On Constructing the Idea of Gujarat

book review

The Idea of Gujarat: History, Ethnography and Text edited by Edward Simpson, Aparna Kapadia

(Hyderabad: Orient Blackswan), 2010; pp vi + 268, Rs 595.

moneyed urban people with commercial as well as professional interests. This critical historical moment left a distinct mark on the ways Gujarat would be defined in the coming decades.

The volume under review makes an effort to capture various interpretations concerning the construction of the “idea of Gujarat”, some of which are known but revisited and reinterpreted, while others were ignored until now. The collected articles by scholars with long-term personal and academic investment in the affairs of Gujarat “...aim to either challenge or explain something that is conventionally thought about Gujarat...in order to better understand the epistemological practices that have gone into the making of the region” (pp 8-9). Simpson has made the valid point that many variations of Gujarat are derived from the British writings that have been reproduced with varied purpose and hence the relationship between texts and the broader truths have to be determined cautiously.

Culture and Geography

From the perspective of cartography, various maps of “Gujarat” prepared at various points of time indicate the politics involved as the article authored by the editors point out. Citing illustrations of Watson and Forbes they underlined how “(P)ersonal interest was presented as strategic interest to the colonial government, but in the process produced different forms of knowledge about the region which reverberate in the present” (p 22). Interestingly the Maha Gujarat movement got in the end, the present geographical-administrative unit, which was

She has made two significant points: Forbes had undermined the Mughal and Maratha reigns in terms of their contribution, while glorifying the Rajput rulers and he did that in order to justify the British rule that succeeded the Maratha rule. Secondly, the British government encouraged the use of English and the standardisation of administrative vernaculars and “thus the idea of Gujarat associated with Gujarati increasingly excluded languages such as Kathiawadi, Kutchi and Bruj bhasha, and in the process many institutes and traditions with deep roots in the region’s culture were also gradually marginalised” (p 58). Forbes’ idea of the Gujarat region with a distinct identity was later on utilised by the urban elites of the mainland.

Caste has been one of the key categories pertaining to Gujarati society and hence how it has been addressed by and interacted with dominant discourse of the idea of Gujarat should be an integral part of any academic endeavour on Gujarat. Amrita Shodhan’s article “Caste in the Judicial Courts of Gujarat, 1800-60” narrates how the colonial judicial courts’ treatment and understanding of castes in terms of their customs and prevailing practices have shaped characteristics of castes and their associations in present day Gujarat. Simpson has curiously observed that

(T)he early tangles of colonial law and caste groups contributed to the formation of the distinct corporate-like identity of many castes in the region. Today, caste associations often have strong and clear systems of internal regulation and hierarchy, taxation and credit systems, and philanthropic trusts and institutions dedicated to the management of the births, lives and deaths of their members (p 9).

Oversimplifying Caste?

It is uncertain whether he is attributing the present-day characteristics of caste associations to the colonial legacy or not. In the present context, however, the

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pheno menon of ever-increasing permeation of caste associations in various spheres of lives of their members have to take into account for the purpose of explanation, the current neo-liberalisation regime that has compelled members to go back to their social roots for empathy and security. This is an aspect the volume has failed to address barring a few exceptions. Herald Tambs-Lyche has deciphered the politics involved in the construction of the imagined community of Gujarat through his “centre-periphery” concepts, illuminating how the centre’s hegemonic block of a Kanbi-Vania dominant axis of central Gujarat undermined peripheral groups, both with regard to subregions and social groups. And he has delineated how this construction was countered by peripheral regions such as Saurashtra and Kutch. The author has sharply pointed out that the reinvented Gujarat identity by the hegemonic allied forces was Hindu and tended to ignore the fact that the region had known some of its greatest development under Muslim rule (p 106). However, the essay has oversimplified the complexities pertaining to caste structure and has not addressed the complex web of caste relations intermingling with class and communal relations and tension. Equating the JP movement with fascism due to strong and rebellious views against the state of the democratic system too seems far-fetched as it reflects a rather bookish venerability towards the system.

Edward Simpson has pointed out that the history of Kutch has been rewritten, especially after the 2001 earthquake, in a manner that suits “popular political Hinduism” overturning a rich Muslim heritage. The author, however, has made another significant observation, that through this alteration in history telling, this present-day group of history makers are also striving to defy the linguistic, religious and cultural appropriation of their region by the mainlanders. They “remind us that sense in the history of Kutch is not (the) same as it is in the history of Gujarat” (p 83). These two articles not only delineate how regional identity has been constructed by dominant social forces but also how they were countered in different ways.

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Even in spatial configuration in terms of social groups in urban areas the elites have given shape to it in such a way that suits their interest as Rubina Jasani’s case study of Ahmedabad brings out. The author, however, has drawn attention to the complexities pertaining to the reconfiguration that has taken place after the violence stretching from 1969 to 2002, as nostalgia and bickering especially among Muslims and dalits who are still neighbours are a reflection and response of the violent events in the past. “Elites” is a complex category. The role of the elites in confluence with other hegemonic forces in the construction of the idea of Gujarat to serve their parochial interests has been well captured. Again, Howard Spodek has underscored the role of the elites in pre-Independence Ahmedabad with regard to maintaining harmony and cordiality among various communities, not out of any parochial design driven by self-interest but motivated by the prevalent norms and values of that time which were highly influenced by the independence movement and Gandhi’s ideas. It seems that Jasani has completely ignored this dimension. To treat any subject from the perspective of instrumentality either of parochial interest or conspiracy and disregard humanitarian values and traits might be wrong.

Double Identities

Taking two subgroups of Hindu Sindhis who have mainly settled in urban mainland Gujarat and Muslim Sindhis who are found in rural areas of Kutch district, Rita Kothari narrates how a minority of Sindhis, who had to migrate to India due to Partition are coping with the hegemonic Gujarati identity. The point of cultivating “double” identities – one, a hegemonic imposed “Gujarati” identity and the other, representing the cultural traits of the social group they belong to, and display in public sphere in an organic manner – has been well articulated. Though she has clinically depicted the agony of the minority group that migrated from Pakistan, Kothari has ignored certain obvious facts. Hindu Sindhis too are a stratified group (she has not mentioned that), a large segment of them having settled in Gujarat’s urban centres. Likewise, the Vohras among Muslims, have assimilated with the hegemonic Gujarati identity in a seamless manner as both these groups are in trade and business that are part of the mainstream economy and have thereby positioned themselves in the higher echelons of the class configuration. This group of Hindu Sindhis has become an integral part of the hegemonic Hindu right axis without compromising space for maintaining its cultural identity. So Kothari’s assumption of the psychological cost to the Hindu Sindhis may be a far-fetched generalisation that overlooks grey areas.

Impact of Homogenising Hinduism

How the “homogenising Hinduism influenced Gujarati politics” is threatening regional particularity has been deliberated with reference to Bahucharaji – a shrine of the goddess located in the hilly region of north Gujarat by Sameera Shaikh’s article. She has underlined the efforts for appropriation by the mainland hegemonic Hindu upper crust forces motivated by religiouspolitical design. However, commercial interest too has played a part in such moves.

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Three articles have stretched their subjects from past history to the present context and evoke an interesting debate. Spodek deliberates on the changing ethics with time, from the ethos and values influenced by Gandhian ideals to the ethics of violence manifested in 2002. In his view the ghastly events reflected an ethic of contesting for political power, without regard for means. Nikita Sud in her article delineates politics involved in the State’s land policies in postcolonial Gujarat; from “land to the tillers” to the “land liberalisation policy”. She argues that lack of synchronisation among the three “layers” of the State – ideas, administrative machinery and political lobbying – has created a space for manoeuvring at different junctures. Eitund Edwards in her anthropological account of the Rabari group of Kutch (with focus on their attire) has shown that the advance of textile technology along with varied policy measures promoted by the State have affected the Rabaris adversely. In order to cope, they have opted for a settled urban life and a literacy drive, but as the author points out, “...the desire to blend in with the mainstream and to enjoy an urban model of living, have resulted in them becoming less visibly Rabari” (p 201).

Overlooking Parochial Forces

Spodek, while attributing the violence of 2002 only to the mainstream politics of power has presented an oversimplified interpretation and overlooked the parochial socio-religious-cultural forces. He has signed off on a positive note saying that the current paradigm of a “vibrant” Gujarat would neutralise the communal forces. Perhaps in his concern about the parochial communal forces he has espoused the current path of “development” with a set of ethics that is anti-human and violates all sorts of human and constitutional rights. Nikita Sud has highlighted the “high statebig business alliance” which is clearly manifest in the acquisition of public and privately-owned land. But the space she has mentioned is shrinking as all the three dimensions of the “stateness” has converged into one. However, the recent events at Mahuva and Hajira, suggest that the public sphere is simmering with dissent over the explicit pro-business houses policy of the Gujarat government.

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A few general observations on the volume. First, it is perplexing to find Hanna Kim’s article on the Swaminarayan sect in this volume as it does not fit in with the book’s theoretical underpinning and line of argument. It is relevant to mention that the Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purusho ttam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) is one of the chief architects of the present day aggressive identity of Gujarat. Nevertheless Hanna has raised a fundamental issue on the nature of epistemological inquiry of confining the subject of interpretation within a preferred set of ideas that forecloses true understanding of the subject. The articles make critical comments on how the idea of Gujarat is being constructed in a homogenised manner by a hegemonic section undermining the unique cultural identities of the various groups. As mentioned in the “Introduction”, the collection of essays is not exhaustive. Especially conspicuous is the absence of any on tribals, dalits,

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Muslims and the working class. Simpson though has remarked on the hegemonic tendencies of the literati and elites of “mainland” Gujarat. Barring two articles on Kutch, the “peripheral” regions have been ignored. But the volume has two articles on the centre of the “mainland”, Ahmedabad. This is paradoxical. Are there no works of substance addressing the other subregions? The presence of the local Gujarat scholarship is nil, a clear indication of the debilitating state of Gujarat’s intellectual and academic life which is starkly reflected in the absence of critical

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deliberation among the region’s intelligentsia on the forceful projection of the “idea” and “identity” of Gujarat as “development” oriented with rapid industrialisation. It also has an extremely aggressive and assertive face and form, celebrated and supported by the growing Hindu middle class. In turn, it intensifies the marginalisation of minorities, dalits, adivasis and working class as well as diminishes the cultural identities of groups such as the Rabaris, the Chharas, the Bharwads, the Madaris, etc. The volume has certainly provided a compelling

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reason to reflect on the “idea of Gujarat” not only in academic terms but also as it pertains to the public sphere.

Kiran Desai (kartikkirandesai@gmail.com) is with the Centre for Social Studies, Surat.

Reference

Simpson, Edward (2011): “Introduction: Two Historians, a Research Society and a Freedom Fighter: On the Life of the Sociological Ideas in the Mesocephalic Province of Gujarat” in Edward Simpson (ed.), Society and History of Gujarat since 1800: A Select Bibliography of the English and European Language Sources (New Delhi: Orient Black-Swan).

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