Ian Talbot is rightly regarded as one of the premier historians working on South Asia. In his latest book, A History of Modern South Asia: Politics, States, Diasporas, he documents the histories of Bangladesh, India and Pakistan from the advent of British rule in the mid-18th century to the countries’ contemporary politico-economic conditions.

The introduction explains why studying South Asian history is so important: the sheer number of people living in the region, its growing economic might and the tricky environmental challenges it faces. The potential crises brought on by unbridled population growth and resource constraints that could spill over into neighbouring countries should be enough to convince the rest of the world — especially developed countries — that it cannot afford to remain ignorant about South Asia.

The first three chapters lay out the region’s geopolitical and socio-economic facts. Using the daily Wagah flag lowering to symbolise the constant tension that defines Indo-Pak relations, Talbot writes that the ceremony signals sovereignty, as does the bureaucracy of visas and trade permits. Other border disputes — Pakistan-Afghanistan, India-China and India-Bangladesh — are also mentioned. Talbot notes how the Indo-Bangladesh border (specifically, the Chittagong Hill Tracts) has been the site of conflict between Pakistan and India (until 1971), and later, Bangladesh and India. Interestingly, Bangladesh used a colonial approach — that finds parallels in other parts of South Asia — of cantonments and settlers to quell unrest in the Tracts. What Talbot finds similar among the three South Asian neighbours (and China, to some extent) is the exploitation of the inherent nebulousness and permeability of border regions to achieve political objectives.

An eminent historian recaps the history of three of the largest countries in the South Asian landmass, from the mid-1700s to the present

The author discusses the subcontinent’s natural topographical and climatic variations and their implications for subsequent development. Thus, present-day south versus north Indian differences can be explained to some extent by geography, as the climate and soil of the former permitted smaller landholdings that led to the emergence of smaller kingdoms and a more egalitarian society. Undivided India’s environmental variety also had other consequences; it allowed Hindu nationalists to pitch India to their followers as a land of holy rivers, mountains and deserts, with the implication that the onslaught of foreign invaders must be resisted.

Talbot also posits that the British inadvertently contributed to the formalising of the Indian caste system. In their overzealous passion for bureaucracy and record-keeping through practices such as the census, the British not only simplified the system to four castes, but also codified it, as census forms insisted that all individuals be placed in a particular box for religion, whether they wanted to or not. Additionally, with the construction of dams, railways and roads, they brought some areas under cultivation, leading to prosperity in the canal colonies of the Punjab. Other areas suffered deforestation, the implications of which indigenous tribal populations continue to face. Talbot ends the chapter by remarking that environmental change as a result of development projects continues in the postcolonial era in all three countries.

Chapter 3 discusses how the South Asian diaspora came to assume such gargantuan numbers. Talbot asserts that in the colonial era, Indians travelled abroad in numbers greater than ever before as labourers, for war, and as plantation workers to British colonies in Africa, the Caribbean and Southeast Asia. Many went abroad for education and later became the political leadership of the 20th century anti-colonial movement. While literature on diaspora in the colonial age has focused on migration to North America, Europe and Africa, Talbot reveals that in the imperial age, 90% or more Indians travelled eastwards. In the modern era, ties of remittance, family and communication mean that diaspora communities remain more intimately involved in various aspects of life in their countries of origin (including politics, economics and society) than the first or second wave of South Asian emigrants may have been.

The next chapter challenges the notion that British rule started with the defeat of the Mughals at the Battle of Plassey in 1757. Talbot contends that Mughal rule had already weakened by the mid-18th century, and the Indian merchant class was emerging. Countering the popular narrative of the rise of the East India Company, Talbot claims that the emerging Indian trading class was a partner to the rise of the East India Company, whereby the rise of the latter and the transition of colonialism from Company-rule relied on local partners or allies. In fact, he points out that some revisionist historians have called the 1857 War of Independence the final attempt by the “Old Indian Order” to stall the transition to the new India.

In Chapter 5, the author identifies the proliferation of railroads and clock towers after 1857 as metaphors for the pinnacle of the British Raj in India. According to him, pre-revolt and post-revolt colonial architecture served different messages — the Lahore Railway Station, with its turrets and firing lines, seems to signal the omnipresent vigilance of the Raj while the grandeur of the Victoria Terminus of Bombay [Mumbai] highlights the majesty of the Raj and its continuing link with Indian history.

In the same chapter, Talbot fleshes out details of the post-war military reforms by the British. The East India Company managed to prevail in the war because it relied on the support of Indian military allies — most notably the Nepalese Gurkhas, and Sikhs and Muslim Rajputs from the Punjab. Soldiers from these ethnicities were seen as more loyal and so formed the bulk of the post-1857 Indian army. The author contends that consequences of this reliance on Punjab, Burma [Myanmar] and Nepal may still prevail for the region as the postcolonial state of the three new countries inherited the systems of the colonial state, with many of the inherent predilections.

Massive expansion of the railways was another corollary of the war. While railways are often cited by contemporary Anglophiles as a symbol of the Raj’s benevolence, Talbot points out they were expanded after the so-called mutiny to expedite the colonial military’s response to civil unrest. Of course, railways helped with economic prowess as the Indian hinterland became better connected to the ports of Karachi, Bombay and Calcutta. They also connected India with the global economy. Exports grew, and cheaper imports from Britain also grew. This had consequences for the nationalist struggle, as cheap English cotton flooded India from the mid-19th century onward, leading to an eventual outcry about the destruction of local textiles.

Chapter 6 details how, in some cases, Indians were partners with the British in prosperity, thriving through contracts and commissions. Talbot links the rise of trading families such as the Tatas, Wadias and Birlas with the emergence of Indian political parties, as industrialisation led to growing awareness among Indians that they needed to organise politically.

The next two chapters provide a quick overview of the anti-colonial movement and its culmination in Partition in 1947. Not too convincingly, Talbot tries to absolve the British of the ensuing mayhem and bloodshed, contending that the British were less in charge than it is assumed: after the Second World War they were on their way out and in their haste to leave India, they made a mess. Chapter 9 describes the optimism of Nehruvian India, while Chapter 10 discusses Pakistan’s early attempts to democratise, with unsatisfactory results. Chapter 11 details the first challenges to Nehruvian India — ironically enough, from Jawaharlal Nehru’s own daughter, Indira Gandhi, who imposed emergency in India in 1975. The author mentions the emergency, the removal of squatter settlements around Delhi, and the forced sterilisation of the poor as somewhat ignominious legacies of Indira’s first term as prime minister. The legacy of her second term was the more devastating assault on the Golden Temple and the pogrom of Sikhs in 1984.

Finally turning his attention towards Bangladesh, Talbot devotes Chapters 12 and 13 to the country’s bloody independence movement and how it remained off the international community’s radar for nearly 30 years. Until 9/11 occurred, India and Pakistan dominated the international spotlight as the West’s poster-children for democracy and military regimes respectively. Since 2011, however, Bangladesh’s economy has grown and its peculiar brand of Islamism has also come under scrutiny. Returning to the two bigger countries, the author walks the reader through post-1971 Pakistani politics and post-Indira Indian politics, summing up his book with the state of contemporary South Asia, and the role of other relevant players in the region, including China, the United States and Afghanistan.

I found the book unique for the insights it offers about lesser-known aspects of colonial life and the perhaps unintended consequences of policymaking by Raj administrators during the 19th and 20th centuries. The successor nations of the Raj continue to bear the aftermath of decisions taken by the colonial state centuries ago. This makes the first half of the book far more interesting than the second half that offers comparably less novel or remarkable information. In fact, I felt that the book’s second half — post-1947 developments — attempts to cover too much ground and unfortunately reads somewhat like a dry Pakistan studies textbook.

Nonetheless, Talbot’s book effectively combines anthropology and sociology with history to narrate a largely compelling account of this region’s recent past, making it of interest for casual readers as well as students of South Asian history. It would be a good addition to reading lists of educational institutions, especially for those interested in learning more about how the Raj operated for almost 200 years.

The reviewer is a political economist and has taught social sciences at various academic institutions in Karachi

A History of Modern South Asia: Politics,
States, Diasporas
By Ian Talbot
Oxford University Press, Karachi
ISBN: 978-0300196948
360pp.

Published in Dawn, Books & Authors, July 2nd, 2017