1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910780079703321

Autore

Gooptu Nandini

Titolo

The politics of the urban poor in early twentieth-century India / / Nandini Gooptu [[electronic resource]]

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cambridge : , : Cambridge University Press, , 2001

ISBN

1-107-11203-6

1-139-25225-9

1-283-34209-X

9786613342096

1-139-15972-0

1-139-15516-4

0-511-05272-3

0-511-15291-4

0-511-01757-X

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xxiii, 464 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)

Collana

Cambridge studies in Indian history and society ; ; 8

Disciplina

305.569/0954

Soggetti

Urban poor - India

Rural-urban migration - India

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 08 Oct 2015).

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 431-447) and index.

Nota di contenuto

1. The study and its perspectives -- Pt. I. Changing conditions and experiences in interwar north India. 2. The poor in the urban setting. 3. Urban local policies and the poor. 4. Urban policing and the poor -- Pt. II. Modes of political action and perception. 5. Untouchable assertion. 6. Militant Hinduism. 7. Resurgent Islam. 8. Nationalist action. 9. Congress socialst mobilisation. 10. The politics of exclusion and the 'virtuous deprived'.

Sommario/riassunto

Nandini Gooptu's magisterial 2001 history of the labouring poor in India represents a tour-de-force. By focusing on the role of the poor in caste, religious and nationalistic politics, and on their contribution to the urban economy, the author demonstrates how they emerged as a major social factor in South Asia during the interwar period. The empirical material, concentrated on Uttar Pradesh, provides compelling



insights into what it meant to be poor in the urban environment: exploitation in the workplace, the problems of finding housing, police harassment, social and political exclusion by the elite. Approaching the history of early twentieth-century Indian politics from this perspective, the author takes issue with current interpretations of sectarian and nationalist politics which argue the salience of community identity and the irrelevance of class in political analysis. This book will interest those concerned with urban social history, ethnic and sectarian conflict, nationalism, and the politics of poverty, labour and class relations.