Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-42gr6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T14:37:24.028Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Self-Rule and the Problem of Peoplehood in Colonial India

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 November 2019

NAZMUL S. SULTAN Open the ORCID record for NAZMUL S. SULTAN [Opens in a new window]
NAZMUL S. SULTAN*
Affiliation:
University of Chicago
*
*Nazmul S. Sultan, PhD Candidate, Department of Political Science, University of Chicago, nazmulsultan@uchicago.edu.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article theorizes the colonial problem of peoplehood that Indian anticolonial thinkers grappled with in their attempts to conceptualize self-rule, or swaraj. British colonial rule drew its legitimacy from a developmentalist conception of the colonized people as backward and disunited. The discourse of “underdeveloped” colonial peoplehood rendered the Indian people “unfit” for self-government, suspending their sovereignty to an indefinite future. The concept of swaraj would be born with the rejection of deferred colonial self-government. Yet the persistence of the developmentalist figuration of the people generated a crisis of sovereign authorization. The pre-Gandhian swaraj theorists would be faced with the not-yet claimable figure of the people at the very moment of disavowing the British claim to rule. Recovering this underappreciated pre-Gandhian history of the concept of swaraj and reinterpreting its Gandhian moment, this article offers a new reading of Gandhi's theory of moral self-rule. In so doing, it demonstrates how the history of swaraj helps trace the colonial career of popular sovereignty.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 114 , Issue 1 , February 2020 , pp. 81 - 94
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

I wish to thank the following for their feedback on earlier drafts of the essay: Sugata Bose, Nusrat Chowdhury, Dennis Dalton, Aniket De, Leonard Feldman, Yuna Blajer de la Garza, Adom Getachew, Shefali Jha, Alex Haskins, Sina Kramer, Sankar Muthu, Thomas Newbold, Tejas Parasher, Sanjukta Poddar, Madeline Smith, James Tully, and, especially, Dipesh Chakrabarty, Patchen Markell, Jennifer Pitts, and Linda Zerilli. I would also like to thank three anonymous reviewers and, in particular, Leigh Jenco for their valuable comments and suggestions.

References

REFERENCES

Anghie, Antony. 2004. Imperialism, Sovereignty, and the Making of International Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Arendt, Hannah. 1963. On Revolution. New York: Viking Press.Google Scholar
Banerjea, Surendranath. 1917 [1876–1916]. Speeches and Writings of Hon. Surendranath Banerjea. Madras: G.A. Natesen & Co.Google Scholar
Banerjea, Surendranath. 1970 [1876–1916]. Speeches of Surendranath Banerjea. Vol. 1. Kolkata: Indian Association.Google Scholar
Banerjee, Sukanya. 2010. Becoming Imperial Citizens: Indians in the Late-Victorian Empire. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Bayly, Christopher. 2012. Recovering Liberties: Indian Thought in the Age of Liberalism and Empire. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bell, Duncan. 2007. The Idea of Greater Britain: Empire and the Future of World Order, 1860–1900. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bell, Duncan. 2010. “John Stuart Mill on the Colonies.” Political Theory 38 (1): 34–64.Google Scholar
Benhabib, Seyla. 1994. “Deliberative Rationality and Models of Democratic Legitimacy.” Constellations 1 (1): 26–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bernal, Angélica. 2017. Beyond Origins: Rethinking Founding in a Time of Constitutional Democracy. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bilgrami, Akeel. 2003. “Gandhi, the Philosopher.” Economic and Political Weekly 38 (39): 4159–65.Google Scholar
Brown, Judith. 1972. Gandhi’s Rise to Power: Indian Politics 1915–1922. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Chakrabarty, Dipesh. 2000. Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Chakrabarty, Dipesh, and Majumdar, Rochona. 2010. “Gandhi’s Gita and Politics as Such.” Modern Intellectual History 7 (2): 335–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chandra, Bipan. 1966. The Rise and Growth of Economic Nationalism in India: Economic Policies of Indian Nationalist Leadership. New Delhi: People’s Publishing House.Google Scholar
Chatterjee, Partha. 1986. Nationalist Thought and the Colonial World. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Chatterjee, Partha. 1993. The Nation and its Fragment: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Cohn, Bernard. 1996. Colonialism and its Forms of Knowledge. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Connolly, William. 1988. Political Theory and Modernity. Oxford: Basil Blackwell Ltd.Google Scholar
Cooper, Frederick. 2014. Citizenship between Empire and Nation: Remaking France and French Africa, 1945–1960. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Dallmayr, Fred. 2000. “What Is Swaraj? Lessons from Gandhi.” In Gandhi, Freedom, and Self-Rule, ed. Parel, Anthony J.. New York: Lexington Books, 103–18.Google Scholar
Dalton, Dennis. 2012. Mahatma Gandhi: Non-Violent Power in Action. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Dasgupta, Sandipto. 2017. “Gandhi’s Failure: Anticolonial Movements and Postcolonial Futures.” Perspectives on Politics 15 (3): 647–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Derrida, Jacques. 1986. “Declarations of Independence.” New Political Science 7(1): 7–15.Google Scholar
Devji, Faisal. 2012. The Impossible Indian. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dussel, Enrique. 2008. Twenty-Theses on Politics. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Dutt, Romesh Chunder. 1901. The Economic History of India. London: Kegan Paul & Co.Google Scholar
Emerson, Rupert. 1967. From Empire to Nation: The Rise to Self-Determination of Asian and African Peoples. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Escobar, Arturo. 1995. Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of Theory of the Third World. NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Espejo, Paulina Ochoa. 2011. The Time of Popular Sovereignty. University Park, PA: Penn State Univeristy Press.Google Scholar
Fanon, Frantz. 2004. The Wretched of the Earth. New York: Grove Press.Google Scholar
Frank, Jason. 2007. “‘Unauthorized Propositions’: ‘The Federalist Papers’ and Constituent Power.” Diacritics 37 (2–3): 103–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frank, Jason. 2010. Constituent Moments: Enacting the People in the Post-Revolutionary America. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchand. 1946. The Gospel of Selfless Action or the Gita According to Gandhi. Ahmedabad: Navajivan Publishing House.Google Scholar
Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchand. 1997. “Hind Swaraj.” In Hind Swaraj and Other Writings, ed. Parel, Anthony. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1–119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchand. 1999. The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi (Electronic Book). 98 volumes. New Delhi: Publications Division, Government of India.Google Scholar
Ghose, Aurobindo. 2002 [1890--1908]. Bande Mataram: Political Writings and Speeches. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram.Google Scholar
Godrej, Farah. 2017. “Gandhi, Foucault, and the Politics of Self-Care.” Theory & Event 20 (4): 894–922.Google Scholar
Goswami, Manu. 2004. Producing India: From Colonial Economy to National Space. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guha, Ranajit. 1997. Dominance without Hegemony. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Honig, Bonnie. 2007. “Between Decision and Deliberation: Political Paradox in Democratic Theory.” American Political Science Review 101 (1): 1–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hyslop, Jonathan. 2011. “An “Eventful” History of Hind Swaraj: Gandhi between the Battle of Tsushima and the Union of South Africa.” Public Culture 23 (2): 299–319.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iyer, Raghavan N. 1973. The Moral and Political Thought of Mahatma Gandhi. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Jenco, Leigh. 2010. Making the Political: Founding and Action in the Political Theory of Zhang Shizhao. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kapila, Shruti. 2007. “Self, Spencer and Swaraj: Nationalist Thought and Critiques of Liberalism, 1890–1920.” Modern Intellectual History 7 (2): 109–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaviraj, Sudpita. 1995. “Democracy and Development in India.” In Democracy and Development, ed. Bagchi, Amiya Kumar. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 92–130.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keenan, Alan. 2003. Democracy in Question: Democratic Openness in a Time of Political Clsoure. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Koditschek, Theodore. 2011. Liberalism, Imperialism, and the Historical Imagination: Nineteenth-Century Visions of a Greater Britain. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kohn, Margaret, and McBride, Keally. 2011. Political Theories of Decolonization: Postcolonialism and the Problem of Foundations. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laclau, Ernesto. 2005. On Populist Reason. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Livingston, Alex. 2018. “Fidelity to Truth: Gandhi and the Genealogy of Civil Disobedience.” Political Theory 46 (4): 511–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Macaulay, Thomas Babington. 1970 [1833]. “Government of India.” In Macaulay: Prose and Poetry, ed. G.M. Young. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 688–718.Google Scholar
Manela, Erez. 2007. The Wilsonian Moment: Self-Determination and the International Origins of Anticolonial Nationalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Mantena, Karuna. 2010. Alibis of Empire: Henry Maine and the Ends of Liberal Imperialism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mantena, Karuna. 2012a. “Gandhi’s Critique of the State: Sources, Contexts, Conjunctures.” Modern Intellectual History 9: 535–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mantena, Karuna. 2012b. “Another Realism: The Politics of Gandhian Non-Violence.” American Political Science Review 106 (2): 455–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mantena, Karuna. 2016. “Popular Sovereignty and Anti-Colonialism.” In Popular Sovereignty in Historical Perspective, eds. Bourke, Richard and Skinner, Quentin. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 297–319.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marwah, Inder. 2017. “Rethinking Resistance: Spencer, Krishnavarma, and the Indian Sociologist.” In Colonial Exchanges: Political Theory and the Agency of the Colonized, eds. Hendrix, Burke and Baumgold, Deborah. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 43–72.Google Scholar
Mazumdar, Ambica Charan 1915. The Indian National Evolution: A Study of the Origin and Growth of the Indian National Congress. New Delhi: Michiko & Panthajan.Google Scholar
McCarthy, Thomas A. 2009. Race, Empire, and the Idea of Human Development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mehta, Uday. 1999. Liberalism and Empire: A Study in Nineteenth Century British Liberal Thought. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mehta, Pratap B. 2012. “Liberalism, Nation, and Empire: The Case of J.S. Mill.” In Empire and Modern Political Thought, ed. Muthu, Sankar. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 232–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mehta, Uday. 2010. “Gandhi on Democracy, Politics and the Ethics of Everyday Life.” Modern Intellectual History 7 (2): 355–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mehta, Uday. 2011. “Patience, Inwardness, and Self-Knowledge in Gandhi’s Hind Swaraj.” Public Culture 23 (2): 417–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Metcalf, Thomas. 1995. Ideologies of the Raj. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mill, John Stuart. 1977a. “Civilization.” In The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume XVIII –Essays on Politics and Society Part I, ed. Robson, John M.. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 117–48.Google Scholar
Mill, John Stuart. 1977b. “Considerations on Representative Government.” In The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume XIX –Essays on Politics and Society Part II, ed. Robson, John M.. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 371–578.Google Scholar
Morgan, Edmund. 1988. Inventing the People: The Rise of Popular Sovereignty in England and America. New York: Norton & Co.Google Scholar
Mouffe, Chantal. 2000. The Democratic Paradox. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Naoroji, Dadabhai. 1887 [1866–86]. Essays, Speeches, and Writings on Indian Politics. Bombay: Caxton Printing Works.Google Scholar
Naoroji, Dadabhi. 1901 [1876–1900]. Poverty and Un-British Rule in India. London: Swan Sonnenschein Co.Google Scholar
Naoroji, Dadabhai. 1917 [1866–1915]. Speeches and Writings of Dadabhai Naoroji. Madras: G.A. Nathesen & Co.Google Scholar
Nehru, Jawaharlal. 1942. The Unity of India. New York: John Day Inc.Google Scholar
Nehru, Jawaharlal. 1936. An Autobiography. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Nehru, Jawaharlal. 1972 [1928]. “Swaraj and Socialism.” In Selected Works. Vol. 3, ed. S. Gopal. Delhi: B.R. Publishing Operation, 369–72.Google Scholar
Nehru, Jawaharlal. 1988. A Bunch of Old Letters: Written Mostly to Jawaharlal Nehru and Some Written by Him. Delhi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Olson, Kevin. 2007. “Paradoxes of Constitutional Democracy.” American Journal of Political Science 51 (2): 330–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pal, Bipin Chandra. 1887. The National Congress. Lahore: The Tribune Office, Anarkali.Google Scholar
Pal, Bipin Chandra. 1954a [1887–1902]. Writings and Speeches of Bipin Chandra Pal. Vol. 1, Part 1. Calcutta: Yugayatri Prakashak Limited.Google Scholar
Pal, Bipin Chandra. 1954b [1902--07]. Swadeshi and Swaraj. Calcutta: Yugayatri Prakashak.Google Scholar
Pal, Bipin Chandra. 1964. Nabayugera Bāṃlā. Kolkata: Bipin Chandra Pal Institute [Bengali].Google Scholar
Parekh, Bhikhu. 1989. Gandhi’s Political Philosophy: A Critical Examination. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar
Parel, Anthony J. 1997. “Editor’s Introduction.” In Hind Swaraj and Other Writings, ed. Anthony Parel. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, xiii--lxii.Google Scholar
Parel, Anthony J. 2006. Gandhi’s Philosophy and the Quest for Harmony. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Parel, Anthony J. 2016. Pax Gandhiana: The Political Philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pitts, Jennifer. 2005. A Turn to Empire: The Rise of Imperial Liberalism in Britain and France. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosanvallon, Pierre. 2006. Democracy Past and Future. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. 1997. The Social Contract and Other Later Political Writings. Cambridge: Cambridge UP.Google Scholar
Rudolph, Lloyd, and Rudolph, Susan. 2006. Postmodern Gandhi and Other Essays. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sarkar, Sumit. 2010. Swadeshi Movement in Bengal 1903–08. Ranikhet: Permanent Black Press.Google Scholar
Sieyès, Emmanuel-Joseph. 2003. “What is the Third Estate?” In Political Writings, ed. Sonenscher, Michael. Indianapolis: Hackett, 92–162.Google Scholar
Skaria, Ajay. 2016. Unconditional Equality: Gandhi’s Religion of Resistance. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stokes, Eric. 1959. The English Utilitarians and India. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Tilak, Bal Gangadhar. 1922 [1905–18]. Bal Gangadhar Tilak: His Writings and Speeches. Madras: Ganesh & Co.Google Scholar
Tilak, Bal Gangadhar. 1920. “L. Tilak’s Letter.” Young India 2 (1): 3.Google Scholar
Visana, Vikram. 2016. “Vernacular Liberalism, Capitalism, and Anti-imperialism in the Political Thought of Dadabhai Naoroji.” The Historical Journal 59 (3): 775–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wolin, Sheldon. 1981. “People’s Two Bodies.” Democracy 1 (1): 9–24.Google Scholar
Wolpert, Stanley. 2001. Gandhi’s Passion: The Life and Legacy of Mahatma Gandhi. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar