Interrogating Reorganisation of States - Culture, Identity and Politics in India

The volume analyses the complex historical and political context for the processes of state formation in independent India. It provides both a conceptual and empirical framework for an understanding of Indian democracy through the perspective of reorganisation of states.

Following the recommendations of the States Reorganisation Commission (SRC) in 1956, the territorial boundaries of the states were redrawn. However, within a decade, the geo-linguistic and cultural-ideological criteria could not be considered satisfactory for the future division of states. With the formation of three new states (Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand) and the demand for Telangana statehood not accepted as yet, new dimensions and perspectives about state formation as a critical political practice have surfaced yet again in contemporary India.

The book addresses a number of significant themes related to states reorganisation and its effects - questions of underdevelopment, size, political participation, governance, cultural identities - and also analyses the demand for smaller states. It focuses on different states, their historical and contemporary trajectory leading to the demand for territorial remapping and thus recognising specific political and cultural resources, and identities in the regions and sub-regions of states in India.

The book will be useful for those studying politics, history, sociology, comparative politics and South Asian Studies.

List of contents

Foreword by B. G. Verghese -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction: Contextualising Reorganisation/Asha Sarangi and Sudha Pai -- Part I -- Historical and Political Context of Reorganisation -- 1. Nehru and the Reorganisation of States: Making of Political India/Asha Sarangi -- 2. Rule, Governmental Rationality and Reorganisation of States/Ranabir Samaddar -- Part II -- Reorganising the Hindi Heartland -- 3. ‘Making of a Political Community’: The Congress Party and the Integration of Madhya Pradesh/Sudha Pai -- 4. Reorganising the Hindi Heartland in 2000: The Deep Regional Politics of State Formation/Louise Tillin -- Part III -- Languages and States: Western and Southern India -- 5. The Paradox of a Linguistic Minority/Rita Kothari -- 6. Political Currents in Maharashtra: Language and Beyond/Usha Thakkar and Nagindas Sanghavi -- 7. Discourses on Telangana and Critique of the Linguistic Nationality Principle/K. Srinivasulu -- 8. Competing Imaginations: Language and Anti-colonial Nationalism in India/Tharakeshwar V. B. -- Part IV -- Culture and Identity: Reorganisation in the East and the North East -- 9. Revisiting the States Reorganisation Commission in the Context of Orissa/Nivedita Mohanty -- 10. ‘Linguistic Provinces’ to ‘Homelands’: Shifting Paradigms of State-making in Post-colonial India/Sajal Nag -- 11. Assam through the Prism of Reorganisation Experience/Ivy Dhar -- About the Editors -- Notes on Contributors -- Index.

About the author

Asha Sarangi is Associate Professor, Centre for Political Studies, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi.

Sudha Pai is Professor, Centre for Political Studies, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi.

Summary

The volume analyses the complex historical and political context for the processes of state formation in independent India. It provides both a conceptual and empirical framework for an understanding of Indian democracy through the perspective of reorganisation of states.

Following the recommendations of the States Reorganisation Commission (SRC) in 1956, the territorial boundaries of the states were redrawn. However, within a decade, the geo-linguistic and cultural-ideological criteria could not be considered satisfactory for the future division of states. With the formation of three new states (Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand) and the demand for Telangana statehood not accepted as yet, new dimensions and perspectives about state formation as a critical political practice have surfaced yet again in contemporary India.

The book addresses a number of significant themes related to states reorganisation and its effects — questions of underdevelopment, size, political participation, governance, cultural identities — and also analyses the demand for smaller states. It focuses on different states, their historical and contemporary trajectory leading to the demand for territorial remapping and thus recognising specific political and cultural resources, and identities in the regions and sub-regions of states in India.

The book will be useful for those studying politics, history, sociology, comparative politics and South Asian Studies.

Product details

• Authors: Asha Pai Sarangi
• Assisted by: Sudha Pai (Editor), Asha Sarangi (Editor)
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 21.01.2016
• EAN: 9781138660014
• ISBN: 978-1-138-66001-4
• No. of pages: 344
• Subject: Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Political science and political education