The Shaping of Modern Gujarat: Plurality, Hindutva, and BeyondA Probing Look Beyond Hindutva To Get To The Heart Of Gujarat. Many Aspects Of Modern Gujarati Society And Polity Appear Puzzling. A Society Which For Centuries Absorbed Diverse People Today Appears Insular And Parochial, And While It Is One Of The Most Prosperous States In India, A Quarter Of Its Population Lives Below The Poverty Line. Drawing On Academic And Scholarly Sources, Autobiographies, Letters, Literature And Folksongs, Achyut Yagnik And Suchitra Sheth Attempt To Understand And Explain These Paradoxes. They Trace The History Of Gujarat From The Time Of The Indus Valley Civilization, When Gujarati Society Came To Be A Synthesis Of Diverse Peoples And Cultures, To The State S Encounters With The Turks, Marathas And The Portuguese, Which Sowed The Seeds Of Communal Disharmony. Taking A Closer Look At The Nineteenth And Twentieth Centuries, The Authors Explore The Political Tensions, Social Dynamics And Economic Forces That Contributed To Making The State What It Is Today: The Impact Of The British Policies; The Process Of Industrialization And Urbanization, And The Rise Of The Middle Class; The Emergence Of The Idea Of Swadeshi ; The Coming Of Gandhi And His Attempts To Transform Society And Politics By Bringing Together Diverse Gujarati Cultural Sources; And The Series Of Communal Riots That Rocked Gujarat Even As The State Was Consumed By Nationalist Fervour. With Independence And Statehood, The Government Encouraged A New Model Of Development, Which Marginalized Dalits, Adivasis And Minorities Even Further. This Was Accompanied By The Emergence Of Identity Politics Based On The Hindutva Ideology, And Violence In Multiple Forms Became Increasingly Visible, Overshadowing Gujarat S Image As One Of The Most Industrialized, Urbanized And Globalized Societies In India. The Authors Conclude That This Trajectory Of Gujarat S Modern History Has Been Propelled By Its Powerful Middle Class And Future Directions Would Depend On How This Section Of Society Resolves Global Local Tensions And How They Make Their Peace With The Past. |
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Adivasis Ahmedabad Arab areas ashram Baroda became Bharuch Bohras Bombay Brahmin British Cambay cent central Gujarat century Chaulukya communities Congress continued cotton Dalits Dalpatram Delhi Desai district diwan dominated economic elections elite English established Gaekwad Gandhi Gandhian Godhra Gujarat Vernacular Society Gujarati language Gujarati society Hindu-Muslim Hinduism Hindus and Muslims Hindutva India industry Islam Jain Jinnah Junagadh Karsandas Kheda Kolis Kutch labour lakh land large number later leaders Mahajan Maratha Mehta merchants middle class mill owners modern mosque movement Mughal Mumbai municipal Nagar Narendra Modi Narmad Nawab organized panchayat Parsis Patan Patel Patidar political princely Rajkot Rajput Ranchhodlal reform religious riots ruler rupees Sabha Sangh Parivar Sanskrit Satyagraha Saurashtra Sayajirao schools sects social Somnath south Gujarat Sultanate Surat Swadeshi Swaraj temple textile took towns trade traditional tribal upper castes urban Vadodara Vaishnav Vallabhbhai Vaniya Vidyapith villages violence western India women workers Yatra