning the divide between independence and partition, it highlights recent historical debates that have sought to move away from a nation-centred mode of political history to a broader history of politics that considers the complex contexts within which different political imaginaries emerged in 20th century India. Representing the first attempt to grasp the shifting modes and meanings of the 'political' in India, this book explores forms of mass protest, radical women's politics, civil rights, democracy, national wealth and mobilization against the indentured-labor system, amongst other themes. In linking 'the political' to shifts in historical temporality, Political Imaginaries in 20th century India extends beyond the interdisciplinary arena of South Asian studies to cognate late colonial and post-colonial formations in the twentieth century and contribute to the 'political turn' in scholarship"-- Provided by publisher.