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January 8, 2002
REVIEW: Troubled journey to nationhood
NATION-building is a complex phenomenon. It involves socio-political and economic processes, institutions, groups and individuals and their interaction with each other and with the external environment against the backdrop of historical experiences. The histories of most ex-colonial nations have a tendency to focus on the colonial period or the nationalist struggle and pay less attention to the post-independence period. Some lament that the spirit of unity and commitment that marked the last phase of the nationalist struggle has dissipated, causing problems of nation-building. By implication, these studies hold the pre-independence experience as the key to the nation’s history in the post independence period, emphasizing the need of reviving that spirit.
By now, most ex-colonial states have been independent for over several decades. The history of a nation and the processes of nation-building ought to pay greater attention to the post-colonial period. The nature and dynamics of politics, specially the interplay of various interests, identities and political and economic management at different levels in the polity goes a long way to shape the history of a nation.
The book under review A biography of the Indian nation, the third volume of a three volume study of nationalism in South Asia, focuses on the post-Independence period to offer an interesting and somewhat unconventional narrative of the first fifty years of India’s history (1947-97). Professor Ranabir Samaddar’s argument is that “only with the assumption of state power can the nationalist journey be said to have come out of the prehistoric phase, and, therefore, this period merits a proper biographical history”.
In the tradition of subaltern studies, Ranabir Samaddar pays attention to the politics at the lower levels of society and how the state engages with various identities, movements and struggles in various parts of India.
The author does not offer historical narratives of constitution-making, rule by Nehru and his successors and the government policies on federalism, the language issue, caste, separatism and federalism. It is not a history from the top. Rather, all these issues are covered from the societal level and an attempt is made to understand how the state and the nation interact with its different components and produce consensus. This makes the study of history interesting and different but, at places, you get the feeling that different historical strings are not pulling together. There are several loose ends which make the study, at places, obscure. However, the study offers new insights for examining the history of India and other developing countries.
Divided into eight chapters (or chronicles as the author puts it), the book covers the nationalist journey through different engagements that took place at different levels in India. The nation may be a modern concept, the author maintains, but it incorporates the past and the old. Nationhood is a process of acquiring “adequacies” to address the problems and situations it encounters. With the passage of time the nation becomes “inadequate” to cope with the new situations. A series of new encounters and engagements of different tendencies, identities create a new consensus and make the nation adequate again. This is in fact a search for consensus building and legitimization of the nation. Consensus and legitimacy are interconnected and replace contentious politics.
The author asserts that India has undergone a “passive revolution” rather than a revolution or a radical change. For some, a “passive revolution” implies institutional changes in order to stabilize a situation in a manner that the existing politico-economic dominance is preserved. For others, “passive revolution” is a strategy of securing power involving coalition building on a programme among “the bourgeoisie and other dominant classes” and the mobilization of the support of the subordinate classes. Still others consider it as assimilation of opposing tendencies in a polity. Some argue that liberalism and democracy are integral to “passive revolution”. It is an on-going process because it does not offer the final settlement of the issues involved in the encounters and engagements in the polity.
There were several rebellions and uprisings in India in the 1950s and the 1960s like the peasant revolts, language riots, student agitations, communal and caste troubles, and food riots. During the same period, the war with China, improvement of relations with the United States and the war with Pakistan were important developments that the Indian state had to deal with. The 1970s and the subsequent period witnessed more uprisings, agitation, political and economic movements, caste and communal conflicts and the gender questions.
These conflicts were defused though adjustments and accommodation, thereby producing “passive revolution” in all of the above-mentioned meanings. Democracy and the electoral process played a key role in creating adjustment, consensus building and legitimization of the authority.
The new social groups and interests like the Dalits and other backward classes and regional economic and political forces gained recognition by and entry into the political process through these mechanisms.
The author also discusses the external context of the Indian nation, covering militarism, national security and war. This helps to view the domestic developments in a wider context, giving a better understanding of “adjustments and readjustments of nationhood in India”.
He does not equate the nation with the state and engages in an interesting discussion about the relationship between a citizen and the Indian state, problems of the aliens and the related issues. This highlights the relationship between the state and the nation as well as differences between the two.
The study will be of much interest to those looking for an alternate perspective on India’s difficult, at times troubled, journey to nationhood by accommodation, adjustments and readjustments and compromises of diverse and conflicting trends and a failure to bring about a radical socio-economic and political change. India does not represent an abolition of the “ancien” regime but its gradual adjustment and absorption into the nation. However, the processes of consensus building and legitimization are still going on. These are never ending processes.
A biography of the Indian nation
By Ranabir Samaddar
Sage Publications, M 32 Market, Greater Kailash 1, New Delhi-110 048
Email: marketing@indiasage.com
ISBN 0-7619-9519-6 342pp. Indian Rs495
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