Book review: K. L. Tuteja,Religion,Community and Nation: Hindu Consciousness and Nationalism in Colonial Punjab

The British-made province of Punjab in the last century saw two unforgettable massacres: the Jallianwala Bagh in 1919 and the communal slaughter in 1947–48. It would seem as if both nationalism and communalism had its most ardent partisans in the Punjab, the latter eventually winning out.

To understand how this happened, one needs to read Professor Tuteja’s study of the simultaneous pulls of nationalism and communalism (which the author often charitably designates as ‘communitarianism’), though he takes up only the Hindu side, concentrating on the dilemma repeatedly faced by the redoubtable nationalist leader, Lala Lajpat Rai, who died a martyr’s death at the hands of the police in 1928.

Punjab, as the British had set its boundaries, had a curious communal situation: In its south-eastern portion (the present-day Haryana) Hindus, speaking Hindustani, formed an overwhelming majority; but in the rest of the province, where Punjabi was spoken, the Hindus were reduced to a small (but relatively prosperous) minority because not only of the large presence of Muslims but also by the bulk of the Sikh community being concentrated there. Lajpat Rai, being an Arya Samajist, as well as an ardent nationalist, was throughout faced with two loyalties, to the Hindu community (fearful always of having its interests overlooked as a minority) and to the national movement (anxious not to have its ranks divided on communal lines).

The author deftly traces the detailed story of how ‘Hindu consciousness’ developed in the Punjab, particularly with the growth of the Arya Samaj in the late nineteenth century, while nationalism notably in the ‘extremist’ form, attributed to Tilak, also took root, both claiming the loyalty of Lajpat Rai from early youth. Lajpat Rai heroically tried to ride both horses together. It is comforting to feel that when he lost his life, this happened because rebuffing the counsel of many, he would not stand aside from the national struggle and was leading a massive demonstration against the Simon Commission at Lahore when he was felled by police lathis.

The author’s narrative ends with 1928, but his detailed study of the communal differences that had continuously beset Punjab till then makes us understand why, within two decades of Lajpat Rai’s passing away, his beloved Punjab would be divided and the whole country partitioned.

As the author makes clear in the title of the work that his study is concerned only with the Hindu side of the communal divide. There should be a corresponding study of the Muslim side, with perhaps the spotlight on someone like Mian Iftikharuddin, a Congress leader of the Punjab with Left leanings. In 1946, while visiting his relatives at Aligarh, after suddenly joining the Muslim League, he had taken the trouble to explain to this reviewer, then a mere schoolboy of 15, that his loyalty to the cause of Indian freedom remained unaffected.

We should all be grateful to Professor Tuteja for a work displaying enviable insight and objectivity, while deftly handling an immense amount of source material.