This book explores the meanings and complexities of India's
experience of transition from colonial to the post-colonial period.
It focuses on the first five years - from independence on 15th
August 1947 to the first general election in January 1952 - in the
politics of West Bengal, the new Indian province that was created
as a result of the Partition.
The author, a specialist on the history of modern India,
discusses what freedom actually meant to various individuals,
communities and political parties, how they responded to it, how
they extended its meaning and how in their anxiety to confront the
realities of free India, they began to invent new enemies of their
newly acquired freedom. By emphasising the representations of
popular mentality rather than the institutional changes brought in
by the process of decolonization, he draws attention to other
concerns and anxieties that were related to the problems of coming
to terms with the newly achieved freedom and the responsibility of
devising independent rules of governance that would suit the
historic needs of a pluralist nation.
Decolonization in South Asia analyses the transitional politics
of West Bengal in light of recent developments in postcolonial
theory on nationalism, treating the 'nation' as a space for
contestation, rather than a natural breeding ground for homogeneity
in the complex political scenario of post-independence India. It
will appeal to academics interested in political science,
sociology, social anthropology and cultural and Asian studies.
General
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