Reverence, Resistance and Politics of Seeingthe Indian National Flag
Cambridge University Press, 2016.
ISBN 978-1-107-11887-4 Hardback. Length: 268+xxvii
www.cambridge.org/9781107118874
Cambridge University Press, 2016.
ISBN 978-1-107-11887-4 Hardback. Length: 268+xxvii
www.cambridge.org/9781107118874
About the Book
This book seeks to understand the
politics that make the tricolour flag possibly the most revered among symbols,
icons and markers associated with nation and nationalism in twentieth-century
India. While intertwined narratives of reverence and resistance offer a unique
perspective on linkages between the sacred and the political, the emphasis on
the flag as a visual symbol aims to question certain dominant assumptions about
visuality. Anchored on Mahatma Gandhi’s ‘believing eye’, this study reveals
specificities of visual experience in the South Asian milieu. This account
begins with a survey of the pre-colonial period, focuses on colonial lives of
the flag and moves ahead to explain contemporary dynamics of seeing the flag in
India. Delineating such a wide canvas, perspectives from macro history are
matched with dense investment on certain key events, debates and elements which
have shaped the shades of this history. The Flag Satyagraha of Jubblepore and
Nagpur in 1922–23, the adoption of Congress Flag in 1931, the resolution for
the future flag in the Constituent Assembly of India in 1947, history of the
colour saffron, codes governing the flag as well as the legal cases are few
such examples explored in depth in this book.
The
tricolour in this history is a symbol of popular aspiration for freedom against
colonial rule, a symbol of sovereignty as well as a site where claims of
nationhood and citizenship are made, resisted and negotiated. At one level, the
dynamics of claim making and resistance appears semiotic, and at another level,
it becomes a fight for the participation, supremacy and control over the
symbolic arena which is essentially public and visual in nature. The
multilayered field is fraught with conflict between the colonial state and
nationalist position, between dominant and dominated positions within
nationalist domain, between state defined rituals of ‘flag code’ and popular
practices and between dominant caste and dalit sarpanchs in
post-colonial India, to name a few.
About the author
Sadan Jha is Associate Professor at the Centre for Social Studies,
Surat. His research interests include history of visuality, history of symbols
and icons like spinning wheel and the Bharat Mata, history of colours, and the
contemporary urban experiences of Surat.
Table of Contents
List of Figures vii
Preface xi
Acknowledgements xxv
Introduction 1
1. Rise of the Flag 26
2. Flag on the Hut: Totem and a Political Symbol 52
3. The Indian National Flag as a Site of Daily Plebiscite 91
4. Shades of History: A Case of Saffron Colour 111
5. Visualizing an Ideal Political Order 145
6. A Post-Colonial Symbol 178
7. Gendered Symbol, Communal Politics 207
Epilogue: The Flag as a Sacred Political Symbol 239
Bibliography 247
Index 265
Advance
Praise
'Sadan Jha's
book is a pioneering and illuminating history of the Indian national flag, the
most important icon of the nation. Jha's critical eye helps the reader see not
only the contested nature of this symbol but also some important - and usually
neglected - visual aspects of the Indian nationalist movement, thus widening
our understanding of the scope of the political in the South Asian context.
This book should interest all students of modern South Asian history.' Dipesh
Chakrabarty, University of Chicago
Advance praise: 'A brilliant multidisciplinary analysis of the development of the Indian national flag and the way in which it came to be seen, appropriated and sacralised by different groups. A must-read for anyone interested in the Indian nationalist movement.' Bhikhu Parekh, University of Westminster
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