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Ian Copland's aim in this book is to explain why, during the colonial period, the erstwhile Indian 'princely' states experienced per capita significantly less Muslim-Sikh and Muslim-Hindu communal violence than the provinces of British India, and how the enviable situation of the states in this respect became eroded over time. His answers to these questions shed new light on the growth of popular organisations in princely India, on relations between the Hindu and Sikh princes and the communal parties in British India, and on governance as a factor in communal riot production and prevention.
List of contents
PART 1: INTRODUCTION Unmasking the Other Patterns of Riots The Problem The Argument PART 2: ISLANDS IN THE STORM A Question of Numbers The States as Backwaters Communitas Rajadharma Princes and Publics PART 3: METAMORPHOSIS Cracks in the Façade The Price of Progress The Coming of the Missionaries The Coming of the Politicians Unholy Alliances Rajadharma Revisited PART 4: THE FURTHER SHORES OF PARTITION Imperial Sunset Dreams and Conspiracies The Killing Fields The Price of Survival PART 5: THE NEW INDIA Bluster on the Right The Union Strikes Back Starting Over PART 6: CONCLUSION Communalism Revisited Legacies Bibliography
About the author
IAN COPLAND is Associate Professor of History at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia, and the Editor of South Asia. His previous publications include The Burden of Empire: Perspectives on Imperialism and Colonialism (1990), The Princes of India in the End-Game of Empires, 1917-1947 (1997) and India 1885-1997: The Unmaking of an Empire (2002).
Summary
Ian Copland's aim in this book is to explain why, during the colonial period, the erstwhile Indian 'princely' states experienced per capita significantly less Muslim-Sikh and Muslim-Hindu communal violence than the provinces of British India, and how the enviable situation of the states in this respect became eroded over time. His answers to these questions shed new light on the growth of popular organisations in princely India, on relations between the Hindu and Sikh princes and the communal parties in British India, and on governance as a factor in communal riot production and prevention.
