The Hindi Heartland: A Study

The Hindi Heartland, Comprising Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, And Uttar Pradesh, Covers Nearly 38 Per Cent Of IndiaS Total Area And Is Home To Over 40 Per Cent Of IndiaS Population. It Provides The Country With Over 40 Per Cent Of Its Parliamentarians And Determines The Contours Of National Politics (Out Of The Fifteen Prime Ministers India Has Had Since 1947, Eight Have Been From The Hindi Belt). Yet, Despite Its Political Significance, The Hindi Belt Is Among The Most Impoverished Regions In The Country. It Consumes The Bulk Of The CountryS Resources, But Lags Behind Other States On Various Economic And Welfare Indices. It Is Plagued By Violence, Illiteracy, Unemployment, Corruption, Poor Life Expectancy, And Numerous Other Ills.Centuries Of War, Conquests, Invasions, Political Movements, And Religious Unrest Have Made The Heartland A Place Of Immense Paradox. Despite Its Extraordinary And Timeless Religious HeritageSome Of The CountryS Most Revered Spiritual Leaders Were Born Here And It Is Home To Innumerable Shrines And Places Of PilgrimageIt Has Also Witnessed Some Of The Worst Communal Riots In The Country And Has Been Troubled By LongRunning, Divisive Sectarian Politics. Many Of IndiaS Founders, Who Gave The Country Its Secular Identity, Hailed From The Heartland, But So Too Did Those Who Have Spread Religious Discord. And The Land Of GangaJamuni Tehzeeb Routinely Witnesses Lynching And Murder In The Name Of Religion.The Book Is Divided Into Five Sections. Section I Explores The Geography Of The Region, Which Stretches From Rajasthan In The West To Jharkhand In The East With Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Uttarakhand, And Uttar Pradesh In Between. The Author Then Looks At Caste, Religion, The RuralUrban Divide, And The Tribes Who Belong To The Region. In The Chapter On The Economy, She Attempts To Show How The Economic Backwardness Of The Hindi Belt Has Come About Through Faulty And Myopic Post Independence Policies Conceived By Various GovernmentsThese Have Come In The Way Of Sustained And Inclusive Development. The Chapter On Language Chronicles Both The Emergence Of Hindi As The Primary Lingua Franca Of This Region At The Cost Of Other Languages, As Well As The Politics That Linked Language With Religion. The Last Chapter In This Section Explores The Influence Of The Heartland On What Is Today Popularly Understood To Be Indian Culture.Section Ii Looks At The Medieval And Modern History Of The Region And Covers The Emergence Of The Delhi Sultanate, The Mughals, The Marathas, And The East India Company.Section Iii Examines British Colonialism Through The Lens Of Empire Building, And Shows How The Imperialists Distorted History To Facilitate Their Divide And Rule Policy. It Also Dwells On The Deliberate Economic Impoverishment Of The Hindi Belt And How This Continues To Impact The Region Even After Independence.Section Iv Analyses The Freedom StruggleAnd Covers Among Other Things The Emergence Of The Idea Of India And The Increasing Hinduization Of That Idea. It Establishes The Hindi BeltS Criticality To GandhiS Satyagraha, And The Success Of The British Indian GovernmentS Experiments With Strategies That Divided Communities, Which Eventually Led To The Partition Of The Country.Section V Appraises Developments In The Region After Independence. It Outlines The GovernmentS Struggle To Rehabilitate Refugees Coming In From The West And The Adoption Of A Liberal Constitution For The Citizens Of The Newly Independent Nation. It Examines The Hindi BeltS Political PeculiarityThe Metamorphosis Of The Socialist Movement Into A Movement That Ended Up Furthering Caste And Religious Divisions In The Region; The Book Analyses The Rise Of Temple Politics (Incidentally, All Three Temples That Are Mired In Disputes And Controversy Are Located In The Hindi Belt) That Threaten The Very Idea Of A MultiReligious, MultiEthnic, MultiCultural, And MultiLingual India That Has Held Sway For Almost A Century.Given Its Disproportionate Influence On The NationS Politics, Culture, And Identity, It Is Surprising That There Has Never Been An Authoritative History And Account Of The Region Until Now. Based On Meticulous Research And Interviews With Key Stakeholders, AwardWinning Journalist And Writer Ghazala Wahab, A Native Of The Region, Gives Us A Magisterial Account Of The Hindi Heartland.