Book Review : Colonial Dominance and Local Resistance in South India, G. Samba Siva Reddy, Research India Press, New Delhi, 2016, Pp.485.

Abstract

When India became independent the nation-state was the framework of reference and study and 'national histories' were written. All India surveys were the norm. It was also doubted whether there could be a separate history of the Indian National Movement at the regional level. Regional Politics was seen essentially as a replication of what happened at the national level, albeit in a smaller and limited way. It was in the seventies that the focus shifted to the provincial and regional level. Reorganisation of states had been more or less completed by then and political movements demanding 'autonomy' especially in Tamil Nad and Jammu and Kashmir gained momentum. The seventies academically were noted for the emergence of the so called Cambridge school of historiography.