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² Freitag, S. B., Collective Action and Community: Public Arenas and the Emergence of Communalism in North India (Berkeley, 1989).Google Scholar

³ Ibid., p. 199.

⁴ Thomas, D. A., ‘Lucknow and Kanpur, 1880–1920: Stagnation and development under the Raj’, South Asia (New series), V, 2 (1982), 68–80;CrossRefGoogle ScholarBayly, Rulers, Townsmen, chapter 12;Google ScholarBayly, C. A., The Local Roots of Indian Politics: Allahabad, 1880–1920 (Oxford, 1975), chapter II;Google ScholarNeville, H. R., Allahabad: A Gazetteer: Volume XXIII of the District Gazetteers of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh (Allahabad, 1911), pp. 62–6;Google ScholarNeville, H. R., Benares: A Gazetteer: Volume XXVI of the District Gazetteers of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh (Allahabad, 1909), pp. 56–64.Google Scholar

⁵ Derbyshire, I. D., ‘Opening up the Interior: The impact of railways on the north Indian economy and society, 1860–1914’, Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Cambridge, 1985, p. 387.Google Scholar

⁶ Report of the United Provinces Provincial Banking Enquiry Committee, 1929–50 [hereafter BEC] (Allahabad, 1930), Volume I, Report, p. 63; Volume II, Evidence, p. 48: Memorandum on the indigenous banking system of the United Provinces, by M. L. Shah; p. 96: Memorandum on indigenous bankers, by B. T. Thakur;Google ScholarJain, L. C., Indigenous Banking in India (London, 1929), p. 44;Google ScholarBayly, The Local Roots of Indian Politics, pp. 229–31.Google Scholar

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⁸ Report of the Industrial Finance (S. N. Pochkhanawala) Committee, U.P., 1934 (Allahabad, 1935), stated that small-scale urban industries were financed almost entirely by moneylenders and dealers.Google Scholar

⁹ Reports of the Department of Industries, U.P.: 1929–1930 to 1938–39, passim.Google Scholar

¹⁰ The growing concentration of oil mills in the towns, replacing rural oil crushers, from the 1920s onwards, is mentioned in Report of the Industries Reorganisation (J. P. Srivastava) Committee, 1932 (Allahabad, 1934).Google Scholar

¹¹ For instance, between 1933–34 a nd 1937–38 the annual production of hosiery goods in U.P. increased from 144,908 lbs. to 800,136 lbs.Google ScholarReport of the Department of Industries, U.P., 1935–36, p. 4; 1937–38, p. 6;Google ScholarBetween 1934 and 1939, annual mustard oil production in U.P. increased from 748,000 maunds to 1,218,000 maunds. Memorandum of the U.P. Government submitted to the All India National Planning Committee, 1939 (Allahabad, 1940). MSS. Eur. E 251/10, India Office Records, London. The production of groundnut oil crushing mills of Kanpur alone increased from 2,000 maunds in 1934–35 to 95,000 maunds in 1937–38.Google ScholarReport of the Department of Industries, U.P., 1937–38, p. 12.Google Scholar

¹² Report of the Town Improvement Trusts (J. F. Sale) Committee, 1935 (Lucknow, 1936). p. 5.Google Scholar

¹³ Baker, C. J., An Indian Rural Economy, 1880–1955: the Tamilnad Countryside (Oxford, 1984), pp. 379–80, chapters 4–5 passim.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Between 1881 and 1921, the total population of U.P. increased from 45,034,574 to 46,669,865, or by 1,635,291. Between 1921 and 1931, U.P. provincial population increased to 49,776,754, or by 3,106,889. Census of India, 1951, Volume II, Part I-A: Report (Allahabad, 1953), p. 25.Google Scholar

¹⁵ Census of India, 1931, Volume XVIII, Part I: Report (Allahabad, 1933), pp. 127–8.Google Scholar

¹⁶ Ibid., pp. 141–2; The 1931 Census reported very significant increases in urban population due to migration, p. 127. A survey of a random sample of 300 families of mill workers in Kanpur, conducted in 1939–40, found that 219 of them came to Kanpur between 1921 and 1941, 31 had lived in the town since their birth, and only 49 had migrated between 1904 and 1920. The date of migration of one family was not available. ‘Preliminary draft of the pro forma report on the enquiry into family budgets and living conditions of the mill workers at Cawnpore, 1939–40’, prepared by the Bureau of Economic Intelligence, U.P. Manuscript held at the Record Room of the Northern India Employers' Association, Kanpur.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Mazumdar, D. N., Social Contours of an Industrial City: Social Survey of Kanpur, 1954–1956 (Westport, Conn., 1960), p. vii;Google ScholarJoshi, C., ‘Kanpur Textile Labour: Some structural features of formative years’, Economic and Political Weekly, Special Number (11 1981), 1827;Google ScholarNiehoff, A., Factory Workers in India (Milwaukee, 1959), p. 34.Google Scholar

¹⁸ Shukla, Ram Shankar, ‘Karmchari Sangathan aur Andolan Kyun?’, Kanpur Bazar Karmchari Federation: Rajat fayanti Smarika (Kanpur, 1977), Editorial article (pages not numbered). The concentration of lower caste groups in low-paid urban manual occupations is widely prevalent throughout north India.Google ScholarSee, for instance, Fox, R. G., From Zamindar to Ballot Box: Community Change in a North Indian Market Town (New York, 1969), pp. 139–40.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Percentage increase in population between 1921 and 1931 was 15.6% in Lucknow, 12.4% in Kanpur, 2.9% in Benares, 19.4% in Allahabad. In the same period, provincial industrial employment in urban areas increased from 251 to 270 per thousand people, amounting to a 7.6% increase. Census of India, 1931, Volume XVIII, Part I: Report, pp. 141–2, 393.Google Scholar

²⁰ Ibid., pp. 51–2.

²¹ BEC, Volume II, Evidence, pp. 371–91, 392–411, 418–24: Surveys of smallscale urban industries of Benares, Lucknow and Allahabad;Google ScholarSrivastava, R. C., ‘Survey of the Hosiery Industry in U.P.’, Department of Industries and Commerce, U.P., Bulletin no. 2 (New series), 1939;Google ScholarAckroyd, C. and Devaraj, , ‘The Cawnpore Wholesale Clothing Trade’, Bureau of Economic Intelligence, U.P., Bulletin no. 1, 1938.Google Scholar

²² BEC, Volume II, Evidence, pp. 371–91, 392–411, 418–24: Surveys of smallscale urban industries of Benares, Lucknow and Allahabad.Google Scholar

²³ Gooptu, N., ‘Caste and Labour: Untouchable social movements in urban Uttar Pradesh in the early twentieth century’, in Robb, P. (ed.), Dalit Movements and the Meanings of Labour in India (Delhi, 1993), pp. 277–98.Google Scholar

²⁴ Ibid.

²⁵ Kumar, N., The Artisans of Banaras: Popular Culture and Identity, 1880–1986 (Princeton, 1988), pp. 19–21;Google ScholarThomas, ‘Lucknow and Kanpur 1880–1920’, pp. 68–72;Google ScholarNeville, Allahabad: A Gazetteer, pp. 62–4;Google ScholarPandey, G., ‘Economic dislocation in nineteenth-century eastern Uttar Pradesh: Some implications of the decline of artisanal industry in colonial India’, in Robb, P. (ed.), Rural South Asia: Linkages, Change and Development (London, 1983), pp. 98–9.Google Scholar

²⁶ Reports of the Department of Industries, U.P., 1929–30, 1930–31, 1931–32.Google Scholar

²⁷ For instance, a pamphlet on the ahirs, published from Benares in 1927, mentioned that Muslim masons and bricklayers were increasing in number and posing a threat to those ahirs who worked in the construction industry: Yadav, Baijnath Prasad, Ahir Jati ki Niyamavali (Benares, 1927), p. 39.Google Scholar

²⁸ Report of the Town Improvements Trusts (H. J. Crosthwaite) Committee, 1929 (Allahabad, 1929), pp. 11, 13.Google Scholar

²⁹ Report of the Town Improvement Trusts (J. F. Sale) Committee, 1935, p. 41.Google Scholar

³⁰ One official report acknowledged that the ‘poorer classes of the population in these areas come in for the major share of demolition’. The report further stated that, on being uprooted from one place, the poor, ‘after an intervening period of considerable discomfort…provide themselves with similar undesirable quarters elsewhere’. Report of the Town Improvements Trusts (H.J. Crosthwaite) Committee, 1929, p. 11.Google ScholarAnother report admitted that ‘the poor toss about from place to place and wherever they go they have to live in uncongenial atmosphere’. Allahabad Municipal Board, Annual Report, 1941–42, p. 34.Google Scholar

³¹ As a result of the extension of franchise, in Kanpur, for instance, in 1923, the number of registered voters increased by 300% over the previous voter list. However, this still only enfranchised a small propertied section. Thus, out of a total population of 216,436 enumerated in the 1921 census, only 19,395 people or 8% of the population formed the electorate of the local council in 1923. Kanpur Municipal Board, Annual Report, 1922–1923, p. 3.Google Scholar

³² Tinker, Hugh, The Foundations of Local Self-government in India, Pakistan and Burma (London, 1954), pp. 164, 317, 322.Google Scholar

³³ Ibid., p. 317; The declining importance of direct taxes and the preponderance of indirect taxes in U.P. municipalities is well documented in Note, dated 2.11.39. File No. 243/1939. Box No. 213. Municipal Department, Government of U.P., U.P. State Archives, Lucknow.Google Scholar

³⁴ Benares Municipal Board, Annual Reports, 1928–29, p. 8, 1934–1935, p.13, 1935–36, p. 14;Google ScholarLucknow Improvement Trust, Annual Report, 1929, pp. 21–2;Google ScholarKanpur Municipal Board, Annual Reports, 1938–39, pp. 16–17, 1941–42, pp. 13–14;Google ScholarDistrict Magistrate, Kanpur to Chairman, Kanpur Municipal Board, letter no. 1266, dated 9 December 1938. File no. 1–35/1938. Department XXIII. Municipal. Kanpur Collectorate, English Record Room; Note from District Magistrate, Kanpur to City Magistrates, dated 10 June 1937. File (not numbered) on miscellaneous correspondences of the District Magistrate, 1937–1938. Kanpur Collectorate, English Record Room.Google Scholar

³⁵ Allahabad Municipal Board, Annual Report, 1940–1941, p. 31.Google Scholar

³⁶ Figures taken from the Annual Reports on Municipal Administration and Finances in U.P., 1917–1918 and 1927–28. Statement II, showing the income of the municipalities from different sources.Google Scholar

³⁷ Inspector General of Police, U.P. to the Deputy Secretary, U.P., letter no. VI–44–29, dated 25 June 1929. Serial no. 3. Proceedings no. 1–28, September 1930, p. 2. File no. 478/1929. Box 192. Police Department. Government of U.P., U.P. State Archives, Lucknow.Google Scholar

³⁸ Extracts from a note by the Superintendent of Police, Kanpur, cited in File no. 412/1931. Box no. 206. Police Department. Government of U.P., U.P. State Archives, Lucknow.Google Scholar

³⁹ District Magistrate, Kanpur to Chief Secretary, U.P. letter no. 48-/32, dated 26 February 1932. File no. 12/1931. Department XX. Police. Allahabad Commissioner's Office Records.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ The District Magistrate of Kanpur, for instance, considered the stationing of police guards and armed pickets in the bazars to be ‘the pivot on which the whole scheme of policing in the city rests’. District Magistrate, Kanpur to Chief Secretary, U.P., letter no. 94-B/32, dated 6 April 1932, Ibid. The importance of deployment of the armed police as a general policy is also stressed in a letter from the Commissioner, Allahabad Division to the Chief Secretary, U.P. (letter no. and date illegible), Ibid.

⁴¹ Report of the Police Reorganisation (Sita Ram) Committee, U.P., 1947–48 (Allahabad, 1948), Volume I, p. 23.Google Scholar

⁴² Pandey, Shyam Manohar, The Hindu Oral Epic Loriki (The Tale of Lorik and Canda) (Allahabad, 1979), pp. 9–10, 15–21;Google ScholarPandey, Shyam Manohar, The Hindi Oral Epic Canaini (The Tale of Lorik and Canda) (Allahabad, 1982), pp. 19–24, 28.Google Scholar

⁴³ Crooke, W., The Tribes and Castes of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh (Calcutta, 1896), Volume I, pp. 50–6; Volume III, p. 261; Volume IV, pp. 139–41.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Coccari, D. M., ‘Protection and Identity: Banaras's Bir Babas as neighbourhood guardian deities’, in Freitag, S. B. (ed.), Culture and Power in Banaras: Community, Performance and Environment, 1800–1980 (Berkeley, 1989), pp. 136–7;Google ScholarPandey, Shyam Manohar, The Hindi Oral Epic Loriki, passim;Google ScholarShyam Manohar Pandey, The Hindi Oral Epic Canaini, passim.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Coccari, ‘Protection and Identity’, p. 136.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Rao, M. S. A., Social Movements and Social Transformation: A Study of Two Backward Classes Movements in India (Delhi, 1979), pp. 132–47.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ These histories and genealogies were popularized through numerous caste journals and caste histories. For instance, Abhimanyu, Mannalal, Ahir Vamsa Pradip (Benares, vikrami samvat 1982, c. a.d. 1925);Google ScholarYadukul Sarvasya (Benares, vikramabda 1985, c. a.d. 1928);Google ScholarGopjati Kshatriya Varna Mein Hai: Arthat ‘Brahman Sammelan’ ke anargal pralap ka muhtor jawab (Benares, 4th edition, 1974; first published in 1929);Google ScholarSingh, Rajit, Yaduvamsa Prakash (Revised edition, Benares, 1983. Originally published c. 1925–26). Journals include Kalwar Kshatriya Mitra, Kalwar Kesri, Yadavesh, Yadav.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ Ibid.

⁴⁹ Yadav, Ahir Jati Ki Niyamavali, passim. Similar ideas were also expressed in Singh, Yaduvamsa Prakash, pp. 104–10;Google Scholar‘Smriti kal me Kalwar’, Kalwar Kshatriya Mitra (Allahabad), 2, 17, 08 1921, p. 151.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ Yadav, Ahirjati ki Niyamavali, pp. 1–28.Google ScholarSimilar themes echoed in Singh, Yaduvamsa Prakash, pp. 104–10.Google Scholar

⁵¹ Pandey, G., The Construction of Communalism in Colonial North India (Delhi, 1990), pp. 90–4, 166;Google ScholarRao, Social Movements and Social Transformation, p. 134.Google Scholar

⁵² Bayly, Rulers, Townsmen, passim.Google Scholar

⁵³ Gooptu, ‘Caste and Labour’.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ Smarika: Sri Ramlila Committee, Daraganj, Prayag 1979 ( Allahabad, 1979), p. 41.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ An article in the silver jubilee souvenir of the Palledar [manual workers and coolies in the bazars] Union in the main Kanpur wholesale cloth market, describing the self-image of the manual labourers, extolled the virtues of the ‘jujharu vyakti palledar’ or the ‘fighting palledar’, who is the pivot of bazar life as the carrier and transporter of goods, who never fears the hardest of physical labour and is fired with a fighting spirit. Trivedi, Shiv Shankar Lai, ‘Jujharu vyakti palledar’, Kapra Bazar Palledar Union: Rajat Jayanti Smarika (Kanpur, 1986), pp. 41–2.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ The argument of being martial groups in the past was deployed quite explicitly in the 1920s, especially by the caste uplift movements of those low caste groups, like the pasis, khatiks or mallahs, who had been declared to be ‘criminal’ by the British Government in some parts of U.P. It was argued that the British condemned them as criminal because they had resisted the British, especially during the 1857 uprising, in keeping with their martial tradition. Chaudhri, A. P., Pichhre tatha dalit barg ke mahan neta Rai Ram Charan ka jivan chant tatha unke sankshipta karya (Lucknow, 1973). pp. 38–42.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ Trivedi, ‘Jujharu vyakti palledar’.Google Scholar

⁵⁸ Evidence taken by the Kanpur riots enquiry commission of 1931 included many references to the fact that local labourers acted as strongmen or toughs for a number of firms in the Kanpur markets and were patronized by the merchants. See, for instance, the ‘Extract from the note of SP., Cawnpore, dated Apr 3, 1930’, cited in File no. 412/1931. Box no. 206. Police Department, Government of U.P., U.P. State Archives, Lucknow.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ Marriott, Mckim, ‘The feast of love’, in Singer, Milton (ed.), Krishna: Myths, Rites and Attitudes (Honolulu, 1966), p. 210.Google Scholar

⁶⁰ Ibid., p. 206, 207.

⁶¹ Pandey, Shyam Manohar, The Hindi Oral Epic Loriki, pp. 10–11.Google Scholar

⁶² W. Crooke, in his studies of the religious practices of various caste groups, cited Holi as the special festival of pastoral lower caste groups, especially cowherd castes like ahirs. Crooke also mentions the ahir belief of descent from Lord Krishna. Crooke, , Tribes and castes, Volume I, pp. 50, 64;Google ScholarCrooke, W., An Introduction to the Popular Religion and Folklore of Northern India (Allahabad, 1894), p. 389.Google Scholar

⁶³ Marriott, ‘Feast of love’, pp. 200–12.Google Scholar

⁶⁴ Yadavesh, (Benares), 2, 1, Special Holi issue, vikrami samvat 1993, c. a.d. 1936, passim.Google Scholar

⁶⁵ Ibid., pp. 22–3.

⁶⁶ Ibid., pp. 3–5, 22. Crooke, Popular Religion and Folklore, pp. 387–8.Google Scholar

⁶⁷ Interviews, in the Kanpur wholesale markets of Generalganj, Naughara, Collectorganj and Kahu Kothi, with shop employees and bazar labourers: Ram Kripal Yadav (President of the Kapra Bazar Palledar Union in 1987), Ramfer Khalifa, Ram Shankar Shukla (Secretary of the Kanpur Bazar Karmchari Union in 1987) and Datti Ram Yadav.Google Scholar

⁶⁸ The enquiry instituted by the Congress into the Kanpur riots of 1931 reported that Hindus and Muslims both celebrated the Holi festival in the past, but that by the 1920s, Muslims ceased to partitipate. Barrier, N. G., Roots of Communal Politics (Columbia, n.d.), pp. 236–7.Google Scholar

⁶⁹ One of the most serious riots during Holi occurred in Benares in 1938. Reported in Aj (Benares), Special Issue, 17 Mar 1938.Google Scholar

⁷⁰ Coccari, ‘Protection and Identity’, pp. 130–46.Google Scholar

⁷¹ Ibid., 143–4; Bharaitya Yadav Sangh: Rajatjayanti Smarak Granth (Bombay, 1954), Part I. p. 26.Google Scholar

⁷² Coccari, ‘Protection and Identity’, pp. 143–4.Google Scholar

⁷³ Crooke, , Tribes and castes, Volume I, p. 61;Google ScholarPrasad, Onkar, Folk Music and Folk Dances of Banaras (Calcutta, 1987), pp. 94–5.Google Scholar

⁷⁴ van der Veer, P., Religious Nationalism: Hindus and Muslims in India (Berkeley, 1994). p. 110.Google Scholar

⁷⁵ Marcus, Scott L., ‘The rise of a folk music genre: Biraha’, in Freitag, (ed.), Culture and Power in Banaras, pp. 93, 113;Google ScholarKumar, Artisans of Banaras, pp. 152–3;Google ScholarPrasad, Folk Music, pp. 94–7.Google Scholar

⁷⁶ Saraswati, Swami Narayananand, Lavni ka Itihas (Kanpur, 1953), pp. 171–2, 235–7.Google Scholar

⁷⁷ The central importance of akharas in twentieth-century urban popular culture has been noted by a number of authors, notably Freitag, , Collective Action and Community, pp. 121–3;Google ScholarKumar, Artisans of Banaras, pp. 111–24.Google Scholar

⁷⁸ Alter, J., The Wrestler's Body: Identity and Ideology in North India (Berkeley, 1992), pp. 223–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁷⁹ The silver jubilee souvenir of the Yadav Sangh, for instance, pointed out the fact that one of the most important aspects of the yadav caste movement of the early twentieth century had been the formation of akharas. Bharatiya Yadav Sangh. Rajat Jayanti Smarak Granth, Part I, p. 26.Google Scholar

⁸⁰ The existence of a very large number of wrestling akharas in Kanpur, many of which had shudra participation, is documented in Arora, N. P., Pahalwani aur Pahalwan (Kanpur, 1948), pp. 70–104. Here Arora mentions only the well-known akharas, many of which were patronized by merchants and traders, but had numerous shudras amongst their participants. He also mentions that in addition to the major akharas documented in the book, there were many more minor akharas. No figures are available for the number of akharas in this period for the various towns. However, interviews conducted in the towns confirm the widespread proliferation of akharas in the 1920s and '30s. Police and newspaper reports of the period, especially of communal riots, extensively mention the involvement of akharas.Google Scholar

⁸¹ Interviews with Chaudhuri Bandidin (head of Khatik panchayat in 1987 and a vegetable merchant) and Badlu Ram Sonekar (Khatik politician).Google Scholar

⁸² Interviews, in the Kanpur wholesale markets of Generalganj, Naughara, Collectorganj and Kahu Kothi, with shop employees and bazar labourers: Ram Kripal Yadav (President of the Kapra Bazar Palledar Union in 1987), Ramfer Khalifa and Datti Ram Yadav.Google Scholar

⁸³ For the history of nautanki, see Agarwal, Ramnarayan, Sangit (Delhi, 1976);Google ScholarSharma, Indra ‘Varij’, Swang Nautanki (Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, 1984).Google Scholar

⁸⁴ Hansen, K., ‘The Birth of Hindi Drama in Banaras: 1868–1865’ m Freitag, Culture and Power in Banaras, pp. 69.Google Scholar

⁸⁵ Hansen, K., ‘Sultana the Dacoit and Harishchandra: Two Popular Dramas of the Nautanki Tradition of North India’, Modern Asian Studies, 17, 2 (1983), 313–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁸⁶ Ibid., 323.

⁸⁷ Ibid.

⁸⁸ Hansen, ‘Birth of Hindi Drama’, p. 71.Google Scholar

⁸⁹ Hansen, ‘Sultana the Dacoit and Harishchandra’, pp. 321–31.Google Scholar

⁹⁰ Hansen, ‘Birth of Hindi Drama’, p. 74.Google Scholar

⁹¹ Ibid., pp. 70–1.

⁹² This is inferred from a number of plays by Sri Krishna Pahalwan, the texts of which were supplied to me by his son, Puran Chandra Mehrotra in Kanpur.Google Scholar

⁹³ Hansen, ‘Birth of Hindi Drama’, pp. 71–4.Google ScholarHansen, ‘Sultana the Dacoit and Harishchandra’, p. 314.Google Scholar

⁹⁴ N. P. Arora's book on akharas and wrestling mentions that a number of akharas in Kanpur boasted of nautanki or swang performers. Arora, Pahalwani aur Pahalwan, pp. 70–104. It is interesting that the Kanpur school of nautanki is considered by some commentators to be ‘vulgar’ (‘ashleel’) as well as less respectable and more lower class in character than the other main school of nautanki in U.P. based at Hathras. This view is perhaps not surprising, since, in contrast to the latter, the Kanpur nautanki enjoyed greater participation and input from bazar akharas and was more popular locally amongst the labouring classes. Sharma ‘Vary’, Swang Nautanki, p. 148.Google Scholar

⁹⁵ Alter, The Wrestler's Body, pp. 72–5.Google Scholar

⁹⁶ Ibid., p. 73.

⁹⁷ Confidential note on ‘Communal friction in the United Provinces, 1924’, by Assistant to the Deputy Inspector General of Police, Criminal Investigation Department, U.P. File no. 140/1925. Home Political Department. Government of India. National Archives of India, Delhi.Google Scholar

⁹⁸ Arora, Pahalwani aur Pahalwan, pp. 10–12.Google Scholar

⁹⁹ Alter, Joseph argues that wrestling was very popular during the period of the nationalist movement, because nationalism was integrally related to the cultivation of physical culture and a ‘wrestling way of life’. Alter, The Wrestler's Body, pp. 17–18. The enthusiasm of the Congress nationalists for wrestling is also evident from Arora, Pahalwani aur Pahalwan. Arora, a well-known Congress leader of Kanpur, was himself an enthusiast and practitioner, and his book on wrestling and wrestlers is a reflection of this keen interest.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁰ Evidence of Khaliluddin Ahmad Saheb, Honorary Assistant Collector, Kanpur, given to the Kanpur riots enquiry commission of 1931. Reported in The Pioneer (Lucknow), 25 04 1931.Google ScholarAlso mentioned in Freitag, Collective Action and Community, pp. 225, 234.Google Scholar

¹⁰¹ Tandon, Harimohandas, Prayagraj: Lala Manohardas ka Parivar (Allahabad, 1993), pp. 176, 184. Tandon mentions that the rail and merchant patrons would bring their labourers from their rural zamindaris to carry images and tableaux during the Ramlila.Google Scholar

¹⁰² Criminal Investigation Department, U.P.: Weekly Police Abstracts of Intelligence: No. 41, 27 October 1923; No. 41, 18 October 1924.Google Scholar

¹⁰³ Kumar, Artisans of Banaras, pp. 189–93. Kumar mentions here that mimes and similar features appeared in Banaras before the 1920s. It is interesting, however, that these features were introduced by the lower castes, and the particular Ramlila procession (Nakkataiya), in which these were prominent, was largely one of lower castes and classes.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁴ Tandon, Prayagraj, passim. There were four Ramlila processions and celebrations in Allahabad, of which the Tandon family was associated with the Pajaba Ramlila.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁵ Criminal Investigation Department, U.P.: Weekly Police Abstracts of Intelligence: No. 41, 18 October 1924.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁶ Ibid., No. 41, 27 October 1923.

¹⁰⁷ Confidential note on ‘Communal friction in the United Provinces, 1924’, by Assistant to the Deputy Inspector General of Police, Criminal Investigation Department, U.P. File no. 140/1925. Home Political Department. Government of India. National Archives of India, Delhi.Google Scholar

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¹¹³ Ibid., pp. 189–93.

¹¹⁴ Alter, The Wrestler's Body, pp. 198–213.Google Scholar

¹¹⁵ Crooke, Popular Religion and Folklore, p. 51.Google Scholar

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¹¹⁷ In her analysis of the Benares Nakkataiya Ramlila, Nita Kumar argues that the festival has to be seen as ‘the field for control and domination, expressing social relations’. Kumar, ‘Class and gender in the Ramlila’, p. 39.Google Scholar

¹¹⁸ GyanPandey, commenting on the cow-protection riots of the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, has similarly argued that Hindu religious resurgence was not a cohesive phenomenon, but ‘encompassed the exertions of many disparate castes, classes and local communities, struggling for status, searching for roots, for leadership and for adequate forms of self-expression’. He further states: ‘…the powerful movements that arose to promote “Hindu” and “Muslim” unity in northern India, the new solidarities that emerged did not everywhere and indubitably add up to “Hindu” versus “Muslim”’.Google ScholarPandey, G., The Construction of Communalism, pp. 205, 200.Google Scholar