Who got a piece of the action? A century of urban politics in Faizabad Municipality

Abstract

If we look back on the origins of modern politics in India we quickly come to the realisation that from the standpoint of direct, legitimate native participation in political processes, municipal government is where it all began. It is here that the European concepts of self-government were first actually applied in the subcontinent, as early as the 16th century by the Portuguese, and by the French and the British from the 18th century onwards. It is here that the first elections were held and here that natives were first able to occupy governmental positions determined by popular choice.Local government, then, can be said to have been one of the principal points of entry of India's emerging modern elite into the political system. Put another way, local government and its subsequent ramifications were one of the first avenues of social mobility for native Indians intent on gaining access to the political, economic and symbolic resources which the emerging modern social order was bringing to India at a rapidly increasing rate, particularly during the final century of colonial rule. It is the purpose of this study to ascertain in some detail who wanted and who got a piece of the action during this initial phase of Indian social history and what the outcome meant for the structure of politics and social stratification in today's India.