Delhi Reborn: Partition and Nation Building in India's Capital (South Asia in Motion)

370 Pages·2022·11.575 MB·English

by  Rotem Geva

Delhi ReboRn
South ASiA in Motion
Editor
Thomas blom hansen
Editorial Board
Sanjib baruah
Anne blackburn
Satish Deshpande
Faisal Devji
Christophe Jaffrelot
naveeda Khan
Stacey leigh Pigg
Mrinalini Sinha
Ravi Vasudevan
RoteM GeVA
D elh i
Reb o Rn
Partition and Nation Building in India’s Capital
StAnFoRD uniVe RSity PReSS
StAnFoRD , CAliFoRniA
Stanford university Press
Stanford, California
©
2022 by Rotem Geva. All rights reserved.
no part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system without the prior written permission of Stanford university
Press.
Printed in the united States of America on acid-free, archival-quality paper
library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
names: Geva, Rotem, author.
title: Delhi reborn : partition and nation building in india’s capital / Rotem Geva.
other titles: South Asia in motion.
Description: Stanford, California : Stanford university Press, 2022. | Series: South Asia
in motion | includes bibliographical references and index.
identifiers: lccn 2021051794 (print) | lccn 2021051795 (ebook) | isbn 9781503631199
(cloth) | isbn 9781503632110 (paperback) | isbn 9781503632127 (ebook)
Subjects: lcsh: Decolonization—india—Delhi. | Delhi (india)—Politics and
government—20th century. | Delhi (india)—history—20th century. | india—
history—Partition, 1947.
Classification: lcc ds486.d3 g385 2022 (print) | lcc ds486.d3 (ebook) |
ddc 954/.56—dc23/eng/20211210
lC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021051794
lC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021051795
Cover photograph: india independence ceremony, Dehli, August 16, 1947.
Photo Division, Press information bureau, Ministry of information and
broadcasting, Government of india.
Cover design: Rob ehle
typeset by newgen in Adobe Caslon Pro 10.75/15
ContentS
list of illustrations vii
Acknowledgments ix
note on terms and transliteration xv
list of Abbreviations xvii
introduction 1
1 Dreaming independence in the Colonial Capital 27
2 Partition Violence Shatters utopia 82
3 An uncertain State Confronts “evacuee Property” 126
4 Claiming the City and nation in the urdu Press 170
5 Citizens’ Rights: Delhi’s law and order legacy 215
epilogue 260
notes 265
bibliography 313
index 331
This page intentionally left blank
illuStRAtionS
MAPS
Map 0.1 Delhi Province, c. 1940 24
Map 0.2 The urban core of Delhi Province, c. 1940 25
Map 1.1 The old City and the western localities, c. 1940 42
tAbleS
table 3.1 “Muslim Pockets” in Delhi in 1948 and 1952 142
table 5.1 Monthly lists of detainees in Delhi under the Punjab Public
Safety Act, 1948–1950 236
table 5.2 Monthly lists of detainees under the Preventive Detention Act,
April 1950–May 1951 252
FiGuReS
Figure 0.1 The City of Delhi before the siege 7
Figure 0.2 Clock tower (Ghanta Ghar) and town hall, Chandni Chowk,
Delhi, c. 1910–1920 9
Figure 0.3 An aerial view of new Delhi, c. 1930 11
Figure 1.1 The laxminarayan temple (birla Mandir) on Reading Road
(today Mandir Marg) 50
Figure 1.2 The Fatehpuri Mosque, 1995, with the rooftop of the Gadodia
Market behind it 53
Figure 1.3 Dr. Syed latif’s scheme of a future Pakistan in an all-india
federation 61
Figure 1.4 The scheme of a future Pakistan outlined by Aligarh university
professors Mohammed Afzal husain Qadri and Syed Zafrul
hasan (1939) 63
Figure 1.5 A map of future Pakistan from the mid-1940s 66
viii Illustrations
Figure 1.6 indian Army mountain guns carried by pack mules pass saluting
soldiers on their base during the Victory Parade in Delhi, March
1946 79
Figure 2.1 A soldier manning a bren gun at the entrance to Paharganj ba-
zaar, September 1947 85
Figure 2.2 A map of future Pakistan, published by Dawn on August 16,
1946 101
Figure 2.3 Maulana Azad addressing a crowd to mark the first anniversary of
independence, with the Jama Masjid in the backdrop 124
Figure 3.1 A huge crowd gathers for the funeral procession of Mohandas
Gandhi, Delhi, 1948 132
Figure 3.2 Mridula Sarabhai working at her desk, 1948 151
Figure 4.1 Rajan nehru, wife of R. K. nehru, distributing food to the in-
mates of the Kingsway refugee camp, 1947 194
Figure 5.1 The bharatiya Jana Sangh’s campaign truck, Delhi State Assem-
bly elections, 1952 218
Figure 5.2 Socialist leader Mir Mushtaq Ahmed, on the steps of the Jama
Masjid, campaigning for the Delhi State Assembly elections,
1952 230
Figure 5.3 The Communist Party’s election camp in Karol bagh 250
Figure 5.4 “beware of the Dog!” from the Hindustan Times, April 28,
1951 257
ACKnoWleDGMentS
This book has been many years in the making and incurred countless
debts along the way. its seed was sown at the new School for Social Re-
search, which proved formative for my intellectual development. i thank
oz Frankel, hugh Raffles, Vyjayanthi Rao, Sanjay Ruparelia, hylton
White, and Ann Stoler for the knowledge and advice they shared at that
early and foundational stage. Claudio lomnitz’s commitment to bringing
together history and anthropology, and his attentiveness to people’s expe-
rience of temporality as a historical force, have stayed with me through-
out the years, animating the analytical perspective of this book.
i conducted research and developed the ideas in this book at Princ-
eton university, where i am especially indebted to Gyan Prakash, who
taught me so much on South Asian and urban history, and whose unique
approach to history writing, with its emphasis on everyday life and at-
tention to narrativization, has deeply influenced me. As a mentor, Gyan
struck a fine balance between guiding his students and giving them space
and freedom to explore and pursue their own interests—never imposing
his way of thinking and always there to comment and refine the argu-
ment. i was fortunate to have his help at critical junctures of my academic
trajectory. Allison busch is sadly no longer with us, and she is sorely
missed by her colleagues and students. She was a gifted teacher, and i am
grateful for her generosity and her thoughtful comments on my drafts.
bhavani Raman’s imagination and analytical rigor always gave a fresh
perspective and enriched my scholarship, and i am also deeply thankful
for her kindness and encouragement. Frances Pritchett’s urdu classes at
Columbia university were a delight.
This book would not have been possible without the institutional
and financial support i received at Princeton. Reagan Campbell, Kristy