Landlords and Governments in Uttar Pradesh: A Study of Their Relations until Zamindari Abolition

This is a meticulously documented account of the political activities of the landlords of Uttar Pradesh--the holders of large zamindari and taluqdari estates who sustained local political power in the rural areas. The British used these landlords as the centerpiece of their system of political control in the rural areas of the province. Until the 1914-1918 war, this system appeared to operate to the satisfaction of both the British and the landlords. In the 1920s and 1930s, however, their relationship became increasingly ambivalent. When the Indian National Congress assumed power--first in the context of provincial autonomy in the late 1930s and then in the context of complete independence--some landlords continued to believe that there was still a role for a distinct landlord political group in Uttar Pradesh politics. Only after independcence, in the early 1950s when the agrarian system was refashioned by zamindari abolition, did the idea of a political role for landlords in the former sense finally end.