TheDaak review

Book: Decolonization in South Asia: Meanings of Freedom in Post-Independence West Bengal, 1947-52 by Sekhar Bandyopadhyay, New York: Routledge, 2009; pp. ix + 246, $140.00 (hardcover). 

By Rajarshi Dasgupta

Sekhar Bandyopadhyay’s Decolonization in South Asia is an excellent follow-up to his earlier work, From Plassey to Partition (2004), which had been a wide-ranging study on the entire duration of colonial rule in the subcontinent, particularly India. Having thus already traced the emergence of India as an independent nation previously, Bandyopadhyay, in this book, focuses on the immediate political situation post-1947, attempting to explore the complexities of India’s transitional experience from the colonial to the post-colonial era. Historiographically, as the author himself notes, his chosen period of review, i.e., the first five years of the nation’s independence – from 1947 till 1952 – has come to constitute “some kind of an academic no-man’s land” (p. 1). Very little has been written about it, with most scholars identifying Partition as the culminating point of modern Indian history. Therefore, it indeed appears to be this specific lacuna that has prompted Bandyopadhyay to undertake a detailed analysis of the dramatic years that ensued in the wake of independence. 

However, beyond the very fact that this book shows the courage to venture into a largely uncharted territory, what renders Bandyopadhyay’s work even more unique is the manner in which he problematizes the idea of ‘decolonisation’ itself. Pointing towards the conventional conceptualisation of ‘decolonisation’ as an essentially elitist process, he shows how, even in the case of India, it has come to be understood in terms of either a transfer of power or a contest for sovereignty – both of which reflect little more than statist visions. Mention may be made here of Ted Svensson’s monograph, Production of Postcolonial India and Pakistan (2013), which while focusing on a similar timeline as Bandyopadhyay and providing a very novel argument, deals with decolonization from a fundamentally state-centric elitist perspective, in order to show how it signified and signalled a ‘restarting of time’.

Breaking out of this paradigm, Decolonization in South Asia offers a fresh approach to the study of independent India, albeit limiting its investigation to the political scenario of West Bengal – a newly created frontier province, borne out of the vicissitudes of Partition. The principal aim of this book therefore is to unravel how the common people perceived their transition from colonial subject-hood to post-colonial nationhood, accompanied as it was with all its immanent anxieties, tribulations, ruptures and hybridity. Accordingly, the book examines several facets of day-to-day political life including organised institutional politics, mass movements and isolated opinions in the press. By means of that, it basically intends to uncover how the meanings of freedom came to be hotly “contested by the new citizens of West Bengal, both in a discursive field as well as through popular protest actions outside the shaded corridors of Writers’ Building or the closed chambers of the Congress committee meetings” (p. 5).

In his endeavour to accomplish such a task, Bandyopadhyay probes into the popular cultural representations of freedom that had been doing rounds during the aforementioned period, exploring not only the mentalities that lay behind mass agitations but also analysing editorial letters published in the popular newspapers of the time. Specifically, thus, the book’s central theme revolves around the competing notions of ‘freedom’ that prevailed within a postcolonial context, wherein the cessation of foreign rule ensured that it could no longer serve as the stabilising opposition, by virtue of which the unity of the ‘freedom struggle’ had hitherto been maintained.   

Bandyopadhyay opens by outlining the passage from initial excitement right after independence to growing dissatisfaction as the promise of freedom appeared to remain elusive in an era of food scarcity, surging inflation, rampant corruption, outbreaks of diseases, mass immigration from the east, political and communal turmoil, and authoritarian government measures – like the expansion of the police force, curtailment of press freedom, passing of the repressive West Bengal Security Act (1948) and Preventive Detention Act (1950), etc. – which only seemed to carry forward the legacy of colonial oppression. Many had hoped that with the advent of independence, not only would British rule come to an end, but so would the injustices, destitution, brutality and exploitation that it represented. Such expectations naturally led to increasing political disenchantment, which Bandyopadhyay investigates by concentrating on peasant and labour agitations, communal violence and growing middle-class angst.  

In the process of evolving into an organised political party from an anti-colonial front,     the ruling Indian National Congress, too, grappled with its own internal ideological and factional differences. At times, it virtually seemed to risk all its claims to legitimacy in resorting to authoritarian tactics, even if only for the sake of quelling the political chaos that arose out of clashing political demands. In this situation, it became vital for the Congress to present itself as the sole representative of the nation – almost embodying the Indian state – entrusted with the responsibility of protecting India’s newly gained freedom. The leaders believed that this could be achieved by successfully subduing the Communist Party which, in responding to government repression, had itself initiated a fierce rural uprising. Moreover, Bandyopadhyay deftly shows how the other leftist parties also struggled to establish a clear ideological agenda that could truly set them apart from the Congress, opting ultimately to proclaim their moral superiority instead. 

Thus, while the left could not develop into a cohesive political alternative, the anti-Congress opposition on the right equally struggled with organisational weakness and division within its ranks, faced as it was with severe public criticism in the aftermath of the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. Therefore, when finally the inaugural elections of independent India took place in 1952, the Congress succeeded in comfortably attaining a majority so far as seats were concerned, even as it failed to secure a majority in terms of the votes cast. Effectively then, it was the 1952 election that, in this way, cemented Congress’s dominance over West Bengal for the next fifteen years.

Writing from a postcolonial perspective, nuanced in his approach, and distinctive in his choice of subject, Bandyopadhyay definitely brings something new to the table. Exploring the domains of perceptions and imaginings as articulated in the public sphere, he skillfully analyses the interactions between the factions, alliances and networks that jockeyed for influence and power in post-independence West Bengal. Seeking to explain how independent India’s political modernity was plagued by a sense of incompleteness, uncertainty, bitterness and distress, the book is organised into six chapters that carefully scrutinise the aspects of communal violence (1947-50), factional politics and communist insurgency (1948-50), and also the first national election of 1952. 

This study relies essentially on archival research for teasing out the mindset of the elite and middle classes; while for recovering mass perceptions, it uses the methodology of interpreting behaviour as text, i.e., reading popular minds through their protests and other non-protest everyday actions. Various official records – especially those available from the Intelligence Branch (IB) files of the West Bengal Police Department and the reports of the British Consulate Office at Calcutta – have been utilised only to reveal how, in the post-colonial period, even the IB officers continued to keep the opposition political leaders under constant surveillance. Besides, the work also draws upon contemporary popular and high literature, including feature films, posters, cartoons and important private documents.

Building on Joya Chatterji’s seminal text, The Spoils of Partition (2007), Bandyopadhyay thus crafts a wonderfully lucid account of the initial days of independence, deftly deploying sub-categories in order to give shape to his narrative. His writing, though empirical in nature, consists of perceptive interpretations that are entwined into the fabric of what otherwise appears to be a largely descriptive account substantiated heavily by quantitative data as well as a large number of examples.

However, compared to its length, the book is filled with too much information pertaining to several events and episodes that unfolded within this half a decade, thus somewhat straining the reader’s attention, and thereby making it a relatively difficult read for non-academicians interested in this period. Also, even as Decolonization in South Asia centres on the theme of multiple ideas/representations of freedom, Bandyopadhyay often appears to lapse into a deep examination of the intricate nature of the political struggles during this time, resulting in unnecessary deviations from the primary subject. Besides that, a little more elaboration on the structural, especially legal and constitutional changes that were being effected in the relationship between the nation and the region at this juncture, would have certainly allowed the reader to better situate the discussion on West Bengal in its proper context.

Nevertheless, Bandyopadhyay’s erudition, commitment and meticulous attention to sources are beyond dispute. The book’s strength lies especially in its rigorous investment in the archives, and in its ambitious attempt to unveil how different groups of people were “translating the modern concepts of freedom – encoded abstract political terms as ‘sovereignty’ or ‘citizenship’ – into their day-to-day language of entitlement, expectations, hunger and protests” (p. 5). In doing so, it indeed successfully retrieves some of the alternative visions of the post-colonial future that competed with the dominant Congress programme.

References:  

Bandyopadhyay, Sekhar. From Plassey to Partition: A History of Modern India. New Delhi: Orient Longman Pvt. Ltd., 2004. 

Chatterji, Joya. The Spoils of Partition: Bengal and India, 1947-1967. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. 

Svensson, Ted. Production of Postcolonial India and Pakistan: Meanings of Partition. Abingdon: Routledge, 2013.