Peasant Pasts

Peasant Pasts is an innovative, interdisciplinary approach to writing histories of peasant politics, nationalism, and colonialism. Vinayak Chaturvedi's analysis provides an important intervention in the social and cultural history of India by examining the nature of peasant discourses and practices during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Through rigorous archival study and fieldwork, Chaturvedi shows that peasants in Gujarat were active in the production and circulation of political ideas, establishing critiques of the state and society while promoting complex understandings of political community. By turning to the heartland of M.K. Gandhi's support, Chaturvedi shows that the vast majority of peasants were opposed to nationalism in the early decades of the twentieth century. He argues that nationalists in Gujarat established power through the use of coercion and violence, as they imagined a nation in which they could dominate social relations. Chaturvedi suggests that this littletold story is necessary to understand not only anticolonial nationalism but the direction of postcolonial nationalism as well.

Peasant Pasts is an innovative, interdisciplinary approach to writing histories of peasant politics, nationalism, and colonialism. Vinayak Chaturvedi's analysis provides an important intervention in the social and cultural history of India by examining the nature of peasant discourses and practices during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Through rigorous archival study and fieldwork, Chaturvedi shows that peasants in Gujarat were active in the production and circulation of political ideas, establishing critiques of the state and society while promoting complex understandings of political community. By turning to the heartland of M.K. Gandhi's support, Chaturvedi shows that the vast majority of peasants were opposed to nationalism in the early decades of the twentieth century. He argues that nationalists in Gujarat established power through the use of coercion and violence, as they imagined a nation in which they could dominate social relations. Chaturvedi suggests that this littletold story is necessary to understand not only anticolonial nationalism but the direction of postcolonial nationalism as well.

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Maps
Introduction

PART ONE
1. Ranchod
2. The Bhagat and the Miracle
3. Dharala/Koli/Swordsman
4. The Patidars and the Kanbis
5. Becoming a Colonial Emissary
6. The Mukhi and the Fouzdar
7. Monitoring Peasants
8. Prophesy Unfulfilled
9. Defeating the Plague, Controlling Dharalas
10. The Dakore Pilgrimage
11. The King’s Procession
12. Ranchod’s Letter
13. The Book Collection
14. Kashi Patra: A Circulating Letter
15. The Practice of Cutting Trees
16. Official Battle Narratives
17. Dharala Battle Narratives
18. The Arrests
19. Ranchod’s Testimony
20. The Kingship
21. Friends and Enemies of the King
22. Symbols of Legitimacy
23. Oral Culture and Written Culture
24. The Criminal Case
25. The Aftermath

PART TWO
26. Politics Continued
27. Age of Darkness
28. Daduram
29. Surveillance
30. The Politics of Food
31. "The Dignity of Labor"
32. The Baraiya Conference Movement
33. Contesting Nationalism
34. Peasant Freedom
35. Police Reorganization
36. The Criminal Tribes Act
37. Underground Activities
38. "My Land Campaign"
39. The Labor Strike
40. The Kheda Satyagraha
41. Strikes and Raids
42. Nationalizing Dharala Raids
43. A Second "No-Revenue Campaign"
44. Deporting Dharalas
45. The Punitive Police Tax
46. "To Forget Past Enmities"
47. Ravishankar Vyas
48. The Last "No-Revenue Campaign"
49. The Coming of the Postcolonial
50. Becoming Indian

PART THREE
51. Small Discoveries
52. Chaklasi
53. Daduram’s Legacies
54. Returning to Kheda
55. Kalasinh Durbar
56. Raghupura
57. Local Knowledge
58. Hidden Histories
59. Erasing the Past
60. Narsiram
61. Seeing Daduram
62. Dayaram
63. Narsi Bhagat
64. History without Ends

Conclusion
Abbreviations
Notes
Glossary
Bibliography
Index