In search of the collective self: How ethnic group concepts were cast through conflict in colonial India

Modern Asian Studies

Volumn 31, Issue 2, 1997, Pages 285-315

  Reetz, Dietrich ^a  

^a ZENTRUM MODERNER ORIENT   (Germany)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

COLONIAL STATE; CULTURAL IDENTITY; GROUP CONCEPT; POLITICAL GROUP; SOCIOECONOMIC CONDITIONS; TWENTIETH CENTURY;

INDIA;

EID: 0031423250     PISSN: 0026749X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/s0026749x00014311     Document Type: Article

References (74)

1. The paper is part of a larger study on 'Ethnic and Religious Identities in Colonial India: A Comparative Analysis' which concerns itself with the profile of ethnic and religious movements under colonial rule concentrating on the Pathans, the Sikhs and the Tamils. For a discussion of theoretical issues involved in the project, see D. Reetz, 'Ethnic and religious identities in colonial India: a conceptual debate', Contemporary South Asia, vol. 2, no. 2 (1993), pp. 109-22.
2. Cf. D. Reetz, 'Enlightenment and Islam: Sayyid Ahmad Khan's Plea to Indian Muslims for Reason', The Indian Historical Review, New Delhi, vol. XIV, nos. 1-2 (July 1987 and Jan. 1988), pp. 206-18.
3. From the Gospel of Ramakrishna, pp. 158-60, quoted in Steven Hay (ed.), Sources of Indian Tradition, Second edn., vol. 2: Modern India and Pakistan (New York, 1988), pp. 66-7.
4. From the Gospel of Ramakrishna, pp. 158-60, quoted in Steven Hay (ed.), Sources of Indian Tradition, Second edn., vol. 2: Modern India and Pakistan (New York, 1988), pp. 66-7.
5. 'The putative ancestor, Qais, lived at the time of the Prophet. He sought the Prophet out in Medina, embraced the faith, and was given the name of Abdur-Rashid. Thus Pathans have no infidel past, nor do they carry in their history the blemish of defeat and forcible conversion'. [Meaning: unlike others whose ancestors converted to Islam. - D.R.] F. Earth, 'Pathan identity and its maintanance', in F. Barth, Features of Person and Society in Swat: Collected Essays on Pathans, Selected Essays of Frederik Barth, vol. II (London, 1981), p. 105.
6. Cf. John H. Piet, A Logical Presentation of the Śaiva Siddhānta Philosophy, (India Research Series, VIII) (Madras, 1952), pp. 3-4ff.
7. Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities (London-New York, 1991 rev. & ext. edn), pp. 33-6 and chapter 3, pp. 37-46.
8. The political movements of the Pathans, the Sikhs and the Non-Brahmins, and later the Tamils, will not be discussed in detail here. For a review of their history before independence see Stephen A. Rittenberg, Ethnicity, Nationalism and the Pakhtuns; The Independence Movement in India's North-West Frontier Province, (Durham, NC, 1988); Khushwant Singh, A History of the Sikhs, 2 vols (Princeton, 1963-66); J. S. Grewal, The Sikhs of the Punjab (The New Cambridge History of India, 11.3) (Cambridge, 1990); Eugene Irschick, Politics and Social Conflict in South India (Berkeley, 1969); K. Nambi Arooran, Tamil Renaissance and Dravidian Nationalism, 1905-1944 (Madurai, 1980).
9. The political movements of the Pathans, the Sikhs and the Non-Brahmins, and later the Tamils, will not be discussed in detail here. For a review of their history before independence see Stephen A. Rittenberg, Ethnicity, Nationalism and the Pakhtuns; The Independence Movement in India's North-West Frontier Province, (Durham, NC, 1988); Khushwant Singh, A History of the Sikhs, 2 vols (Princeton, 1963-66); J. S. Grewal, The Sikhs of the Punjab (The New Cambridge History of India, 11.3) (Cambridge, 1990); Eugene Irschick, Politics and Social Conflict in South India (Berkeley, 1969); K. Nambi Arooran, Tamil Renaissance and Dravidian Nationalism, 1905-1944 (Madurai, 1980).
10. The political movements of the Pathans, the Sikhs and the Non-Brahmins, and later the Tamils, will not be discussed in detail here. For a review of their history before independence see Stephen A. Rittenberg, Ethnicity, Nationalism and the Pakhtuns; The Independence Movement in India's North-West Frontier Province, (Durham, NC, 1988); Khushwant Singh, A History of the Sikhs, 2 vols (Princeton, 1963-66); J. S. Grewal, The Sikhs of the Punjab (The New Cambridge History of India, 11.3) (Cambridge, 1990); Eugene Irschick, Politics and Social Conflict in South India (Berkeley, 1969); K. Nambi Arooran, Tamil Renaissance and Dravidian Nationalism, 1905-1944 (Madurai, 1980).
11. The political movements of the Pathans, the Sikhs and the Non-Brahmins, and later the Tamils, will not be discussed in detail here. For a review of their history before independence see Stephen A. Rittenberg, Ethnicity, Nationalism and the Pakhtuns; The Independence Movement in India's North-West Frontier Province, (Durham, NC, 1988); Khushwant Singh, A History of the Sikhs, 2 vols (Princeton, 1963-66); J. S. Grewal, The Sikhs of the Punjab (The New Cambridge History of India, 11.3) (Cambridge, 1990); Eugene Irschick, Politics and Social Conflict in South India (Berkeley, 1969); K. Nambi Arooran, Tamil Renaissance and Dravidian Nationalism, 1905-1944 (Madurai, 1980).
12. The political movements of the Pathans, the Sikhs and the Non-Brahmins, and later the Tamils, will not be discussed in detail here. For a review of their history before independence see Stephen A. Rittenberg, Ethnicity, Nationalism and the Pakhtuns; The Independence Movement in India's North-West Frontier Province, (Durham, NC, 1988); Khushwant Singh, A History of the Sikhs, 2 vols (Princeton, 1963-66); J. S. Grewal, The Sikhs of the Punjab (The New Cambridge History of India, 11.3) (Cambridge, 1990); Eugene Irschick, Politics and Social Conflict in South India (Berkeley, 1969); K. Nambi Arooran, Tamil Renaissance and Dravidian Nationalism, 1905-1944 (Madurai, 1980).
13. Cf. the evidence of Sirdar Bahadur Sundar Singh, Secretary of the Chief Khalsa Diwan and a member of the Legislative Council of Punjab Province, before the Public Service Commission in 1913. United Kingdom, Parliamentary Papers, Royal Commission on the Public Services in India: Appendix vol. X (London, 1914), Cd. 7582, pp. 71-5; here: p. 75.
14. For an interesting summary of opposing arguments, see D. Petrie, Developments in Sikh Politics (1900-1911), Report, Chief Khalsa Diwan (Amritsar, 1911), originally compiled for the Criminal Intelligence Department of the British administration.
15. Quoted in J. S. Grewal, 'Legacies of the Sikh Past for the Twentieth Century', in J. T. O'Connell et al. (eds), Sikh History and Religion in the Twentieth Century (Delhi, 1990), pp. 25-6.
16. Cf. Gobinder Singh, Religion and Politics in the Punjab (Delhi, 1986), pp. 57ff.
17. N. Gerald Barrier, 'Sikh Politics in British Punjab prior to the Gurdwara Reform Movement', in O'Connell et al. (eds.), Sikh History and Religion, pp. 170-2.
18. Quoted in Sumit Sarkar, Modern India (Delhi, 1983), p. 57.
19. Cf. Rosaline O'Hanlon, Caste, Conflict and Ideology: Mahatma Jyotirao Phule and Low Caste Protest in Nineteenth-Century Western India (Cambridge South Asian Studies, 30) (Cambridge, 1985); Gail Omvedt, Cultural Revolt in a Colonial Society: The Non-Brahmin Movement in Western India: 1873-1930 (Bombay, 1976), pp. 107ff.
20. Cf. Rosaline O'Hanlon, Caste, Conflict and Ideology: Mahatma Jyotirao Phule and Low Caste Protest in Nineteenth-Century Western India (Cambridge South Asian Studies, 30) (Cambridge, 1985); Gail Omvedt, Cultural Revolt in a Colonial Society: The Non-Brahmin Movement in Western India: 1873-1930 (Bombay, 1976), pp. 107ff.
21. Started with the publication of Caldwell's Dravidian Grammar in 1856. For references, see the second revised and enlarged edition, Robert Caldwell, A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South Indian Family of Languages (London, 1875).
22. See for instance G. U. Pope (trans. and ed.), The Tiruvãcagam (Oxford, 1900).
23. M. S. Purnalingam Pillai, Tamil Literature, p. 254, quoted in Irschick, Politics and Social Conflict in South India, p. 294.
24. M. S. Purnalingam Pillai, Tamil Literature, p. 254, quoted in Irschick, Politics and Social Conflict in South India, p. 294.
25. Ibid., p. 293.
26. Ibid., p. 295.
27. Sundaram Pillai (1855-97), historian of Tamil literature, quoted in ibid.
28. Quoted in D. G. Tendulkar, Faith is a Battle (Bombay, 1967), p. 59.
29. Ghaffar Khan at a Red Shirt meeting at Khairmaidan on 6 Nov. 1931. Quoted in P. S. Ramu, Momentous Speeches of Badshah Khan, p. 26.
30. Ibid., p. 33.
31. Tendulkar, Faith is a Battle, p. 33.
32. Ghaffar Khan at a meeting on 6 Nov. 1931, quoted in Ramu, Momentous Speeches of Badshah Khan, p. 22.
33. 'We do earn a living but it becomes the food of the Britishers, it becomes the food of the Tahsildars, the subinspectors and the appeal writers'. Quoted in ibid., p. 34; 'We have very big Jagirdars among us. Question them as to whether they have ever made the Firangi inclined to do good to our nation. Have the Jagirdars and Khans done any service to your nation. There is none who might have made a gutta (benefit) for the nation'. Ibid., p. 38.
34. 'We do earn a living but it becomes the food of the Britishers, it becomes the food of the Tahsildars, the subinspectors and the appeal writers'. Quoted in ibid., p. 34; 'We have very big Jagirdars among us. Question them as to whether they have ever made the Firangi inclined to do good to our nation. Have the Jagirdars and Khans done any service to your nation. There is none who might have made a gutta (benefit) for the nation'. Ibid., p. 38.
35. The usage of the term is confusing, particularly for the outsider. It is often used interchanging with the term Pathan. At the time, Pakhtun was more often used to describe ethnic and linguistic attributes and the commonness of all the tribes in both Afghanistan and India while Pathan is the eastern tribesman living mainly in India and the independent territories.
36. 'All those who belong to the N.-W.F.P., whether rich or poor, Hindus, Muslims or Sikhs, are Pakhtoons'. Hindustan Times, 9-7-1947; 'By Pakhtun I mean everyone, whether Hindu, Muslim, Sikh or Christian, whether rich or poor, Pir, Khan or ordinary layman'. Tribune, 9-7-1947, quoted in Erland Jansson, India, Pakistan or Pakhtunistan? The Nationalist Movement in the North-West Frontier Province, 1937-1947 (Studia Historica Upsaliensia; 119) (Uppsala, 1981), p. 219.
37. 'All those who belong to the N.-W.F.P., whether rich or poor, Hindus, Muslims or Sikhs, are Pakhtoons'. Hindustan Times, 9-7-1947; 'By Pakhtun I mean everyone, whether Hindu, Muslim, Sikh or Christian, whether rich or poor, Pir, Khan or ordinary layman'. Tribune, 9-7-1947, quoted in Erland Jansson, India, Pakistan or Pakhtunistan? The Nationalist Movement in the North-West Frontier Province, 1937-1947 (Studia Historica Upsaliensia; 119) (Uppsala, 1981), p. 219.
38. 'All those who belong to the N.-W.F.P., whether rich or poor, Hindus, Muslims or Sikhs, are Pakhtoons'. Hindustan Times, 9-7-1947; 'By Pakhtun I mean everyone, whether Hindu, Muslim, Sikh or Christian, whether rich or poor, Pir, Khan or ordinary layman'. Tribune, 9-7-1947, quoted in Erland Jansson, India, Pakistan or Pakhtunistan? The Nationalist Movement in the North-West Frontier Province, 1937-1947 (Studia Historica Upsaliensia; 119) (Uppsala, 1981), p. 219.
39. Barrier, 'Sikh Politics in British Punjab', p. 182.
40. Sundar Singh claimed beliefs were primary and outward appearances less important. For his evidence, see United Kingdom, Parliamentary Papers, Royal Commission on the Public Services in India: Appendix vol. X, p. 71-5. Gurbakhsh Singh Bedi who represented the established section of the Sikh élite held the opinion that the emphasis on the separateness of Sikhs from Hindus is only 20-25 years old. Ibid., pp. 125-7.
41. Sundar Singh claimed beliefs were primary and outward appearances less important. For his evidence, see United Kingdom, Parliamentary Papers, Royal Commission on the Public Services in India: Appendix vol. X, p. 71-5. Gurbakhsh Singh Bedi who represented the established section of the Sikh élite held the opinion that the emphasis on the separateness of Sikhs from Hindus is only 20-25 years old. Ibid., pp. 125-7.
42. Government of India, Census of India, 1911, Punjab (Lahore, 1912), vol. XIV, part 1, Subsidiary table 'General distribution of the population by religion', p. 193.
43. See, for instance, Great Britain, Parliamentary Papers, Joint Select Committee on the Government of India Bill (London, 1919), Cmd. 203, vol. 2: Minutes of Evidence, Evidence by Sardar Thaker Singh, p. 2726. For a thorough account of the representation demand and the exchange of respective arguments, see Memorandum on Sikh representation submitted by the Chief Khalsa Diwan, Amritsar, and the following interview in Indian Statutory Commission (I.S.C.), Selections from the Memorandum and Oral Evidence by Non-Officials (Part 1), (London, 1930), pp. 135ff.
44. See, for instance, Great Britain, Parliamentary Papers, Joint Select Committee on the Government of India Bill (London, 1919), Cmd. 203, vol. 2: Minutes of Evidence, Evidence by Sardar Thaker Singh, p. 2726. For a thorough account of the representation demand and the exchange of respective arguments, see Memorandum on Sikh representation submitted by the Chief Khalsa Diwan, Amritsar, and the following interview in Indian Statutory Commission (I.S.C.), Selections from the Memorandum and Oral Evidence by Non-Officials (Part 1), (London, 1930), pp. 135ff.
45. Emmerson to Linlithgow, 19 Oct. 1936, Linlithgow Papers, NMML, in K. L. Tuteja, Sikh Politics 1920-1940 (Kurukushetra, 1984), p. 176.
46. Of the 175 seats, the Muslim Unionist Party got 96, Congress 18 (of which 5 were Sikh seats), the Muslim League got only 2. Of the Sikh seats, the Khalsa National Party secured 18, the Akalis 10, and the Congress 5. The rest were Independents. Ibid., p. 179.
47. Hindu, 20 Dec. 1916.
48. Irschick, Politics and Social Conflict in South India, p. 165.
49. The non-Brahmin manifesto stated that '. . . Though rather late in the field, the non-Brahmin communities have begun to move. They now represent various stages of progress. Some of them such as the Chetty, the Komati, the Mudaliar, the Naidu, and the Nayar, have been making rapid progress; and even the least advanced, like those who are ahead of them, are manfully exerting themselves to come up to the standards of the new times . . . In a variety of ways in different walks of life non-Brahmins will now be found unostentatiously and yet effectively contributing to the moral and material progress of this Presidency. But they and their brethren have so far been groping helplessly in the background, because of the subtle and manifold ways in which political power and official influences are often exercised by the Brahmin caste'. Hindu, 20 Dec. 1916.
50. Report of the North-West Frontier Enquiry Committee and Minutes of Dissent by Mr. T. Rangachariar and Mr. N. M. Samarth (Delhi, 1924), p. 17.
51. Cf. Report and Evidence of the North-West Frontier Enquiry Committee.
52. See evidence to the Simon Commission in November 1928: I.S.C., Selections, (Part I), p. 269.
53. Jansson, India, Pakistan or Pakhtunistan?, p. 54.
54. Government of India, Census of India, 1931 (Bangalore, 1932), vol. 1. India, part II 'Imperial Tables', pp. 424-5, calculated on the population aged 5 years and over.
55. I.S.C., Survey (London, 1930), part III, Working of the reformed constitution, p. 197
56. Franchise (Lothian) Committee 1932, in Indian Annual Register 1932, vol. 1 (Delhi, 1990 Repr.), pp. 437-71, here: p. 455. The proportion of adult males enfranchised was 43.4 and of adult females 10.5 million people.
57. Cf. secret government memo on Akali Dal in Papers of Sir Evan Jenkins, Governor of the Punjab, Record of distrubances and constitutional affairs, confidential letters, interview notes etc., Mar.-Aug. 1947. India Office Library and Records R/3/1/176, file pages 75-80. Kerr doubts that the mass participation was really massive. Mohinder Singh (The Akali Movement (Delhi, 1978), pp. 100-1, table note) gives the number of 25,000 which even if doubled would amount to only 1.6 per cent of the Sikhs in the Punjab (3,110,060) in 1921. Ian J. Kerr, 'Fox and the Lions: The Akali Movement Revisited' in O'Connell et al. (eds.), Sikh History and Religion, p. 222, footnote 46.
58. Cf. secret government memo on Akali Dal in Papers of Sir Evan Jenkins, Governor of the Punjab, Record of distrubances and constitutional affairs, confidential letters, interview notes etc., Mar.-Aug. 1947. India Office Library and Records R/3/1/176, file pages 75-80. Kerr doubts that the mass participation was really massive. Mohinder Singh (The Akali Movement (Delhi, 1978), pp. 100-1, table note) gives the number of 25,000 which even if doubled would amount to only 1.6 per cent of the Sikhs in the Punjab (3,110,060) in 1921. Ian J. Kerr, 'Fox and the Lions: The Akali Movement Revisited' in O'Connell et al. (eds.), Sikh History and Religion, p. 222, footnote 46.
59. Quoted in Tendulkar, Faith is a Battle, p. 110.
60. Ramu, Momentous Speeches of Badshah Khan, p. 224.
61. Ganda Singh (ed.), Some Confidential Papers of the Akali Movement (Amritsar, 1965), p. 66.
62. He was the president of the temple administration committee SGPC from 1936 till 1944, and he also remained the president of the Shiromani Akali Dal for most of this period. Except for a short period in 1944, he remained the most prominent Akali leader of the time.
63. Akali Party Manifesto in The Tribune, 20 June 1936.
64. M. K. Gandhi, The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol. LXXII (Delhi, 1978), pp. 395.
65. Quoted from Arooran, Tamil Renaissance and Dravidian Nationalism, p. 269.
66. Madras Mail, 23, 27 Feb. 1937, in Ibid., p. 184.
67. For details see Indu Banga, 'The Sikh Crisis of Sikh Politics (1940-1947)', in O'Connell et al. (eds), Sikh History and Religion, pp. 233-55; Christine Effenberg, The Political Status of the Sikhs (New Delhi, Archives Publishers, 1989), pp. 117ff.
68. For details see Indu Banga, 'The Sikh Crisis of Sikh Politics (1940-1947)', in O'Connell et al. (eds), Sikh History and Religion, pp. 233-55; Christine Effenberg, The Political Status of the Sikhs (New Delhi, Archives Publishers, 1989), pp. 117ff.
69. Cf. the documents of the All Parties Sikh Conference and the Shiromani Akali Dal under Tara Singh where the demand for Azad Punjab was raised but not pressed when it came to resolutions. Indian Annual Register 1944, vol. II, pp. 210 ff.
70. For a review of the issue, see Jansson, India, Pakistan or Pakhtunistan?, ch. 'Pakhtunistan', pp. 206-15.
71. Ian Talbot, Provincial Politics and the Pakistan Movement (Karachi, 1990), p. 27.
72. Cf. Naicker's Presidential address at the 14th Session of the Justice Party Conference which elected him President of the Party in absentia, in Indian Annual Register 1938, vol. II, p. 380.
73. Madras Mail, 19 Oct. 1938, in Arooran, Tamil Renaissance and Dravidian Nationalism, p. 238.
74. For details, see ibid., Chapter 9 'The Demand for Dravidanad, 1940-44', pp. 233-51.