Planter Raj to Swaraj: Freedom Struggle & Electoral Politics in Assam 1826-1947

by Amalendu Guha

This is a reprint of Amalendu Guhas influential work on Assam andthe Northeast, 35 years after its original publication, with anIntroduction by the author. Guhas anlysis extends from Assam in1826, the year of the British annexation, to the post-independenceconditions in 1950. The peculiar features of the regions plantation economy; theimperialism of opium cultivation; the problems of a stready influxof immigrants and the backlash of a local linguistic chauvinism;peasants and workers struggles; the evolution of the ryot sabhas,the Congress, trade unions and later of the Communist Party suchare the themes that have received attention in this book, alongsidean analysis of legislative and administrative processes. The narrative is structured chronologically within anintegrated Marxist framework of historical perspective, and isbased on a wide range of primary sources. About the Author Amalendu Guha is an eminent historian whose work coverstwentieth-century Afghanistan, medieval Assam and from the saga ofthe early Parsi capitalists to tribal unrest in post-colonialNortheast India. Trained as an economist, Guha has taught atDarrang College, Tezpur, the Gokhale Institute of Politics andEconomics, Pune and the Delhi School of Economics, University ofDelhi. He has been Professor of History at the Centre for Studiesin Social Sciences, Calcutta, and a member of both the IndianCouncil of Social Science Research and the Indian Council ofHistorical Research.

Hardcover

Reviews

[Kavya]

A detailed revisit to the key period of class consciousness formation against repressive colonial policies and production methods that eventually evolved into ethno-centric politics. The Assamese middle class bore the brunt of the critique.