Partha Sarathi Gupta was an outstanding scholar whose academic interests spanned modern British and Indian history--ranging from imperial policy to the patriotic songs of Bengali composers. Educated at Presidency College, Calcutta, and subsequently at Oxford, his work is marked by meticulous scholarship, the use of a wide array of sources, and an uncompromising integrity.
His Imperialism and the British Labour Movement 1914-64 (1975) was a landmark work. Later, Gupta worked on decolonization in India and edited three massive volumes of documents on the Indian nationalist movement in 1943 and 1944.
The present book reflects his various interests--imperial policy, the army, federalism, tariff policy, the spread of broadcasting, labour history, cultural history, nationalism, and identity formation.
This book will be indispensable for all students of modern Indian history, as also for those interested in the encounter between British imperialism and Indian nationalism.
Contents :
Introduction
I - The Historiography of Imperialism and Nationalism
1. Identity Formation and Nation-States: Some Reflections
2. The Decline and Fall of the British Empire
3. Economic Imperialism: The Case of the British Empire, 1895-1914
II - The End-game of the Empire
1. Federalism and Provincial Autonomy as Devices of Imperial Control
2. State and Business in India in the Age of Discriminatory Protection, 1916-1939
3. The Courts of Law and the Quit India Movement
4. Imperialism and the Labour Government of 1945-1951
III - The Army in the Imperial System
1. The Army, Politics and Constitutional Change in India, 1919-1939
2. Imperial Strategy and the Transfer of Power, 1939-1951
3. India in Commonwealth Defence, 1947-1956
IV - Labour History
1. Notes on the Origin and Structuring of the Industrial Labour Force in India, 1880-1900
2. British Railway Labour's Lobby, 1870-1900
3. British Labour and the Indian Left, 1919-1939
V - Culture and the Raj
1. Music and Communalism in Bengal
2. Radio and the Raj
3. The Quality of Life and Indian Scholarship
List of Partha Sarathi Gupta's writings
Index