Provincial Democracy

Tracks the history of democracy as it began to establish roots at the height of anticolonial nationalism in British India through calls for self-determination, federation proposals and the demand for civil liberties which profoundly shaped democratic culture and regionalism.

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Situated within the context of seismic global transformations of the early twentieth century—namely the two World Wars and the crisis of the imperial order—Provincial Democracy delves into the period between the decline of empire and the rise of the nation. This period, the book contends, is defined by not only the dominance of the nation state and debates over a new global order, but also the expansion of democratic participation in defining and negotiating political futures and an increased use of the language of liberalism, political rights, and self-government in colonial India. Moreover, it shifts the focus from the dominant narrative of linguistic nationalism as defining regionalism on to debates over questions of representation, rights, political reforms, and federalism. Thus, it uncovers a broad perspective on political imaginaries that anticipated democracy in independent India.