Indias First Democratic Revolution [Hardcover] (RARE BOOKS)

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 colonialism

  Traces the history of land relations and caste movements into the post-Liberation period of Bandodkar’s 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.

  Glossary

  Introduction

• Caste in the Modern World, 1850–1961
• Colonial State: Local and Micro Context
• Bandodkar’s Charisma and Post-Colonial Goa, 1963–1973
• Empowering through Land and Tenancy Reforms
• The Political Economy of Social Transformation

  Conclusion

  Bibliography

  Index

  Key Points

  New perspective on Goa

  Existing scholarship has focused on Goa’s Portuguese history; this book integrates Portuguese history with the “Indian” story. Follows Goa’s story in the post-Liberation period

  Explores Goa’s caste movements and Dalit history

  Goa is not well known for its caste movements which were the earliest successful movements in the country. This book fills that gap.

  Is Goa’s 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.