Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-07T08:17:55.491Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Introduction: The Spectacle of Independence and the Specter of Bureaucracy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 November 2022

Yael Berda
Affiliation:
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Get access

Summary

On the eve of India’s independence late on August 14, 1947, India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, narrated the moment of transition from colonial rule to national sovereignty in front of the Constituent Assembly. It was a moment of great promise as India embarked on the most significant experiment with democracy in human history, the largest universal franchise in elections, and the formation of the longest-standing constitution in postcolonial history to date.2 It was also the night before India’s formal partition into the dominions of India and Pakistan, the night before waves of genocidal violence and forced migration shaped the new nations within the newly delineated territories.3

In national narratives, one rarely thinks of such a historic moment of independence and decolonization as also a moment of the transmission to the new states of colonial bureaucratic practices and routines and the politics embedded within them. The spectacle of independence, when subjects of the empire were to become future citizens of their own newly partitioned states, tends to eclipse the dimmer side of that which resists change in political life.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×