| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 111.4

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to the AHR online. About 210 words from this article are provided below; about 582 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the American Historical Association, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time. AHA members can go to the AHA individual membership section to locate their member numbers.
If you are not a member of the American Historical Association, you can:: • Join the AHA and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the American Historical Review.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the American Historical Review (104.3-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the American Historical Review.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 111.4 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Asia

Shri Krishan. Political Mobilization and Identity in Western India, 1934–47. (Sage Series in Modern Indian History.) Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage. 2005. Pp. 279. Cloth $59.95, paper $24.95.

Once upon a time, historians of colonial India concentrated on relations between British rulers and elite Indians. Then, the Subaltern Studies school brought in the subcontinent's "subalterns": tribals, Dalits (untouchables), peasants. The Subalternists produced some first-rate scholarship, often predicated on the assumption that Indian society comprised two monolithic and perpetually hostile bodies: subalterns and the elite. Shri Krishan challenges both this notion and a chain of further Subalternist assumptions: the elite's sole interest was maintaining hegemony; the only authentic subaltern protest was violent revolt; a sense of membership in an Indian nation was confined to the elite; when subalterns joined elites in nonviolent struggles against rackrenting landlords, predatory moneylenders, and the colonial state, they were being duped by their hegemons. Krishan's subject is the way that, in the 1930s and 1940s, elite nationalists of the Indian National Congress (and to a lesser extent their Communist and Socialist rivals) "mobilized" rural subalterns, organizing protests against exploitation and mediating grievances. He argues that by uniting them in common goals, mobilization eventually made subalterns feel part of the Indian nation.

. . .

There are about 582 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.