INDIAS FIRST DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION

Goa is considered exceptional in India because of its small size, its high economic and social development relative to the rest of the country and its Portuguese history.Parobo argues that scholarship on Goa has focused too much on its Portuguese past and ignored the indigenous reasons for its historical trajectory and developmental success.This focus has ignored the fact that Goa was the first territory to vote in a lower caste government to power in the 1963 assembly elections, headed by lower caste mine owner and philanthropist Dayanand Bandodkar.Author explores the history behind this surprising electoral success and its consequences.He focuses instead on the comparatively little explored story of: caste-based land and power relations in pre-colonial and early colonial Goa emerging caste movements and identity politics among both upper castes and lower castes in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the interactions of caste politics with colonialismTraces the history of land relations and caste movements into the post-Liberation period of Bandodkars far-reaching land reforms. These liberated lower caste tenants from dependence on landlords and opened up new employment opportunities for the Bahujan.Accompanied by substantial investments in education and health, they ushered in greater equity and democratisation. Goa, therefore, scripted a distinctive story of Bahujan success.GlossaryIntroduction Caste in the Modern World, 1850-1961 Colonial State: Local and Micro Context Bandodkars Charisma and Post-Colonial Goa, 1963-1973 Empowering through Land and Tenancy Reforms The Political Economy of Social TransformationConclusionBibliographyIndexKey PointsNew perspective on GoaExisting scholarship has focused on Goas Portuguese history; this book integrates Portuguese history with the Indian story. Follows Goas story in the post-Liberation periodExplores Goas caste movements and Dalit historyGoa is not well known for its caste movements which were the earliest successful movements in the country. This book fills that gap.Is Goas success replicable?Goa is well known for its excellent economic and social development performance but is also thought of as an outlier. This book explains why the Goa model could become a wider model.