Contesting secularism in colonial and postcolonial north India between the 1930 and 1950s

Abstract

This article re-positions debates about the apparent ‘crisis’ of Indian secularism in relation to political events in the important phase of state transformation between the 1930s and 1950s. By looking at how the meaning of secularism was contested by political actors themselves in Uttar Pradesh, it argues that the ideological ambiguity of Indian secularism was the product of political debates and conflicts in these critical years. It suggests further that, in the decades spanning Indian independence, the real scope and limits of secularism within the polity were determined in local and provincial contexts, as much as on the national stage. In these years, political leaders attempted to define the relationship between religious tradition and ‘scientific development’ by reference to specifically Indian, as well as European philosophies, traditions and histories. In particular, the many Uttar Pradesh Congress visions of Indian secularism, represented by a palimpsest of ideological positions, could not have been exclusively shaped by an overarching modernist nationalist ideology (as many scholars suggest). Much more important was the need for political leaderships to manage a rapidly changing political context, and an unprecedented expansion of demand for state power and resources in the new Indian democracy.