An Indian Political Life: Charan Singh and Congress Politics, 1937 to 1961 focuses on the role of Charan Singh in the politics of the period while providing a broader perspective on the major issues, controversies, and developments of the time.

The book is the result of a careful study of Charan Singh`s personal collection of political files coupled with a series of extensive interviews with politicians, public personalities, and local people. It provides an account of the principal issues and events of the period, including Hindu-Muslim relations, the conflict between the Nehruvian goal of rapid industrialization and the desires of those favoring primary attention to agriculture, issues of law and order, the rise of corruption and criminality in politics, the place of caste and status in a modernizing society, and the pervasive factional politics characteristic of the era.

This work is much more than the biography of an important politician; it is also an analysis of issues, movements, and political conflicts that marked the late pre-Independence and early post-Independence era. This book is the first volume of a multi-volume work on The Politics of Northern India: 1937 to 2007.



Table of Contents:

Preface Chronology of Principal Events in the Life of Charan Singh I: INTRODUCTION: An Indian Political Life II: BEGINNINGS: Social Origins, Early Life, and Beginning of a Political Career Partition and Hindu-Muslim Relations III: TOWN VERSUS THE VILLAGE: Discrimination against the Village: Reservation of 60 Percent of Places in Government Jobs for Agriculturists (1939-62) Transformation of the Agricultural Economy of Northern India: Land Reforms and Charan Singh`s Defence of Peasant Agriculture (1946-60) Urban Development and the Peasantry: Land Acquisition in Ghaziabad and the Cultivators (1950-2009) IV: LAW AND ORDER, CORRUPTION, AND CRIMINALITY IN POST-INDEPENDENCE UTTAR PRADESH: Corruption and Anti-Corruption (1947-51) Integrity and Reputation in a Corrupt System (1948-57) Origins of the "Permit-License-Quota Raj" (1949) Land Grabbing and Land Development in the Tarai (1952-55) The Political Economy of the Hindu Joint Family (1959) / Political Parties and Crime in Early Post-Independence Uttar Pradesh (1954-61) V: STATUS, HIERARCHY, AND GENDER: A Death in the Family: Status, Hierarchy, and Gender in the Indian Bureaucratic System (1950) VI: CASTE, FACTION, AND PARTY : Caste, "Casteism," and "Communalism" before and after the First General Elections (1947-56) The Struggle for Control of Meerut District (1954-56) The Leader and His Followers: Loyalty, Betrayal, and Trust (1949-69) Resignation After Resignation: Charan Singh in the Governments of Pandit Pant and Dr Sampurnanand (1947-59) VII: CONCLUSION: Power, Principle, and Policy Appendix Glossary Bibliography Index About the Author