Rhetoric and Ritual in Colonial India: The Shaping of a Public Culture in Surat City, 1852-1928This book explores the rhetoric and ritual of Indian elites undercolonialism, focusing on the city of Surat in the Bombay Presidency. It particularly examines how local elites appropriated and modified the liberal representative discourse of Britain and thus fashioned a "public' culture that excluded the city's underclasses. Departing from traditional explanations that have seen this process as resulting from English education or radical transformations in society, Haynes emphasizes the importance of the unequal power relationship between the British and those Indians who struggled for political influence and justice within the colonial framework. A major contribution of the book is Haynes' analysis of the emergence and ultimate failure of Ghandian cultural meanings in Indian politics after 1923. The book addresses issues of importance to historians and anthropologists of India, to political scientists seeking to understand the origins of democracy in the "Third World," and general readers interested in comprehending processes of cultural change in colonial contexts. |
Contents
Introduction | 3 |
Colonialism Language and Politics | 17 |
PART TWO SURAT CITY AND THE LARGER WORLD | 31 |
The Urban Economy | 33 |
The Inner Politics of the City | 52 |
The Outer Politics of the City | 81 |
PART THREE PUBLIC CULTURE | 95 |
The Colonial Context | 97 |
PART FOUR THE GANDHIAN INTERLUDE | 201 |
The Rise of the Gandhians 1 | 203 |
The Restoration of Hegemony | 238 |
The Politics of Communalism | 261 |
CONCLUSION | 285 |
APPENDIX | 297 |
NOTES | 301 |
GLOSSARY | 335 |
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Common terms and phrases
action administration Ahmedabad Anavil artisans Bohras Bombay Presidency Brahmans BSPA caste city's civic arena civic politics civil servants claims collector colonial rulers commercial commitment comp conception Congress council councillors Dayalji Desai discourse district Dixit domination election elite English families forms Gandhi Gandhian Gujarat hegemony high-caste Hindu Hindu and Jain Home Rule League home rulers honor idiom imperial important Indian Indian National Congress indigenous institutions involved Islamic Jain jnatis khadi Khilafat Kunvarji language leaders leadership liberal magnates mahajan Mahatma Mehta ment merchants movement Mughal municipal Muslim nationalist Nawab nineteenth century noncooperation notables organization Parsis participation Patidar principles provincial public culture public meetings public politics reform religious representative residents rhetoric ritual role ruling group satyagraha schools self-government sheths social society Surat District Surtis symbolic Tapi River tion traders traditional underclasses urban Vaniyas