The Hindi Heartland - A Book Review

The region, defined with a spiritless title of ‘Hindi Belt’, has always held a vibrant significance in the nation-building process of India. Comprising Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, the land carries its magnificence in witnessing a vast timeframe starting from the incredible earliest mahajanpadas till the modern-day politics. All of that, while being an important centre of administration.

Illustration by The Geostrata

The book 'The Hindi Heartland', authored by journalist Ghazala Wahab and published by Aleph Book Company, is a treatise that deeply explains the historical and experiential aspects that have shaped the region’s identity. It focuses on reshaping the general understanding of the region’s social, political and religious dynamics. 

Curating her experiences in five coherent sections, the author examines the historical significance of the region, deeply connecting with its political trajectory and economy. 

Her journalistic enquiry into the region, portrayed through various interviews, conversations, and local exchanges, provides a contemporary perspective on the population directly acquainted with this transformational journey.

The first section of the book comprises five chapters that familiarise the reader with the geographical, societal, economic, linguistic, and cultural characteristics of the region. Citing her personal experiences, the author highlights paradoxical instances of how the land that hypes up the emotions of Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb has become a land of religious unrest, witnessing a rise in communal differences.

Further, it focuses on the emergence of Hindi as a common language of the region, overpowering the regional dialects and becoming one of the criteria which defines this integrated landmass as ‘The Hindi Belt’. Moreover, it calls attention to the fact that the cultural canvas of this region is considered the sketch of ‘Indian’ culture in totality, which gives this region a supremacy in terms of heritage and religion.

Progressing to the second section, consisting of four chapters, the author takes readers on a heritage walk of the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque, where the history of the Delhi Sultanate is carved out on the stones. Referring to the contemporary treatise ‘Tabaqat-i-Nasiri’ by Minhaj-i-Siraj Juzjani and the research work by historians Richard M. Eaton and Sunil Kumar, the author draws a detailed historical account from the emergence of the Delhi Sultanate till the defeat of Ibrahim Lodi. A sophisticated linkage between Delhi and Agra is shown as an administrative unit, which is still reflected in the region.

Continuing her exploration, she takes a deep dive into the contemporary sources, such as Baburnama and Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri, along with the works of historians such as Rezavi, Peter Hopkirk, Christopher A. Bayly, and many others to elucidate how these centuries of invasion, war, political integrity, and disintegration with time have shaped the divisive sectarian politics of the current times.

Referencing the works of historians Nadeem Rezavi and Stewart Gordon, the next chapter draws a historical timeline of the rise of the Marathas, unfolding the connection between the Hindi Heartland and the Maharashtrian culture, profoundly experienced in the state of Madhya Pradesh, an assimilation of cultures and the respect it yields throughout the region. This section wraps up its understanding by describing the emergence of the British Empire during a century which is debatably referred to as the ‘dark age’ or the ‘age of great disorder’.

Hence, the second section chronologically outlines the consequences of changing regimes, religious diversity, societal unrest from time to time and the changing economic landscape as the people witnessed the transformation of their lands and homes, according to the ideological leanings of their emperor.

Sections Three and Four examine the era of British colonialism and India’s freedom struggle, respectively. While the three chapters of Section three describe the historiography of the establishment of the British Empire and how it instigated poverty in a region that was considered self-sufficient, Section four traces the prospectus of the freedom struggle, which she observed to have originated and developed from Gandhi’s Satyagraha and turned into a critical aspect of the Hindi belt. 

The author also gives a brief account of the emergence of the idea of Hinduization in the region, which was characterised by the various social movements in the 19th century. These sections give readers an understanding of the tumultuous past of the region, the impact of which is still visible on the societal behaviour and political performances of the region as a part of the communal divide and religious demarcation, not on the land, but on the minds of people, instigating ideas of superiority, belongingness and right over the land.

The four chapters of Section Five provide an assessment of government policies of these states with respect to the development of the region after Independence. The most pressing challenge faced by the government was about the rehabilitation of people. With the ‘Days of Darkness’ luring over the light of humanity, the nation divided over religious lines gave birth to various narratives that made the divide stretch over the Indian mainland as well. 

The author gives a detailed description of how the emergence of religious organisations and their outreach, moulding people’s extremist opinions on the topic of the nation’s partition, somehow defined the social sphere of contemporary times. The sentiments of people also seeped into the Constituent Assembly, which led to the well-known lengthy debates and discussions to cater to the needs of people and implement the idea of true representation and democracy. 

The author, then, portrays endeavours of the Constituent Assembly in the adoption and enforcement of the Constitution in a newly independent nation which still carries the wounds and scars of British colonialism, Partition and communal violence. 

Further, digging into the interpretations of how the political particularities and inclinations towards socialism further deepened the religious and caste divide, the author looks at petty politics and the era of coalition governments, defining them as ‘opportunistic’, widening the issue of caste and communities and popularising the intervention of political processes.

The author concluded the book with her arguments on the rise of temple politics, providing her observation and interpretation of the three major temple land disputes and how they are affecting the multi-religious identity of India, which is often defined by ‘Unity in Diversity’. 

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BY NIDHI SONI

TEAM GEOSTRATA

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