Paper short abstract:

This paper canvasses the case for seeing the 1960s as a major transitional monent in the history of post-colonial India by looking at the response of the India Gandhi-led Congress government to a mass agitation designed to bring about a federal laww banning cow-slaughter.

Paper long abstract:

Recently, a few scholars have begun (not before time) to historicize post-colonial India. Among the challenges of this project is to identify meaningful turning points in the story that might translate into narrative breaks. This paper canvasses the case for seeing the late 1960s as one of these transitional moments, focussing on the response of the Congress Party and its novice Prime Minister to a mass agitation designed to pressure the Centre into passing federal legislation criminalising cow-slaughter. From one perspective, this trial of strength between the government and the Hindu Right can be read as an object lesson in realpolitik; indeed the paper will argue that it played a crucial part in the making of Indira Gandhi as a political leader. However, even as Gandhi turned the tables on her opponents, she looked for ways to coopt the rising neo-Hindu movement to the advantage of the Congress. Within a few years, communal appeals, the wedging of minorities and the cultivation of orthodox religious leaders had become major weapons in the party's electoral armoury. With hindsight, the 1960s can be seen as the years in which discourses and strategies rooted in the perception that attachments to religion/community were key electoral motivetors finally entered mainstream Indian politics.