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  3. The Politics of the Urban Poor in Early Twentieth-Century India
  • Cited by 138
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
July 2014
Print publication year:
2001
Online ISBN:
9781139252256
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139252256
Series:
Cambridge Studies in Indian History and Society (8)
Subjects:
Area Studies, Politics: General Interest, South Asian History, Asian Studies, History, Politics and International Relations
Information

Book description

Nandini Gooptu's magisterial 2001 history of the labouring poor in India represents a tour-de-force. By focusing on the role of the poor in caste, religious and nationalistic politics, and on their contribution to the urban economy, the author demonstrates how they emerged as a major social factor in South Asia during the interwar period. The empirical material, concentrated on Uttar Pradesh, provides compelling insights into what it meant to be poor in the urban environment: exploitation in the workplace, the problems of finding housing, police harassment, social and political exclusion by the elite. Approaching the history of early twentieth-century Indian politics from this perspective, the author takes issue with current interpretations of sectarian and nationalist politics which argue the salience of community identity and the irrelevance of class in political analysis. This book will interest those concerned with urban social history, ethnic and sectarian conflict, nationalism, and the politics of poverty, labour and class relations.

Reviews

‘… this is a very rich book, thoroughly researched and careful in arguments.’

Ravinder Kaur - Indian Institute of Technology

'Some readers may be provoked by Gooptu's reintroduction of 'class' as a prominent analytical category. It is a timely provocation.'

Source: Internationales Asienforum

'Gooptu conclusively dismantles essentialist views of Hinduism and Islam as well as of the poor. For this alone, The Politics of the Urban Poor in Early Twentieth-Century India should re required reading for final year undergraduates and graduates in South Asian history, politics or religious studies.'

Source: Contemporary South Asia

'Gooptu provides a sophisticated analysis … She combines this with a profound theoretical understanding of historical processes … rich empirical material … Gooptu has shown considerable intellectual skill in writing a social history of the urban … there is much we can learn from this study'.

Source: Journal of International Review of Social History

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