Growth of Political Awakening in U. P. 1858-1900 (An Old Book)

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In recent years the study of the Indian nationalist movement has attracted a large number of scholars, Indian as well as foreign. Some of these studies show a marked change in approach to the subject. Being limited to a small region or province, they offer much greater scope for treatment of the subject in greater depth and detail than would otherwise be possible in a study covering the whole country. Regional archival material, contemporary newspapers and literary sources, private collections and numerous reports provide a wealth of materials for such studies. The present book, devoted to the study of political awakening in Uttar Pradesh (then called the North- Western Provinces and Oudh) in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, fulfils a much-felt need.

The aftermath of the revolt of 1857, in which U. P. had played a prominent role, affected the political life of the province in many ways. While the exclusion of the 'Purbias' left a large number of people unemployed, the Taluqdars, regarded by the British as the 'natural leaders' of society, received many privileges, which further depressed the position of the peasantry. The educational backwardness of the province, its extreme poverty, the lack of a sizable English-educated middle class, the absence of metropolitan towns like Calcutta, Madras and Bombay, and the presence of a large backwardlooking landed aristocracy contributed to make U. P. politically backward. It is not surprising therefore that though the province hosted three annual sessions of the Congress and was fairly well represented at most of the sessions, no political leader from here was elected president. By and large, U.P.'s role in national politics, despite its large population and favourable geographical location, was not spectacular.

This book was submitted as a Ph. D. thesis in the Department of History. B. H. U. in 1979. Some additions have been made later on. In the nineteenth century this Province was known as the North-Western Provinces and Oudh. After the creation of North-West Frontier Province in 1901 it came to be known as the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh. It became Uttar Pradesh after independence. In this book an attempt has been made to analyse the political situation of the Province, especially to investigate the factors responsible for the rise of nationalism, character of the Congress and representation of this Province in this national organisation. The role of bureaucracy, performance of the peoples' representatives in the Councils, issues in the council elections and the attitude of Muslims towards political agitations have also been discussed.

Besides Introduction and Conclusion there are five chapters. In the Introduction, a general structure of the Province has been given. In the second chapter an attempt has been made to diagnose as to what extent the indignation over drain of wealth, elimination of native industries, racial discrimination or the expansion of education were responsible for the rise of nationalism. The activities of the Congress in this Province have been discussed in the next chapter, how the Congressites tried to make it an organisation of the people and what opposition they had to face from the landed aristocracy and the Muslims. The opponents tried their best to prove that it was not a representative organisation and the delegates were only the so-called representatives. In the fourth chapter, the attitude of bureaucracy towards the Congress has been examined. The officials tried to suppress it in one way or the other. They even alleged that the Congressites were instigating religious riots and supporting the cow-protection societies to make it a mass movement.