Claiming Citizenship and Nation : Muslim Politics and State Building in North India, 1947–1986

"The book provides insight into the changing nature of Muslim politics and the ideas of citizenship in independent India. It studies the electoral mobilization of minority groups across North India, particularly in Uttar Pradesh where Muslims have been demographically dominant in various constituencies. The volume discusses themes such as the making and unmaking of the 'Congress heartland' and the threat of revival of 'Muslim communalism', alongside issues of representation, property, language politics, rehabilitation and citizenship, politics of Waqf, personal law and Hindu counter-mobilization. The author utilizes previously unused government and institutional files, private archives, interviews, and oral resources to address questions central to Indian politics and society. An important intervention, this book will be useful for scholars and researchers of politics, Indian history, minority studies, law, political studies, nationalism, electoral politics, Partition studies, political sociology, sociology and South Asian Studies"-- Provided by publisher The book provides insight into the changing nature of Muslim politics and the ideas of citizenship in independent India. It studies the electoral mobilization of minority groups across North India. Half Title 2 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Dedication 6 Table of Contents 8 List of figures and tables 9 Acknowledgements 10 Note on transliteration and place names 12 List of abbreviations 13 Glossary 15 Introduction 18 The historiographical context 27 Notes 33 Chapter 1: The making and unmaking of the Congress heartland 38 The 3 June 1947 plan and Hindu ‘counter-mobilization’ 40 Elections: rowing against the tide of provincialism 51 Conclusion 70 Notes 71 Chapter 2: Muslim politics in India’s heartland 79 Introduction 79 ‘Let’s Get Rid of Them First’ – independent India and North Indian Muslims 80 Partition migration in Uttar Pradesh 80 Vote banks and the politics of convenience 94 The issue of and Muslim representation in state services 99 The role of the Urdu Press 104 The 1961 Aligarh riot: a turning point? 108 Conclusion 116 Notes 117 Chapter 3: The making of the Hindi heartland 127 The ‘Rashtra Bhasha’ debate and the state of Uttar Pradesh 130 Hindi and being Hindu 132 UP and the making of the ‘Hindi Heartland’ 138 Urdu in UP – the fight for survival 146 The movement for Hindi 150 Language and ‘minority disenchantment’ 152 Conclusion 155 Notes 156 Chapter 4: Property, rehabilitation and citizenship 164 Introduction 164 Waqf and state control 166 Evacuee property and the UP state government 175 I 176 Property and pressure from Pakistan 176 II 179 Property with a tag – Hindu or Muslim? 179 III 182 UP evacuee property and the central government 182 The implementation of the Evacuee Property Act and challenges to it 185 IV 189 Property Act – politics and change 189 Permanent enemies 191 Conclusion 192 Notes 192 Chapter 5: The Husainabad Trust: A case of Shi‘a heartland 200 Husainabad Trust and early legislation 202 The Husainabad Trust and the key players – the state and the trustees 207 The Husainabad Trust after independence 209 The Husainabad Trust and claimants: descendants and the Shi‘a community 214 ‘Muharram in two cities’ 220 The scheme of management 224 Conclusion 225 Notes 226 Chapter 6: Mandir–Masjid politics: Muslim appeasement and Hindu counter-mobilization 233 Muslim appeasement and AMU 236 Jan Sangh, RSS and Hindu counter-mobilization 241 New Muslim leadership: Shahi Imam and the Muslim elite 246 Notes 255 Conclusion 259 Notes 265 Bibliography 266 Manuscript sources 266 Private papers 266 Lucknow 267 Lucknow 267 Published sources 267 Private papers 267 Official publications 268 Gazetteers and census 268 Newspapers (NMML) 268 Interviews 269 Secondary literature 269 Memoirs and biographies 269 Articles 269 Published books 270 Unpublished dissertations 278 Index 279 Congress,Muslim,politics;,factional,struggles;,secularism;,vote-bank;,Hindutva Congress Muslim politics,factional struggles,secularism,vote-bank,Hindutva