Synopses & Reviews
Ian Copland's aim in this book is to explain why, during the colonial period, the erstwhile Indian "princely" states experienced significantly less Muslim-Sikh and Muslim-Hindu communal violence per capita than the provinces of British India, and how the enviable situation of the states in this respect eroded over time. His answers to these questions shed new light on the growth of popular organizations 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.
About the Author
Ian Copland is Associate Professor of History at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia, and the Editor of South Asia.
Table 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