Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Fil Y. S. The formation of westernized Hindu political elites in North India (1858–1921)

Thesis to obtain the degree of Philosophy Doctor in History (Candidate of Historical Science) on the specialty 07.00.02. The World History. Diplomatic Academy of Ukraine under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. Kyiv, 2017.

The thesis is dedicated to the formation of the Hindu political elites in North India during the period 18581921 from the time of Government of India Act 1858 until the Indian National Congress session in Ahmedabad when satyagraha tactic evolved from the private initiative of Gandhi to officially accepted national politics. We argue that from this time a new period of westernization which had many antiwestern displays began.

This research, which is based on numerous and diverse historical sources including official (acts, censuses, gazetteers, minutes) and personal (memoirs, letters, essays, news-paper articles, speeches), reveals the main characteristics of the formation of westernized political elites among Hindus in the region. To achieve this, the research is based on such historical methods as analysis and synthesis, elements of discourse-analysis, biography method and prosopography. The dissertation also uses such methodological instruments as «traditionalist modernist» gradation of the response of political elites on Western culture proposed by Indian historian B. Parekh, the instrument of dividing westernization into four phases (imitative, assimilative, asseverative, and creative), the civilization approach by Arnold J. Toynbee («challenge-and-response» frame) and by S. Hantington (three options for a developing nation: rejectionism, reformism, kemalism).

The analysis of the formation of westernized Hindu political elites includes institutional and personal levels. The first deals with modern political and socioreligious institutions in colonial north India, the second demonstrates the attitudes of leading politicians of Punjab and north-western provinces on various issues concerning India’s encounters with Western culture.

The research argues that the range of economic, political and demographic factors defined the characteristics of the formation of political elites among Hindus in North India. These include the dominant status of Hindu culture in the North Western provinces and its minor status in Punjab; the Hindu loss of political power in Punjab in the 13th century, the presence of a strong Mughal culture in North India and a policy of discrimination against Hindus by the Shia Mughal rulers in the Oudh state. Western education as the main precondition for forming the new political elite also had some peculiarities. The oriental line of education (Persian, Urdu, Sanskrit languages and literature) in Allahabad and Punjab Universities were much more popular than in presidential Universities. Students had much greater interest in western science than in literature.

Political development of Punjab and the northern western provinces gradually trended to representation on religious grounds and the first Hindu political organization Hindu Mahasabha emerged here.

The Western religious challenge received a particular response from politicians in North India: Christianity was rejected and the Bengali “creative” model of response in the form of Brahmo samaj was declared inappropriate in the region. Instead the organization of a defense type Arya samaj and Radhasoami faith was influential.

An analysis of the biographies of five of the most influential politicians of North India Motilal Nehru, Madan Mohan Malavia, Tej Bahadur Sapru, Bishan Narain Dar and Lala Lajpat Rai shows that all of them were deeply rooted in traditional culture through their traditional families, primary education and teachers.

The research states that during the entire period from 1858 until 1921, the assimilative phase of westernization dominated in the region. The government was treated as the main instrument of change in this phase. The imitative phase was absent in the region.

There are two nationalist ideologies among politicians in North India Hindu and Indian. Both represent political nationalism according to which the secular state was the main base for the Indian nation. Westernization in the religious sphere on a personal level showed that most of the five representatives of educated Indians were critical modernists in socio-religious issues specifically, that the caste system should not be rejected fully but should be reformed.