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Radical Politics in Colonial Punjab
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g The radical left in the Punjab in pre-independence India was opposed to the Quit
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A India campaign, a position which was widely vilified. As a result, its actions dur-
9 ing the 1920s and 1930s have often been viewed as foreign and quintessentially
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5 un-Indian. This book examines some of these deterministic misapprehensions
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: and establishes that, in fact, Punjabi communism was inextricably woven into the
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0 local culture and traditions of the region. By focusing on the political history of
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a the organised left, a considerable and growing force in South Asia, it discusses the
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e formation and activities of radical groups in the colonial Punjab and offers valu-
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n able insights as to why some of these groups did not participate in the Congress
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C movement during the run-up to independence. Furthermore, it traces the impact
T of the colonial state’s institutions and policies upon these radical groups and sheds
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N light on how and when the left, though committed to revolutionary action, found
B itself obliged to assimilate within the new framework devised by the colonial
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L state.
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N Based on a thorough investigation of primary sources in India and the UK with
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[ special emphasis upon the language used by the revolutionaries of this period,
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b this book will be of great interest to academics in the field of political history,
d language and the political culture of colonialism, as well as those working on
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d Empire and South Asian studies.
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w Shalini Sharma is Lecturer in Colonial and Post-colonial History at Keele
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D University, UK. Her research interests focus on the political histories of marginal
groups and their interaction with political structures.
Routledge Studies in South Asian History
1 The Social History of Health and Medicine in Colonial India
Edited by Biswamoy Pati and Mark Harrison
2 Decolonization in South Asia
Meanings of Freedom in Post-independence West Bengal, 1947–52
Sekhar Bandyopadhyay
2 3 Historiography and Writing Postcolonial India
1 Naheem Jabbar
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s 4 Nationalism, Education and Migrant Identities
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g The England-Returned
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A Sumita Mukherjee
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5 5 Medicine, Race and Liberalism in British Bengal
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: Symptoms of Empire
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0 Ishita Pande
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e 6 Radical Politics in Colonial Punjab
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n Governance and Sedition
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C Shalini Sharma
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Radical Politics in Colonial
Punjab
Governance and sedition
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9 Shalini Sharma
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First published 2010
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
2 by Routledge
1 270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
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2 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
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g This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2010.
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A To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
9 collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.
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5 © 2010 Shalini Sharma
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5 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
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t utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
a known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
] any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
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r from the publishers.
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e British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
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T A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
E Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
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Sharma, Shalini, 1971–
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Radical politics in colonial punjab: governanace and sedition/Shalini
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L Sharma.
F p. cm.–(Routledge studies in South Asian History; 6)
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“Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada”–T.p. verso
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y [ Includes bibliographical references and index.
b 1. Communism–India–Punjab–History–20th century.–2.
d Radicalism–India–Punjab–History–20th century. 3. Radicals–
e India–Punjab–History–20th century. 4. Right and left (Political
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a science)–History–20th century. 5. Sedition–India–Punjab–History–
o 20th century. 6. Religion and politics–India–Punjab–History–20th
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n century. 7. Punjab (India)–Politics and government–20th century.
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8. Punjab (India)–Colonial influence. 9. Great Britain–Colonies–
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D Administration–History–20th century I. Title.
HX395.P8S54 2010
320.53'209545509041–dc22
2009012473
ISBN 0-203-86969-9 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN13: 978–0–415–45688–3 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978–0–203–86969–7 (ebk)
ISBN10: 0–415–45688–6 (hbk)
ISBN10: 0–203–86969–9 (ebk)
Contents
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g Acknowledgements ix
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A Glossary xi
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5 Introduction 1
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t 1 The Punjab, communism and the state 9
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r 2 Martyrdom and the nation: the ‘communism’ of the
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e Naujawan Bharat Sabha 35
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E 3 Learning the new rules: the Punjab left in the 1930s 60
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I 4 The contradictions of communism during the
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F Second World War 91
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y Conclusion 115
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d Notes 119
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o Bibliography 147
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w Index 157
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d Crawling punishment, Amritsar. An English woman was attacked on this street. As a
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d deterrent, Indians had to crawl on it (unknown photographer, 1919). © British Library
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Acknowledgements
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g In this book I have tried to understand some aspects of the radical politics of the
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A left in a significant but neglected province of British India, the Punjab. I would not
9 have considered attempting to satisfy my curiosity about the Indian left without
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5 the encouragement of my teachers: Mary Bainbridge, the late Bryan Symons,
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: Terry and Barbara Bell, Samita Sen, Sebastien Budgen, the late Gerard Duveen
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0 and the late Chandrashekar Prasad.
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a The book is based on the PhD thesis I completed in 2005 at the School of
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e Oriental and African Studies. I am indebted to my supervisor, Sudipta Kaviraj.
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n He provided me with insights and encouragement during my doctoral research.
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C Joya Chatterji’s encouragement and advice were tremendously helpful. The thesis
T developed from an initial interest in the Indian left, which was encouraged by
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N Samita Sen at Cambridge. I thank her for introducing me to Jawaharlal Nehru
B University. In the early stages of my thesis I was fortunate to be advised by Javeed
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L Alam, David Taylor, John Sidel, Gurharpal Singh, Sanjay Seth, Pritam Singh,
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N Bhagwan Josh and Bishnu Mohapatra and members of the Punjab Research
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[ Group, who helped me to formulate questions and my focus.
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b I have benefited from a number of conversations, discussions and even argu-
d ments with friends throughout the years. At London these took place with Peggy
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d Froerer, Suhit Sen, Daud Ali, Sundari Anitha, John Game, Manjari Katju, Bhavna
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l Krishnamurty, Rochelle Pinto and Benjamin Zachariah; in Delhi, Maheshwar
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w Singh, Amitabh Behar, Richa Singh, Mohinder Singh, Anoop Sukuraman, Mahesh
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D Daga, Nandini Bhattacharya, Pratik Chakrabarti and Ashley Tellis; and in Oxford,
Samira Sheikh, Rochana Bajpai, Prashant Kidambi, Kaushik Bhaumik, Debraj
Bhattacharya and Rajarshi Das Gupta. I have also received advice from Amalendu
Misra, Peter Alexander, Katherine Adeney and Andrew Wyatt.
The staff at the Teen Murti Memorial Museum and Library, Delhi; the National
Archives of India, Delhi; the University Library, Cambridge; the Centre of South
Asian Studies, Cambridge; the Desh Bhagat Yaadgar Museum and Library,
Jullunder; the Warwick University Modern Records Centre, Warwick University;
the Archives of Contemporary History, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi; The
Communist Party of India Library at Ajoy Bhavan, Delhi; and the Oriental and
India Office Collection at The British Library, London, have been invaluably
helpful.
