Nation, Reason and Religion: India's Independence in International Perspective Author(s): Sugata Bose Source: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 33, No. 31 (Aug. 1-7, 1998), pp. 2090-2097 Published by: Economic and Political Weekly Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4407049 . Accessed: 29/06/2011 13:46

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http://www.jstor.org SPECIAL ARTICLES Nation, Reason and Religion India's Independencein InternationalPerspective Sugata Bose Throughout the entire course of the history of Indian anti-colonialism, religion as faith within the limits of morality, if not the limits of reasona, had rarely impeded the cause of national unity and may in fact have assisted its realisatioin at key nmomentsof struggle. The variegated symbols of religion as culture had enthused nationalists of many hues and colours but had seldom embittered relations between religious comminities until they wereflauntetl to boast the power of majoritarian triumphalism. The conceits of unitary nationalism may well have caused a deeper sense of alienation among those defined as minorities than the attachmenet to diverse religions. The territorial claims of a minority-turned-nation heaped further confusion on the firious contest over sovereignty i the dying ays of the raj. Having failed to share sovereigntay in the manner of their pre-colonial forbears, late-colonial nationalist worshippers of the centralised state ended up dividinig the land. Sulrely godless nationalism linked to the colonial categories of religiouis majorities and minorities has much to answer for. "A PRIZEI got for good workat school", reachthe shoresof Britain's colonies where colonial period to unravelthe complex JawaharlalNehru writes in his auto- this was a period of political denial and weave of nation, reason and religionin biography,"was one of G M Trevelyan's repression. India was 'showing fight' for historicalanalyses. Decades of secular, Garibaldibooks. This fascinatedme, and the first time since the revolt of 1857 and rationalistdiscomfort with assessingthe soon I obtainedthe othertwo volumesof was "seething with unrest and trouble". role of religion in modern political the seriesand studied the wholeGaribaldi News reached Indian students in philosophyand practicehave given way storyin themcarefully. Visions of similar Cambridge of swadeshi and boycott of the in more recentyears to culturalcritiques deedsin Indiacame before me, of a gallant activities and imprisonment of Tilak and of modernityand one of its key signs - fight for freedom,and in my mind India Aurobindo Ghose. "Almost without nationalism- which tend to valorisean and Italy got strangelymixed together." exception",Nehru recalled, "we were ahistoricalnotion of indigenousreligion To the young Nehru "Harrowseemed a Tilakites or Extremists, as the new party whiledenouncing the cunning of universal rathersmall arid restricted place for these was called in India". Yet looking back reason. In an essay entitled "Radical ideas".So it was thatat the beginningof from the 1930s he also believed that in Historiesand the Questionof Enlighten- October 1907, inspired by the first of social terms "the Indian national renewal ment Rationalism",Dipesh Chakrabarty Trevelyan'sGaribaldi trilogy, he arrived in 1907 was definitely reactionary". hasberated secular and Marxist historians at TrinityCollege, Cambridge,where he "Inevitably",Nehru commented gloomily, fortheir lack of imaginationin addressing "feltelated at being an undergraduate with "a new nationalism in India, as elsewhere the question of religiously informed a greatdeal of freedom".I Whenfreedom in the east, was a religious nationalism". identities in modern south Asia. came to India at the famous midnight After graduating from Cambridge, he "[S]cientificrationalism", he contends, "or hour of August 14-15, 1947 Trevelyan, visited Ireland in the summer of 1910 the spirit of scientific enquiry, was thenMaster of TrinityCollege. 'rejoiced'. where he was 'attracted' by "the early introducedinto colonial India from the He had remained,his biographerDavid beginnings of Sinn Fein".3 What he very beginningas an antidoteto (Indian) Cannadine tells us, "equivocal and neglected to note in Britain and Ireland religion, particularlyHinduism..." The uncertain about the British Empire, was that a religious tinge to nationalism oppositionbetween reasonand emotion, which he always thought a far more was not a monopoly of the east. At the "characteristicof our colonial hyper- formidableinstrument of aggressionand end of the day the nationalist leaderships rationalism",is seen to have "generally dominationthan any of Italy'scolonising in both India and Ireland, quite as much afflicted" the attempt by historiansto endeavours,which seemed small-scale by as their departing colonial masters, failed "understandthe placeof the 'religious'in comparison".2 to negotiate a satisfactory solution to the Indian public and political life".4 That Nehru's Cambridge years, which problem of religious difference. If there may well be so, but is there any reason coincidedalmost exactly with the Garibaldi was cause to rejoice at the end of the raj to believe, if it is permissibleto use such phase of Trevelyan's life in history, in India, the celebrations were certainly a tur of thephrase, that hyper-rationalism represented the climactic moment of marred by a tragic partition ostensibly was characteristicof modernityunder triumphantLiberalism in the domestic along religious lines which took an colonial conditions? politics of Britain.In Europethese were unacceptable toll in human life and One of the key empiricalpremises of the lastdays of liberalnationalism before suffering. BenedictAnderson's theory in Imagined launchedon its Comnmunitiesis that "in WesternEurope Italy imperialistexpedition IN EUROPE AND INDIA in 1911 and the nation-states of the CHURCH AND STATE the 18th centurymark[ed] not only the continentas a whole moved recklessly The political failure at the moment of dawn of the age of nationalismbut the towardsthe precipiceof total war. The formal decolonisation has been matched duskof religiousmodes of thought",5"It high tide of liberalismdid not, however, by a certain intellectual failure in the post- is a common error", Trevelyan had

~~~~~~~~~~~2090~~ ~Economic and Political Weekly August 1, 1998 observed in his English Social History, been applicable, it was according to rationalism, colonial modernity was a "toregard the 18thcentury in Englandas Macaulay the British empire in India. complex and concrete phenomenon: its irreligious".Religion continuedto be in Surely, if it be the duty of government reasons of state were deeply enmeshed his view "animposing fabric" of British to use its power and its revenue in order with the communities of religion. history in the 19th century until the to bring seven millions of Irish Catholics RATIONAL REFORM, RELIGIOUS REVIVAL Darwinianrevolution made its full impact.6 overto theProtestantChurch, itis afortiori AND INTIMATIONSOF AN ANTI-COLONIAL The views of the early Gladstone and the duty of the government to use its MODERNITY Trevelyan's great uncle Lord Thomas. power and its revenue in order to make BabingtonMacaulay probably covered the seventy millions of idolaters Christians. "Somehow, from the very beginning", fullspectrum of opinionamong the British If it be a sin to suffer John Howard or writes Partha Chatterjee, "we have made rulingclasses in the mid-19thcentury on William Pennto hold any office in England, a shrewd guess that given the close the place of religion in public life. because they are not in communion with complicity between moder knowledges Gladstonehad argueda powerfulcase in the established church, it must be a and modern-regimes of power, we would his book The State in Its Relations with crying sin indeed to admitto high situations forever remain consumers of universal the Church published in 1839 that men who bow down, in temples covered modernity; never would we be taken propagationof religious truthshould be with emblems of vice, to the hideous seriously as its producers. It is for this one of the principal aims of paternal images of sensual or malevolent gods. reasonthat we have tried,for over a hundred government.He had no doubt that the But no. years, to take our eyes away from this religionof the sovereignought to be the Orthodoxy, it seems, is more shocked chimera of universal modernity and clear only one to be propagatedand allegiance by the priests of Rome than by the priests up a space where we might become the to that religion must be an absolute of Kalee. Macaulay's concise view creators of our own modernity".8 As an requirementfor holding political office. respecting the alliance of Church and state example of the rejection of uncritical Yet he was opposed to religious was that the latter could pursue religious imitation of English modernity he quotes persecution of unbelievers among the education as a secondary end of the following passage from Rajnarayan subjects as something unbecoming of government if it did not interfere with the Basu's 1873 tractSheKalaarEKal (Those government's paternalistic function. primary end of maintaining public order. Days and These Days): Macaulaylaunched a searing attackon "No man in his senses would dream of Two Bengali gentlemenwere once dining Gladstone'sadvocacy of politicaland civil applying Mr Gladstone's theory to India", at Wilson's hotel. One of them was disabilityon groundsof religiousbelief Macaulay wrote, "because, if so applied, especially addicted to beef. He asked the which he saw as a sure recipe for it would inevitably destroy our empire, waiter, "Do you have veal?" The waiter "I'm afraid sir".The underminingefficient governance. He was and, with our empire, the best chance of replied, not, gentleman asked "Do have beef steak?" alsounconvinced by theGladstonian logic spreadingChristianity among the natives". again, you The waiter "Not that sir". of stoppingshort of persecutionsince a Gladstone must have sensed this and so replied, either, The asked again, "Do you father'sduty was to crack the whip on had engaged in a bit of "[i]naccurate gentleman have ox tongue?"The waiterreplied, "Not waywardchildren. history" as "an admirable corrective of thateither, sir". The gentleman asked again, Whatevertheir differences on unreasonable theory".7 political "Do have calf's foot jelly?" The it was the thatGladstone It was at least a of you theory, positions partial application waiter replied, "Not that either, sir".The and took on the of Gladstonian thatcreated the Macaulay practice theory history gentlemansaid, "Don'tyou have anything which in turn transformed the of governancein Indiathat provide insights 'treaty' from a cow?" Hearing this, the second intoreligion as a characteristicof colonial Gladstone's imagination into reality. The gentleman,who was not so partialto beef, modernity.'In BritishIndia', Gladstone defence of Indian faiths, both Hinduism said with some irritation,"Well, if you had written."a small numberof persons and Islam, against perceived threats from have nothing else from a cow, why not advancedto a highergrade of civilisation, evangelical religion, not enlightenment get him some dung?"9 exercise the powersof governmentover reason, played a significant part in the Chatterjee goes on to argue that, while an immensely greater number of less great revolt of 1857 which almost made "Western modernity" in the voice of cultivatedpersons, not by coercion, but Macaulay's nightmare come true. After a Immanuel Kant looked for the definition underfree stipulationof the governed". cataclysmic war, in which incidentally as of modernity "in the difference posed by In a situationso plainlypeculiar a theory many as 10 Trevelyans lost their lives, the the present...as the site of one's escape of paternal principles could not have colonial power solemnly announced in the from the past", "it is precisely the present" unrestricted play and the rights of form of the queen's proclamation of 1858 from which the colonised intellectual in governmentwere based "upon an express that none of her subjects would be search of a national modernity had to and known treaty, matter of positive "molested or disquieted by reason of their escape to find solace in an imagined past. 0 agreement,not of naturalordinance". The religion, faithor observances".This formal What remainsunderplayed in this argument formerLawMemberof Bentinck' s Council separation of religion and politics in the is that Raj Narayan Basu's ruminationson pointedout thatthe treatyknown only to colonial stance was, however, breached modernity were contested by his Gladstonewas in trutha 'nonentity'."It almost immediately as the British took the contemporaries,not least by his close friend is bycoercion, it is bythe sword", Macaulay momentous decision to deploy religious and frequent correspondent, the poet, thundered,"and not by free stipulation enumeration to define 'majority' and Michael MadhusudanDatta. The category withthe governed, that England rules India; 'minority' communities. In order to gain 'we' contained a wide range of internal nor is England bound by any contract the political attention of the colonial state, variation which made certain that 'our' whatevernot to deal with Bengal as she Indian publicists of the late 19th century modernity was never a monolith. While deals with Ireland".If therewas a single needed to dip their pens in the ink of Indian intellectuals often had an awareness statein the whole world where Gladstone's religious community. Far from being a that modern rational knowledge from its theoryof paternalgovernment should have mirrorof the abstractionsof European very inceptionwas deeply implicatedin

Economic and Political Weekly August 1, 19982091 modern regimes of power, that never appearsin Ranadeas a critiqueof ancient the thing and the only thing that will negated the possibility of selective Indiantradition. Even more fascinating is rescue us from our present appalling appropriation and effective resistance Ranade's expositionof reasonin the service conditionof intellectualand moral decay, within these fields of power. To put it in of reform. In 'Our Modernity' Partha but we are not to take it haphazardand another way, I would contend that Chatterjeeoffers us thisreading of Kant's in a lump;rather we shallfind it expedient to selectthe is colonised intellectuals sought alternative essay on Aufklarung. verybest that thoughtand routes of from the to Kant,to be is knownin Europe,and to importeven that escape oppressive According enlightened withthe andreservations which present, not all of which lay through to become mature,reach adulthood,to changes a or web of illusions on the of our diverseconditions may be foundto creating 'mayajal' stop being dependent authority dictate.Otherwise instead of a about our and their to become free and assume simple past denouncing others, weshall have chaos forone' s ownactions. When amelioratinginfluence, modernity. responsibility annexedto chaos,the vices and calamities What is needed here is a and manis not he does dynamic enlightened, notemploy of thewest superimposed on thevices and historicised conception of religion that his own powers of reasoningbut rather calamitiesof the east.17 enable us to how the the of others and might consider place accepts guardianship AurobindoGhose called the Congress of the 'religious' in Indian public and does as he is told.14 un-nationalin 1893 not because of its life in the course of What at "the root of our political changed lay helpless- imitationof the west or its inabilityto India's colonial history. There is a certain ness", Ranadedeclared, was "the sense attractMuslims in sufficientnumbers, but static to that we are intendedto remain quality Dipesh Chakrabarty's always becauseit did notreach out to theworking of outside invocation age-old Indian religion set children,to be subjectto control, classes."The proletariate among us is sunk the modern forces of and never to rise to the of self- under siege by dignity in ignorance and overwhelmed with scienwtific rationalism. Partha Chatterjee controlby makingour conscience and our distress. But with that distressed and that the "idea that 'Indian reasonthe if not the concedes supreme, sole, guide ignorantproletariate, - now that the middle with 'Hindu to conduct...Weare no nationalism' is synonymous our children, doubt, classis proveddeficient in sincerity,power of some the childrenof and not of nationalism' is not the vestige but God, man, and judgment, - with that proletariate is voice pre-modern religious conception but an andthe voice of God theonly [to] resides...oursole assuranceof hope, our entirely modern, rationalist and histori- which we are boundto listen...Withtoo sole chance in the future."He even saw cist idea".'I But he explains away the appa- manyof us, a thingis trueorfalse, righteous some hopein thecommunitarian conflicts in the rent contradiction between this rationalist or sinful,simply because somebody over Hindi-Urduand cow slaughterin the that it is so...Now the new idea and the religiously inspired emotional past has said early 1890s. "A few more taxes, a few of this attachment to the nation by resort to an ideawhich should take up the place morerash interferences of government,a not the unsatisfactory dichotomy between the helplessnessand dependenceis few more stages of starvation,and the materialand spiritualdomains thathe reads idea of a rebellious overthrow of all turbulence that is now religious will into anti-colonial nationalism. 12In facing authority,but that of freedomresponsible become social. I am speaking to that up to the fundamental dilemma of having to the voice of God in us".15Seven years class...calledthe thinkingportion of the to simultaneously resist colonial power laterin a 1904 articleentitled 'Reform or Indiancommunity: Well, let these thinking Lala Rai to and appropriate elements from modern Revival' Lajpat sought argue gentlemencarry their thoughtful intellects wantedreform European knowledge, colonised intel- that, while the reformers a hundredyears back. Let themrecollect lectuals of the late 19th and early 20th on 'rational'lines, the revivalistswanted whatcauses led from the religious madness century harnessed reason and religion in reformon 'national'lines. Attemptingto of St Bartholomewto the social madness multifariousways to the cause of the nation. turnRanade's argument on its head,Lajpat of the Reign of Terror".18 Religious sensibility could in the late Rai wrote: Did the version of Indiannationalism 19th century be perfectly compatible with Cannot a revivalist, arguing in the same authoredby Tilak and Aurobindoget a rational frame of mind, just as social strain, ask the reformersinto what they maroonedin the world of madness want religious reformcalling upon practicalreason almost wish to reform us?....Whetherthey that failed to make the to social to reformus into drinkersof grade invariably sought divine sanction of some Sunday brandy Onthe of relations eaters of beef? In madness? keyquestions kind. at the Eleventh Social and promiscuous short, the Indiannation on Speaking whether want to revolutionise our between overarching Conference in Amraoti in 1897 Mahadev they an outlandish imitation of the one hand and religiouscommunities Govind Ranade scored a society by debating point customs and manners and an and linguisticregions on the other,anti- his 'revivalist' critics: European against undiminished of colonial thought and politics of the friend his adoption European When my revivalist presses vice?16 Swadeshiera left contradictorylegacies. he has to seek recourse argumentupon me, this time Ranade was dead and he The anti-colonialismof both Hindusand in some which furnishes By subterfuge really could not that there need be no Muslimswas influencedin this periodby no to the - what shall we reply reply question contradiction between the theirreligious sensibilities. But since the revive? Shall we revive the old habits of necessary rational and the national. colonial state's scheme of enumeration our people when the most sacred of our had transformedone into the the abominationsas Yet it must be emphasised that the first 'majority' caste indulged in all and the other into the them of animal food radical intellectual challenge to moderate 'minority' we now understand it became easier for Hindu which exhausted section nationalism had been remarkably community, and drink every andcommunitarian of our and discriminating, judicious and balanced in religioussymbolisms country's Zoology Botany? to be subsumed within the The men and the Gods of those old days its attitude to European modernity. As interests ate and drankforbidden to excess Aurobindo Ghose put it in his sixth essay emergingdiscourse on the Indiannation. things as D P in a way no revivalist will now venture 'New Lamps for Old' published on If the Irish nation in 1905 was, to recommend.13 December 4, 1893: Moran insisted, "de facto a Catholic What Chatterjee presents as Rajnarayan We are to have what the west can give us, nation",19the writings and speeches of Basu's critique of English modernity because what the west can give us is just most swadeshinationalists certainly left

2092 Economic and Political Weekly August 1, 1998 the impressionthat the Indiannation was Urged by C FAndrews to publicly clarify were unjust apartfrom the scriptures,there permeatedby a Hinduethos. The granting his position on the Khilafat, Gandhi wrote may have been cause for hesitation, but of 'communal' electorates in 1909 in Young India on July 21, 1920: an intrinsically just claim backed by compoundedthe problemin India even I should clear the ground by stating that scriptural authority was irresistible. further.As MaulanaMohamed Ali com- I rejectany religiousdoctrine that does not Gandhi could not have been more plainedto his Congress colleagues in 1912, appeal to reason and is in conflict with forthright in acknowledging the extra- the educatedHindu 'communalpatriot' morality.I tolerateunreasonable religious territorialnature of the Muslim sentiment: had turnedHinduism into an effective sentiment when it is not immoral. I hold Let Hindus not be frightened by Pan- symbolof mass mobilisationand Indian the Khilafat claim to be both just and Islamism, It is not - it need not be - anti- 'nationality',but 'refuse[d] to give quarter reasonableand therefore it derives greater Indian or anti-Hindu.Mussalmans must force because it has behindit the to the Muslim unless the latter quietly religious wish well to every Mussalmanstate, and sentiment of the Musulman world.23 shufflesoff his individualityand becomes even assist any such state. if it is completelyHinduised".20 Gandhi could "conceive the possibility of undeservedlyin peril. And Hindus,if they If religiouslybased notions of majority a blind and fanatical religious sentiment aretrue friends of Mussalmans,cannot but and minoritywere alreadybeginning to existing in opposition to pure justice". share the latter's feelings. We must, pose problems for a unified Indian Under those circumstances he would therefore,co-operate with ourMussalman nationalism,as yet there appearedto be "resist the former and fight for the brethrenin theirattempt to save theTurkish little contradictionbetween Bengali or latter".24But since the Indian Muslims empire in Europe from extinction.30 Tamillinguistic communities or 'nations' had an issue that was first of all reasona- Closer to home, Gandhi supported the on the one hand and a broaderdiffuse ble and just and on top of that supported proposal of 'Brother Shaukat Ali' that Indian'nation' on the other.Few, if any, by scriptural authority, "then for the there should be three national cries - of thenationalist ideologues were thinking Hindus not to support them to the utmost 'Allaho Akbar', 'Bande Mataram' or at this stage of the acquisitionof power would be a cowardly breach of brother- 'Bharat Mataki Jai' and 'Hindu- in a centralisednation-state. India's two hood and they would forfeit all claim to Mussalmanki Jai'. Gandhi called upon all most celebrated poet-philosophers - consideration from their Mahomedan Hindus and Muslims to join in the first RabindranathTagore and Mohammad countrymen".25 cry "in reverence and prayer-fulness"since Iqbal- whose Bengali and Urdu poetry The crux of Gandhi's case was Lloyd Hindus "maynot fight shy of Arabic words, celebratedpatriotic sentiment, were both George's 'broken pledge',26 the pledge to when their meaning is not only totally duringthe first two decades of thiscentury respect the immunity of the holy places inoffensive but even ennobling". He impassionedcritics of the westernmodel in Arabia and Mesopotamia and of Jeddah preferred 'Bande Mataram' to 'Bharat of the territorialnation-state.21 and not to deprive Turkey of its capital Mataki Jai', as "it would be a graceful or of its lands in Asia Minor and Thrace. of the intellectual and emo- GANDHI'SREASON recognition In the event, and Thrace had been tional of And since ANDHINDU-MUSLIM UNITY Smyrna superiority Bengal". taken away 'dishonestly', mandates had India was nothing without "the union of It required Gandhi's genius to fuse the been establishedin Syria and Mesopotamia the Hindu and the Muslim heart",'Hindu- love for a territorial homeland with the 'unscrupulously' and a British nominee Mussalmanki Jai' was a cry never to be extra-territorialloyalty of religion in the had been set up in the Hejaz "under the forgotten.31 mass nationalist movement of 1920. protection of British guns". Gandhi Gandhi appeared to have devised the Withoutdetracting from his distinctive believed "the spirit of Islam" to be perfect formula for harnessing the emotive qualities,the Mahatma'sreason needs to "essentially republican in the truest sense power of nationalism in the linguistic be rescuedby historiansfrom the mystical of the term" which would not stand in the regions and forging Hindu-Muslim unity haze createdby latter-daycultural critics way of Arab and Armenian independence based on a respectful attitude towards the flying the bannerof indigenousauthenti- from Turkey if the Arabs and Armenians fact of religiously informed cultural city. It is sometimes too easily supposed, so wished. On this point he endorsed difference in an anti-colonial movement as ParthaChatterjee does, that Gandhi's Mohamed Ali's call for a mixed, on an all-India scale. Gandhi was not thoughtdid not accept "the conceptual independent commission of Indian using religious means for political ends; frameworksor the modes of reasoningand Muslims, Hindus and Europeans "to nation and religion were precious ends in inferenceadopted by the nationalistsof investigate the real wish of the Armenians themselves, religion perhapseven more so hisday" and "emphatically reject[ed] their and the Arabs and then to come to amodtus than nation. For both Maulana Mohamed rationalism, scientism and historicism". vivendi whereby the claims of the Ali and him, he asserted, the Khilafat was Although Chatterjee provides some nationality and those of Islam may be "the central fact", with the Maulana brilliant insights into Gandhi's critique of adjustedand satisfied".27The "mostthorny because it was "his religion" and "with me the western concept of civil society in part of the question", Gandhi recognised, because, in laying down my life for the Hind Swaraj,his extendeddiscussion of was Palestine. Promises had been made Khilafat, I ensure the safety of the cow, Gandhi contains not one reference to by the British to the Zionists. But Palestine that is my religion, from the Mussalman Muslims or Islam.22 Yet the classic was "not a stake in the war", and so he knife". "Both hold Swaraj equally dear", 'moment of manoeuvre' in the history of maintained that by "no canon of ethics or he added, "because only by Swaraj is the Indian nationalism, if ever there was one, war" could Palestine be given to the Jews safety of our respective faiths possible".32 came with Gandhi's espousal of the cause "as a result of the war".28 The Khilafat The entire movement of non-cooperation of the Khilafat which not only paved the question was to Gandhi "an imperial was in his view "astruggle between religion way for his rise to power but enabled him question of the first magnitude" which he and irreligion" because the motive behind to achieve a quite spectacular success in wanted Hindusto realiseovershadowed the every crime perpetrated by a Europe, popular mobilisation cutting across lines Montagu-Chelmsford "Reforms and nominally Christian but beset by Satan, of religiouscommunity. everythingelse".29 If the Muslim claim was "not religious or spiritual, but grossly

Economic and Political Weekly August 1, 1998 2093 material"while the Hindusand Muslims seditious speeches at the Khilafat a "bond of affection" tied together the had "religion and honour as their Conferencein Karachion July 9, 1921, Congress president and the young man he motive".33 MohamedAli and six otherswere put on appointed secretary of the All-India There were at least two points of trial. Staged in a colonial law court,the Congress Committee. One frequentsubject weaknessin theMahatma's grand scheme defendants'case of necessity took the of argument between the two was "the of Hindu-Muslimunity in his non-violent formof aninterrogation of powerin which Almighty". The Maulana liked to refer to holy war.First, as in his staunchdefence the memoryof pastBritish promises and God in Congress resolutions by way of of the caste system, Gandhi clung present British perfidy loomed large. thanksgiving and when Nehru protested dogmaticallyto social closurealong lines Mohamed Ali took two long days to he was shouted at for his irreligion. But of religiouscommunity when it came to addressthe jury. He did not hopeto sway Mohamed Ali forgave his younger col- inter-diningand inter-marriage. Likening themin orderto be foundnot guilty. His league, believing him to be "fundamentally eating to the other privatelyperformed greatestsuccess was in tryingthe patience religious" in spite of his "superficial sanitaryprocesses of life, he refused to of theBritish judge, all of whoseattempts behaviour". 'Perhaps', Nehru mused, "it dine even in the company of the Ali to rule his lengthy treatiseson religious depends on what is meant by religion and brothers.And he gave the meaning of law to be irrelevantproved utterly futile. religious".41 Hindu-Muslimbrotherhood an inimitable Thejudge exercised his powerto sentence Mohamed Ali's stirring call for 'a Gandhiantwist in his oppositionto inter- Mohamed Ali to two years' rigorous federation of faiths' notwithstanding, the marriage."If brothers and sisters can live imprisonment,but the defendant had Coconada Congress failed to ratify C R on the friendliestfooting without ever successfullycommunicated his argument Das's Bengal Pact for an equitable power- thinkingof marryingeach other", he wrote, to his audienceof Islamic universalists sharing arrangementbetween Hindus and "I can see no difficulty in my daughter and Indian anti-colonialistsand, in the Muslims. As Das's political disciple regardingevery Mahomedan[a] brother process,made the colonial masters squirm. Subhas Chandra Bose noted ruefully, it and vice versa".34Gandhi changed his MohamedAli remindedthe courtof the was "rejected on the alleged ground that views laterin life andattended only inter- promisein the queen's proclamationof it showed partiality for the Moslems and casteand inter-community marriages, but 1858, a promise re-affirmed by two violated the principles of Nationalism". It his attitudehad caused hurt if notoffence, subsequent British sovereigns: 'The was adopted by a large majority at the despite his claim that the Ali brothers Sepoys' Mutinyafter which the queen's Bengal Provincial Conference at Sirajganj "scrupulouslyrespect[ed his] bigotry, if proclamationwas issued had originated in May 1924 overcoming the opposition [his]self-denial may be so named".35The with greasedcartridges in which cow's of "some reactionary Hindus".42 But at sec.ond weakness stemmed from his and swine's grease was believed to be the all-India level the Punjab line determinationnot to countenance the mixed". But Islamic law, the learned articulated by Lala Lajpat Rai had won possibility of any legitimate class Maulanainsisted, permitted a Muslimto out over the Bengal line advocated by dimensionin Muslimsubaltern resistance eat porkif faced with starvationbut laid C R Das. When Das died in 1925. Subhas to Hindu economic power. When the downan absolute injunction against killing Bose, who deploredthe absence of 'cultural Mappillarebellion broke out in the summer anotherMuslim. "And yet a government intimacy' between India's two great of 1921. he saw it as fanaticismpure and whichis so tenderas to asksoldiers before religious communities. wrote from simplefor which 'culturedMussalmans' enlistmentwhether they object to vacci- Mandalay prison: weresorry.36 The response to the 'Moplah nationor re-vaccination",he concluded, I do not thinkthat among the Hinduleaders madness' was cited by him as proof of "wouldcompel a Muslimto do something of India, Islam had a greater friend than Hindu-Muslimsolidarity. "As members worsethan apostasise or eat pork.If there in the Deshbandhu...Hinduism was of a family",he assuredhimself, "we shall is any value in the boastof tolerationand extremely dearto his heart;he could even sometimesfight, but we shallalways have in the proclamationsof threesovereigns, lay down his life for his religion, but at leaderswho will composeour differences then we have performeda religiousand the same time he was absolutelyfree from and keep us undercheck". Besides, "in legalduty in callingupon Muslim soldiers dogmatism of any kind. That explains the face of possibilitiesof such madness in these circumstancesto withdrawfrom how it was possible forhim to love Islam.43 in future", he asked, what was "the the army, and are neither sinners nor The mid-1920s, most contemporary alternativeto Hindu-Muslimunity? A criminals."40 observers and historians agree, were a of Even whenin periodof Hindu-Muslimstrife. Nehrutitles perpetuation slavery?"37 UNITARYNATIONALISM: December1921 Lord had the in his Reading "flung HINDU-MUSLIMDISUNITY chapter autobiography dealing Ireland"in his face, Gandhiwas unfased. with this phase of riots 'Communalism "[I]tis notthe blood that the Irishmen have Mohamed Ali emerged from prison as Rampant' in which he concludes: "Surely taken",he contended,"which has given presidentof the Indian National Congress. religion and the spirit of religion have themwhat appears to be theirliberty. But JawaharlalNehru was presentat the annual much to answer for. What killjoys they it is the gallons of blood that they have session of the Congress in Coconada in have been."44 This Nehruvian misdiag- willingly given themselves".So Indians December 1923 where the Maulana, "as nosis of the cause of Hindu-Muslim hadto learn"the art of spillingtheir own was his wont", "delivered an enormously disunity was to have large implications blood without spilling that of their long presidential address". But Nehru for the history of Indian anti-colonial opponents".38 thought it was "an interesting one", nationalism in the last two decades of the ForGandhi' s closestcomrade Mohamed largely because it showed the historic British raj.As the discourse of mainstream Ali it was the Britishcall to Muslimsto Muslim deputation demanding separate Indian nationalism turned more strident spill the blood of their own which, as electorates to have been "a command in its insistence on singularity, a sense Ayesha Jalal has shown, constitutedan performance...engineered by the govern- of unease among those condemned to intolerable infringement of religious ment itself'. Nehru considered Mohamed 'minority' status at the all-India level led freedom.39On the charge of making Ali to be "mostirrationally religious" but themto call forsafeguards and eventually

2094 Economic and Political Weekly August 1, 1998 tocouch theirown demands in the language BLOOD BROTHERSIN A WAR OF LIBERATION for the purpose of fighting against the of nationalism. What infuriated foreign rule of our country".50In 1943 MohammedAli Jinnahin early 1938was Yet duringthe secondworld war there Kiani was the top Muslimofficer flank- Nehru'sstatement reported in the press: wasa movement,led by another Cambridge ing SubhasChandra Bose at a "national "Ihave examined this so-called communal manand avid admirer of Garibaldi.which demonstration"and fund-raiserat the questionthrough the telescope, and if there sought to forge unity in anti-colonial Chettiartemple in Singapore.Bose had is nothing, what can you see."45 politics based on respect for and refusedto set foot in the templeunless his Paradoxically,it wasprecisely this myopic accommodationof religiousdifference. In colleagues belonging to all castes and vision of non-communal nationalism his speechas Congresspresident in 1938 communitiescould come with him.51 towards the Muslim question which SubhasBose hadwarned against accepting "Whenwe cameto thetemple", Bose's enabledthe politics of religiouslybased colonial constitutionaldevices designed closest political aide Abid Hasan, a Hindu identity to occupy comfortable to divide and deflect the anti-colonial HyderabadiMuslim, has written, "I found spaces within the regionaloutfits of the movement,but felt that "the policy of it filled to capacitywith the uniformsof Indian National Congress. The "moral divide and rule" was "by no means an the INA officers and men and the black conceptionof Gandhianpolitics", it has unmixedblessing for the rulingpower". capsof theSouth Indian Muslims glaringly .been suggested, was in this period He could see Britaingetting "caughtin evident".52 When Hasan, a civilian, incompatiblewith "therealities of power the meshesof herown politicaldualism" volunteeredto go to thewar front, he found withina bourgeoisconstitutional order". resultingfrom divisive policies, whether himself in an armywhich hadaltered all But Gandhihad not only "accededto the inIndia, Palestine, Egypt, Iraq orIreland.48 the rulesof Britain'sIndian Army as these political compulsions of bourgeois After war brokeout in 1939 he likened had applied to religious and linguistic politics",as ParthaChatterjee sees it,46 the Congressproposal of 'a Constituent communities,caste andgender. And yes, but had succumbedfrom the mid-1920s Assemblyunderthe aegis of anImperialist they dinedtogether before they wentinto to the political compulsions of Hindu government'to the Irish Conventionof battletogether. 'No one hadasked us", he majoritarianismin the United Provinces Lloyd George. During 1940 as Britain writes,"to cease to be aTamilianorDogra, andHindu minoritarianism in the Punjab. sufferedreverses in the"war between rival PunjabiMuslim or Bengali Brahmin,a By the time Gandhi rediscovered the imperialisms"and the Muslim League Sikh or an Adivasi.We were all thatand imperativeof Hindu-Muslimaccommod- passed its Lahore,resolution Bose noted perhapsfiercely more so thanbefore, but ation in the mid-1940s he had already that the problem of "fighting British these mattersbecame personalaffairs". ceded too much political groundto the imperialism"was likelyto give wayto the WhentheirNetaji came to see theretreating forces of unitarynationalism and Hindu morepressing problem of "internalunity menfrom Imphal at Mandalay,the "Sikhs majoritarianismwhich were bound in a and consolidation",which, in order to oiled their beards,the PunjabiMuslims, tense but symbioticrelationship. succeed, would have to include unity Dogras and Rajputstwirled their moust- The colonial rules of representationin between the Congress and the Muslim aches and we the indiscriminatesput on the formal arenas of politics based on Leagueon ajoint Hindu-Muslimdemand as good a face as we could manage".53 religiousenumeration were undoubtedly for a provisionalnational government.49 Facedwith militarydefeat, there could tailor-madefor communitarianrivalry. Between 1943 and 1945 SubhasBose be twosources of solace-one wasrational But there was also a significantshift in madea verydeliberate effort to buildunity analogywith the Irishexample, the other nationalist ideology on the issue of among India's religiouscommunities in was religious faith drawn from India's religiousdifference which made certain the movementhe led in SoutheastAsia. own history."It is a strangephenomenon that the Muslim masses were never Interestingly,the man who became the in history",Subhas Bose said in a speech enthusedin the same way by the civil seniormostfield commanderin Bose's on May 21, 1945, "thatwhile the British disobedience and Quit India move- IndianNational Army had early in his could easily crush the Irish rebellionof mentsof the 1930s and 1940s as they careerbeen the victimof exactlythe sort 1916 at a time when they were engaged hadbeen in the yearsof non-cooperation of biasthat stoked 'communal' animosity. in a life and death struggle,they had to and Khilafat.At the height of the 1942 In 1931 MohammedZaman Kiani had acknowledgedefeat at the handsof the move-mentLeonard Woolf wrote in his faceda choice-eithertogo to theOlympic same Irishrevolutionaries after they (the prefaceto Mulk Raj Anand's Letterson hockeytrials being held in Calcuttaor to British)emerged victorious from the world India: appearin the examinationfor admission war".54But he had alreadyobserved in Thenationalism of theIrish - largelydue into the new MilitaryAcademy at Dehra hisreply of November2, 1943to a message to Britishimperialism - has startedan Dun. He passedthe examinationbut the of felicitationsfrom de Valeraupon the insolubleUlster problem in which religion medicalofficer ruled him out frombeing proclamationof a provisionalgovernment and nationalismhave intertwinedto admittedto the firstterm of theAcademy. in Singaporethat British imperialism had incalculableharm. You and the produce The medicalofficer was a Hinduand the "broughtabout the partitionof Irelandin CongressParty are beginning to treatthe next manto be selectedwas a Sikh.This the and if British were Muslimsand Jinnah as Mrde Valera treated past Imperialism Ulster.You succeedin Tom enragedall the Muslimsof the battalion to survivethis war, a sirnilarfate would may deluding who believed "thewhole had been be in store for India".55 Brownon this point,but do you really thing wish to turnJinnah into an IndianLord manoeuvred with a communal bias". In an attemptto forestallsuch a fatethe Craigavon?For that is what you will FortunatelyZaman was laterselected and INA's march to Delhi had commenced certainlydo.47 joinedthe Academy in its secondterm that with a ceremonialparade on September The transformation of the would-be startedafter six months."Little did I then 26, 1943 at the tomb of the last Mughal CharlesParnell of Indianpolitics to anun- realise",writes Kiani in his memoirs,"that emperorBahadur Shah Zafarin Burma. likelyJames Craig - suchwas the measure in timeto come, in a revolutionarymove- At the ceremony Subhas Bose handed of successof inclusionarynationalism of ment...Iwould be one of thestrongest advo- overa 'nazar'of two anda halflakh rupees the Congressvariety. catesof inter-communal unity and harmony to the Burmese government"as a very

Economic and Political Weekly August 1. 19982095 small token of...love and admiration for andBengal and the province of Ulsterhad 4 Dipesh Chakrabarty,'Radical Histores and the of Burma".56Accepting the gift the Burmese to be divided by totting up numbersin Question EnlightenmentRationalism' in Economic and Political Weekly,April 8, leader Ba Maw said: "We Burmans also districtsand counties. 1995. attacha deal of to certain great importance Thespirit of religionhad little to do with 5 Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: sacred spots, to certain victory-bearing thesetemporal sins. Throughout the entire Reflections on the Origin and Spread of earth as in Shwebo."57Once the march to course of the history of Indian anti- Nationalism, Verso, London, 1991, p I1. Delhi had been halted at Imphal, the colonialism,religion as faith within the 6 G M Trevelyan,English Social History,p 353 defeated wamors and their limits of if not the limits of and BritishHistory in the NineteenthCentury, leadergathered morality, vii, cited in Cannadine, ibid, 202. once more at Bahadur Shah's tomb on had the cause of p p reason, rarelyimpeded 7 Thomas BabingtonMacaulay, 'Gladstoneon July 11, 1944. On that sombre occasion nationalunity and may in facthave assisted Church and State' in G M Young (ed), Subhas Chandra Bose closed his speech its realisationat key momentsof struggle. Macaulay: Prose and Poetry, Harvard with a couplet composed by BahadurShah The variegatedsymbols of religion as University Press, Cambridge,Massachusetts, after the of the 1857 revolt: culturehad enthused nationalists of 1952, pp 609-60, quotationsfrom pp 636-38. collapse many 8 Partha 'Our in The Ghazion me bu talak iman ki huesand colours but had seldom embittered Chatterjee, Modernity' rahegi jab Present History of West Bengal, Oxford tak TakhtLondon chalegi, tegh Hindustan relationsbetween religious communities University Press, Delhi, 1997, p 204. ki. untilthey were flaunted to boastthe power 9 Rajnarayan Basu, She Kal aar E Kal, (So long as Ghazis are imbued with the of majoritariantriumphalism. The conceits Brajendranath Bandyopadhyay and spirit of faith of unitary nationalismmay well have Sajanikanta Das (eds), Bangiya Sahitya Parishad,Calcutta, 1956, cited in Chatterjee, The sword of Hindustan will reach causeda deepersense of alienationamong London's throne.)58 'Our Modernity' in Present History, p 198. thosedefined as minoritiesthan the attach- 10 Chatterjee, ibid, pp 200, 210. FROMUNION OF HEARTSTO AMPUTATION mentsto diversereligions. The territorial 11 Partha Chatterjee, The Nation and Its OFLIMBS claimsof a minorityturned nation heaped Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial furtherconfusion on the furiouscontest Histories, Oxford University Press, Delhi, Whetherdue to a British errorin rational 1994, p 110. over sovereigntyin the dying days of the 12 1have undertakenan elaborate of this decision-makingor in answer to the prayers failedto share in critique offered at Bahadur Shah's tomb. India's raj.Having sovereignty positionelsewhere. See my 'Nationas Mother: the mannerof their and Contestationsof "India" were a last pre-colonialforbears, Representations anti-imperialists given oppor- late-colonialnationalist of in Bengali Literatureand Culture' in Sugata to reach an honourable settlement worshippers tunity thecentralised state ended up dividing the Bose and Ayesha Jalal (eds), Nationalism, of the problemof religious difference when land. Godless nationalismlinked Democracy and Development: State and Surely Politics inl India, Oxford Press, threePunjabi officers of the INA-a Hindu, to the colonial of University a Muslim and a Sikh - were on public categories religious Delhi, 1997, pp 50-75. put and minoritieshas much to 13 Ramabai Ranade Miscellaneous trial at the Red Fort for war majorities (ed), waging against answerfor. What a killer it has been! Writings of the Late Hon'ble Mr Justice the king-emperor.The venue was the same I cando no better than close with a few lines M G Ranade, Sahitya Akademi, Delhi, 1992, as on the occasion of the historic trial of of a thatthe sentinel'Rabindra- p 190. - poem 'great 14 'Our in Present BahadurShah, so was the sentence depor- nath a of reason Chatterjee, Modernity' tation for life. But on this occasion the sen- Tagore, jealous guardian History, p 199. unreason, in his littlebook 15 Ranade Miscellaneous tence could not be carried out and the Red against printed (ed), Writings of on nationalismin 1917.It was an the Late Horible Mr Justice M G Ranade, Fortthe threeofficers were released almost English rendering of a Bengali poem he had pp 193-94. the commander-in-chief 16 Lala Rai, Writings and Speeches, immediately by composedon thelast day of thelast century: Lajpat Claude Auchinleck under intense public Vol 1, University Publishers, Delhi, 1966. Yet the union of hearts in the Thelast sun of thecentury sets amidst the 17 Aurobindo Ghose, 'New Lamps for Old' in pressure.59 and winterof 1945-46could not the blood-redclouds of the West and the HaridasMukherjee UmaMukherjee (eds), prevent ampu- Sri Aurobindo's Political Thought (1893- tation of limbs in the summer of 1947. whirlwindof hatred. Thenaked of self-loveof 1908), Firma K L Mukhopadhyay,Calcutta, The as to at passion Nations, 1958, 103-04. all-importantquestion why inits drunken delirium of is pp the end of the day the Punjab pushed the greed, dancing 18 Ibid, pp 108-09. to theclash of steeland the verses 1600- subcontinent towards partitionrather than howling 19 Cited in R F Foster, Modern Ireland, of 1972, Allen Lane, London, 1988, p 454. union has been addressed more fully by vengeance... Keepwatch, India...Let your crown be of 20 Cited in Ayesha Jalal, 'Exploding Ayesha Jalal.60 What needs emphasising Communalism: The Politics of Muslim yourfreedom the freedom of the in conclusion today is that division was humility, Identity in South Asia' in Bose and Jalal not conclusion until the moment soul. (eds), Nationalism, Democracy and aforegone BuildGod's throne the of the actual wielding of the partitioner's dailyupon ample Developmenet,p 87. barenessof 21 For a fuller treatmentof the history of this axe. The principle of Ausgleich was alive your poverty And knowthat what is hugeis not great period see the relevant chapters in Sugata in the cabinet mission's proposal of a Bose and Modern South and prideIs not everlasting.62 Ayesha Jalal (eds), three-tiered federal structure for India in Asia: History, Culture, Political Economy, been in the ideas for a London and Oxford 1946 as it had Notes Routledge, University council of Ireland in 1920 and perhaps Press, Delhi, 1997, 22 See the 'The Momentof Manoeuvre: even as late as the James Craig-Michael [G M Trevelyan Lecture, University of Cam- chapter 1997. I would like to thank Gandhi and the Critique of Civil Society' in Collins pact of March 1922 and also in bridge,November 26, Jalal for the ideas that inform ParthaChatterjee (ed), Nationalist Thought the for a binational state in Palestine Ayesha inspiring and the Colonial World: A Derivative plans this lecture even though she does not share my in 1948.61What made -a decision Discourse, University of Minnesota Press, partition starry-eyed admirationof Gandhi.] born of short-termexpediency - into such Minneapolis, 1993, pp 85-130. The quoted I JawaharlalNehru, Towards Freedom. Beacon on p. 93- a long-term feature of the political phrases appear Press, Boston, 1958. p 32. 23 MahatmaGandhi, 'Mr Andrews' Difficulty', landscapes of both India and I reland was 2 David Cannadine,G M Trevelyan:A Life in in Young India 1919-1922. (Young India, thatin orderto ensurerule by religiously History, FontanaPress, London, 1993, p 92. July 21, 1920), S Ganesan, Madras, 1922, definedmajorities the provinces of Punjab 3 Nehru, Towards Freedom.,pp 34-36, 38. pp 51-52.

2096 Economic and Political Weekly August 1, 1998 24 'Khilafat',Young India, May 12, 1920 (ibid), Calcuttaand Oxford University Press, Delhi, An AuthenticAccount of the Trialby a General p 158. (forthcoming). Court Martialof CaptainShah Nawaz Khan, 25 'Why I Have Joinedthe KhilafatMovement', 50 Ibid, pp xiii-xiv. Captain P K Sahgal and Lt G S Dhillon and Young India, April 28, 1920 (ibid), p 154. 51 Ibid, p 216. the Trialby a EuropeanMilitary Commission 26 Ibid,p 153. See also 'Pledges Broken', Young 52 Abid Hasan, The Men from Imphal, Netaji of EmperorBahadur Shah', New Delhi, 1946. India, May 19, 1920 (ibid), pp 159-62. Research Bureau, Calcutta 1995, p 11. 60 See Ayesha Jalal's G M Trevelyan Seminar, 27 'Mr Andrews' Difficulty', ibid, pp 152-53. 53 Abid Hasan Safrani, The Men from Imphal, November 27, 1997, 'Nation, Reason and 28 'The Khilafat', YoungIndia, March23, 1921 pp 7-9. Religion: the Punjab's Role in the Partition (ibid), pp 178-79. 54 Manuscript(archives of the Netaji Research of India' in next weeks issue of EPW. 29 'The Question of Questions', Young India, Bureau, Calcutta). 61 See the use of the concept of Ausgleich by March 10, 1920 (ibid), p 145. 55 'India and Ireland'in NarayanaMenon (ed), the founderof SinnFein, ArthurGriffith, in his 30 'The Turkish Question', Young India, June On to Delhi or Speeches and Writings of The Resurrectionof Hungary,London, 1904. 29, 1921 (ibid), pp 180-81. Subhas Chandra Bose, Bangkok, 1944, p 62 RabindranathTagore, 'The Sunset of the 31 'Three National Cries', Young India, 117. Bose had visited Irelandin early 1936 Century' in Nationalism, Greenwood Press, September 8, 1920 (ibid), pp 442-43. and knew Irish nationalists including De Westport, Connecticut, 1973, originally 32 'Hindu-MuslimUnity a Camouflage', Young Valera.He had also met De Valerain London published, Macmillan, New York, 1917, pp India, October 20, 1921, in ibid, p. 419. in January 1938. 157-59. In 1921 Tagore was sharply critical Gandhi had not, however, wanted to make 56 'At Bahadur Shah's Tomb', ibid, p 90. of the unreason inherent in the Gandhian the stoppingof cow-slanghtera condition for 57 'Text of Speech delivered by His Excellency ritual of spinning in 'The Call of Truth', lending Hindu supportto the Khilafatclaim. Dr Ba Maw', ibid, p 128. Modern Review, 30, 4 (1921). For Gandhi's See 'Khilafatand the Cow Question', Young 58 SubhasChandra Bose, 'The GreatPatriot and defence of his own position and his tribute India, December 10, 1919 (ibid), pp 141-43. Leader', Blood Bath, Hero Publications, to Tagore see 'The Great Sentinel', Young 33 'The Inwardness of Non-Co-Operation', Lahore, 1947, p 65. India, October 13. 1921 (ibid), YoungIndia, YoungIndia, September 8. 1920, (ibid), p 237. 59 See MotiRain, 'Two HistoricTrials in RedFort: pp 668-75. 34 'Hindu-MahomedanUnity', Young India, February 25, 1920 (ibid), pp 397-400. CALL FOR PAPERS 35 'Hindu-MuslimUnity a Camouflage', Young India, October 20, 1921 (ibid), p 421. 36 'The Meaning of the Moplah Rising', Young The Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), New India, October 20, 1921 (ibid), pp 675-78. Delhi, announces a new biannual journal, Indian Social Science Review 37 'Hindu-MuslimUnity', YoungIndia, July 28, to be launched in 1999 in collaboration with SAGE Publications 1921 (ibid), p 417. (ISSR), 38 'Irelandand India', Young India, December Indian Private Ltd. The principal objective is to bring multidisciplinary and 15, 1921 (ibid), pp 621-22. interdisciplinary approaches to bear upon the study of social, economic, 39 Ayesha Jalal, 'Territorial Nationalism and Islamic Universalism:South Asian Critiques and political problems of contemporary concern. It is proposed to publish of the EuropeanNation-State', paper presented articles of a general nature as well as those focused on particularthemes. the Institute of Advanced Berlin. at Study, There will also be a book review section. To ensure high standards, only June 1997. 1 owe the insights into religion and rights to her latest work Self and refereed materialwill be included in the journal. Sovereignty: The Muslim Individualand the Communityof Islam in South Asia, c 1850- The ISSR will be edited a board of Professor T.N. the Present (forthcoming). by consisting 40 See MohamedAli's statementin R M Thadani Madan (Social Anthropology) as Editor-in-Chief and Professors Amiya K. (eds), The Historic State Trial of the Ali Bagchi (Economic History), Sabyasachi Bhattacharya (History), Ashish Brothers, Karachi, 1921, pp 63-87. I am Bose Suma Chitnis Sudhir Kakkar gratefulto AyeshaJalalforbringing Mohalned (Demography), (Education), Ali's line of contestationto my attention.For (Psychology), Kuldip Mathur (Political Science), Deepak Nayyar a muchmore detailed analysis which does full (Economics), T.K. Oommen (Sociology) and Dr. K.V. Sundaram justice to Muslim conceptions of rights as as members. well as sovereignty during the Khilafat (Geography), movement, see ibid (Ch 5). 41 Nehru, Towards Freedom, pp 104-05. Among the themes that will be addressed in the first few issues of The Indian 42 Subhas ChandraBose, Struggle, the ISSR are the and 1920-1942, Sisir Kumar Bose and Sugata (a) emergence erosion of institutions, (b) centre and Bose (eds), Netaji ResearchBureau, Calcutta periphery in economic and political development, (c) aspects of violence in and Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1997, society, (d) civil society. pp 102, 112. 43 Sisir Kumar Bose and Sugata Bose (eds). The Essential Writings of Netaji Subhas The ISSR invites papers (in duplicate) on the above themes as well Chandra Bose, Netaji Research Bureau, as articles of a nature that follow the Calcuttaand Oxford University Press, Delhi, general interdisciplinary approach. 1997, pp 3-4, 67-68, 86. The length of papers should be between 5000 and 8000 words. Shorter 44 Nehru, Towards Freedom, p 117. communications and research notes may also be considered. 45 M A Jinnahto JawaharlalNehru, March 17, 1938 in Jawaharlal Nehru, A Bunch of Old Letters,Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1986, For correspondenceand furtherinformation contact: p 278. 46 Chatterjee,Nationalist Thought,pp 113, 115. Dr. ParthaS. Ghosh 47 Mulk Raj Anand, Letters on India, Labour Book Service, London, 1942, p 9. Managing Editor, Indian Social Science Review 48 Bose and Bose (eds), Essential Writings of ICSSR, P.O. Box No. 10528 Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, pp 11-12. 199-200. Aruna Asaf Ali Marg 49 Sisir KumarBose and SugataBose (eds), The New Delhi-1 10067. AlternativeLeadership: the Collected Works Tel- (011)617-9843 of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, May 1939- January1941, Vol 10,Netaji Research Bureau. Fax -(011)617-9836

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