Post-Partition Politics and U.P. Congress: An Emerging New Political Identity in U.P., 1947–1950

Abstract

This paper situates post-Partition politics in the United Provinces within recent scholarship on the “Long Partition” and its long-term implications beyond Punjab and Bengal. It argues that Partition had serious ideological consequences for U.P., enabling the dominance of a specific form of politics associated with Hindu nationalist ideas within the U.P. Congress. These ideas, especially as articulated by Purushottam Das Tandon, centred on the cultural consolidation of Hindus and their transformation into a national community. While such ideas had existed in the pre-Independence period, Partition provided the context for their intensification, political expression, and institutionalisation. The paper examines the immediate reactions of the U.P. Congress leadership to Partition and connects them with broader questions of governance, provincial identity, and state formation. It shows how the emotions generated by territorial division encouraged a departure from earlier Congress politics and strengthened the Hindu Right within the provincial Congress. This shift was reflected in debates over language, the renaming of the province, and the creation of U.P.’s post-colonial identity. The implementation of these policies contributed to the consolidation of majoritarian tendencies and adversely affected the socio-political position of Muslims in U.P. By focusing on the first three years after Partition, the paper demonstrates how Partition’s ideological afterlife shaped emerging political and institutional structures in post-colonial U.P.