What is it about?

India, like many other countries, has cities as well as villages. One expression of its national identity is in national histories, like 'The History of Indian Literature', a huge and famous work. At the same time, India also contains many regions that people strongly identify with. Several political movements have developed asking for more recognition and independence for these regions. Interestingly, both the 'nationalist' history and the 'regionalist' political movements use ideas and images of village life to reach peoples' emotions. This article lays out how village life--'rurality'--is a powerful and popular tool, and also points out the problems with assuming that region=rural.

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Why is it important?

Rural economies and cultures are becoming increasingly vulnerable to a complex of forces from climate change to international trade; at the same time, new avenues for a global rurality are opening up. In diverse post-colonial nations like India, 'rurality' is a source of powerful rhetoric and images for identity-building projects, whether national or regional. This essay studies how 'high,' nationalist productions like the authoritative 'History of Indian Literature,' as well as grassroots movements for autonomy, mobilise the idealised self-sufficiency, resilience and 'timelessness' of the rural. Both kinds of text suggest the equation: region=rural. But then what becomes of the urban? And is the rural trapped inside its own idealisation and instrumentalisation, cut off from the global? These problems are urgent and consequential in inter/national politics, policy, and culture.

Perspectives

I hope this article, which closely analyses the curious implication of 'region' and 'rurality' in India, alerts people to the power of 'rural' images and language in their own cultures. What do they and their communities feel and think when they hear phrases like 'Farmers Strike', 'The Old Farm', 'Amber Waves of Grain', 'Farming Folk', or 'Rural Voters'? How do political movements in their countries mobilise images of sheep pastures, barns, tractors and farmers squinting into the sun? Where do their cultures locate the rural, and who tries to occupy that space?

Sumati Dwivedi
Columbia University

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This page is a summary of: The Rurality of Region: Narrative and Counter-Narrative in Indian Literary History and Politics, June 2025, De Gruyter,
DOI: 10.1163/9789004731943_014.
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