Paul Richard Brass (November 8, 1936 – May 31, 2022) [1] was an American political scientist known for his research on the politics of India. [2] He was professor emeritus of political science and international relations at the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington, where he taught since 1965. After his B.A. in government in 1958 from Harvard College, he received an M.A. in political science from the University of Chicago in 1959, followed by a Ph.D. in political science, also from the University of Chicago, in 1964. [3]
He was born in Boston, Massachusetts. [4] He attended the Boston Latin School. [5]
He had studied the Indian subcontinent since 1961 [6] and published numerous books on the politics of India, including The Production of Hindu-Muslim Violence in Contemporary India (2004). [7] [8]
The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party or simply the Congress, is a political party in India with deep roots in most regions of India. Founded on 28 December 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Empire in Asia and Africa. From the late 19th century, and especially after 1920, under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi, the Congress became the principal leader of the Indian independence movement. The Congress led India to independence from the United Kingdom, and significantly influenced other anti-colonial nationalist movements in the British Empire.
Chandragupta Maurya was the founder of the Maurya Empire, which ruled over a geographically-extensive empire based in Magadha. He reigned from 320 BCE to 298 BCE. The Magadha kingdom expanded to become an empire that reached its peak under the reign of his grandson, Ashoka the Great, from 268 BCE to 231 BCE. The nature of the political formation that existed in Chandragupta's time is not certain. The Mauryan empire was a loose-knit one with large autonomous regions within its limits.
Chaudhary Charan Singh, better known as Charan Singh was an Indian politician and a freedom fighter. Singh was principally known for his land and agricultural reform initiatives. He briefly served as the prime minister of India from July 1979 to August 1979 and was Member of Parliament (MP) for Baghpat. During prime ministership he was a member of the Janata Party (Secular). He served as 5th Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh as a member of Bhartiya Kranti Dal. He also briefly served as deputy prime minister of India from January 1979 to July 1979 as a member of the Janata Party. Singh is widely regarded as the "Champion of farmers", after his life has been dedicated to advocating for the wellbeing and rights of farmers.
The Janata Party is an unrecognized political party in India. It was founded as an amalgam of Indian political parties opposed to the Emergency that was imposed between 1975 and 1977 by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of the Indian National Congress. In the 1977 general election, the party defeated the Congress and Janata leader Morarji Desai became the first non-Congress prime minister in independent modern India's history.
Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, also known by his moniker Doctorji was a Hindutva activist, physician and the founder of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Hedgewar founded the RSS in Nagpur in 1925, based on the ideology of Hindu nationalism.
Samyukta Socialist Party, was a political party in India from 1964 to 1974. SSP was formed through a split in the Praja Socialist Party (PSP) in 1964. In 1965, Ram Manohar Lohia merged his Socialist Party (Lohia) with SSP and contested in 1967 Indian general election. In 1972, SSP was reunited with PSP, forming the Socialist Party. But in December 1972, SSP was recreated after the split in Socialist Party. One faction of SSP led by Madhu Limaye and George Fernandes wanted to merge with PSP but another faction led by Raj Narain resisted the merger with PSP.
The Indian National Congress (Organisation) also known as Congress (O) or Syndicate/Old Congress was a political party in India formed when the Congress party split following the expulsion of Indira Gandhi.
Indian nationalism is an instance of territorial nationalism, which is inclusive of all of the people of India, despite their diverse ethnic, linguistic and religious backgrounds. Indian nationalism can trace roots to pre-colonial India, but was fully developed during the Indian independence movement which campaigned for independence from British rule. Indian nationalism quickly rose to popularity in India through these united anti-colonial coalitions and movements. Independence movement figures like Mahatma Gandhi, Subhas Chandra Bose, and Jawaharlal Nehru spearheaded the Indian nationalist movement. After Indian Independence, Nehru and his successors continued to campaign on Indian nationalism in face of border wars with both China and Pakistan. After the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971 and the Bangladesh Liberation War, Indian nationalism reached its post-independence peak. However by the 1980s, religious tensions reached a melting point and Indian nationalism sluggishly collapsed in the following decades. Despite its decline and the rise of religious nationalism, Indian nationalism and its historic figures continue to strongly influence the politics of India and reflect an opposition to the sectarian strands of Hindu nationalism and Muslim nationalism.
The Vanniyar, also spelled Vanniya, formerly known as the Palli, are a Dravidian community or jāti found in the northern part of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
Bharatiya Kranti Dal was a political party in India, formed by the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Charan Singh. The party was founded at a meeting in Lucknow in October 1967. After the 1977 general election, the successor party of the BKD, Bharatiya Lok Dal was merged into the Janata Party.
Satish Chandra was an Indian historian whose main area of specialisation was medieval Indian history.
The Sainthwar, or Mall, is an Indian caste of peasants native to the Uttar Pradesh state. Under the Indian governments system of positive discrimination, the Sainthwars are classified as a "Backward" or Other backward class.
Samyukta Vidhayak Dal was a coalition of parties formed in several north Indian states after the 1967 assembly elections, made up of the Bharatiya Kranti Dal, the Samyukta Socialist Party, the Praja Socialist Party and the Jana Sangh. The coalition opposed the Indian National Congress party that had hitherto single-handedly dominated Indian politics.
There have been several instances of religious violence against Muslims since the partition of India in 1947, frequently in the form of violent attacks on Muslims by Hindu nationalist mobs that form a pattern of sporadic sectarian violence between the Hindu and Muslim communities. Over 10,000 people have been killed in Hindu-Muslim communal violence since 1950 in 6,933 instances of communal violence between 1954 and 1982.
Susanne Hoeber Rudolph was an American author, political thinker and educationist. She was a William Benton Distinguished Service Professor Emerita at the University of Chicago and was actively interested in Politics, Political Economy and Political Sociology of South Asia, State Formation, Max Weber and the Politics of Category and Culture. The Government of India, in 2014, honored her, along with her husband, Lloyd I. Rudolph, for their services to literature and education, by bestowing on them the third highest civilian award, the Padma Bhushan.
Lloyd Irving Rudolph was an American political economist, political scientist, author, political thinker, educationist and the Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Chicago, known for his scholarship and writings on the India social and political milieu. The Government of India, in 2014, honored Lloyd Rudolph and his wife, Susanne Hoeber Rudolph, for their services to literature and education, by bestowing on them the third highest civilian award, the Padma Bhushan.
Harold Alton Gould was an American anthropologist specializing in Indian society and civilization. He is an author of numerous books on various aspects of Indian society including the caste system, religion, politics and international relations.
Legislative Assembly elections were held in the Indian state of West Bengal on March 11, 1972.
For a Lasting Peace, for a People's Democracy! was the press organ of the Information Bureau of the Communist and Workers' Parties (Cominform). The first issue was published on 1 November 1947 from the Yugoslav capital Belgrade. Due to the Tito–Stalin split, the last issue to be published from Belgrade came out in June 1948; from July 1948 the newspaper was published from Bucharest, Romania, after a decision of the Second Cominform Conference to move the editorial office out of Belgrade.