Emergence of provincial politics

This book examines an important period of transition in the political structure of South India. The first three-quarters of a century of British rule, down to the 1870s, had effectively torn apart and fragmented the political institutions of the South, and had left a highly parochial political society in which loyalties seldom extended beyond face-to-face relationships and power was extremely localised. This lack of significant supra local political connections contributed to the Madras Presidency's reputation as the most 'benighted' of all Indian provinces.
From the 1870s, new pressures on the Empire and on the southern political economy began to change this picture. A new political and administrative system was imposed across the whole province and once more connected 'locality' and 'province'. As elsewhere in India, a consciousness of new political relationships began to develop and 'modern' forms of politics emerged. New social conflicts, based on antagonistic religious, caste, class, racial and regional identities came to dominate political life. By 1917 the Madras Presidency was leading the whole of India in the drive for Home Rule, in communal movements and in the demand for linguistic states. Dr Washbrook examines closely the processes by which the new political system emerged and the ways in which it altered patterns of political and social behaviour.

This wide-ranging and pioneering book will interest not only historians of South India, for the pressures to which Madras was subject were common to the rest of India and its responses had much in common with those in other provinces. Dr Washbrook develops in detail the relationship between colonial government and indigenous society during a critical phase of 'modernization', and this book will form a valuable case-study for students of colonialism and development studies. It forms a companion to Christopher Baker's The Politics of South India 1920-1937.