A fascinating study of how politics are manoeuvred, campaigns run and elections managed in the largest democracy in the world. Essential reading for anyone seeking to understand Uttar Pradesh and its politics. Between March 2011 and March 2012, Manish Tiwari and Rajan Pandey travelled across Uttar Pradesh, by bike, jeep, bus and train, covering more than 15,000 kilometres and 350 constituencies in over 60 districts – in an effort to witness the prelude to the 2012 assembly elections, and capture the grassroots reality of India’s most politically significant state. The authors narrate untold stories and anecdotes of UP politics and give a ringside view of these watershed elections, which saw the end of Mayawati’s rule, the drubbing of the Congress, which had pinned its hopes on the Gandhi charisma, and the rise of a new star in the form of Akhilesh Yadav. They are witness to events as they unfold in the remotest corners of UP. At the same time, they also investigate the specifics of the socio-political climate in Uttar Pradesh at what is, arguably, a turning point in the state’s history, caught as it is between the politics of caste and the politics of class, the politics of goonda-gardi and corruption and the voting public’s increasingly vocal refusal to put up with it, the need for development and its almost unbearable human costs.Coming up to the present, the book takes an objective look at Akhilesh Yadav’s first six months in power and whether it has really been a change for the better. Part gonzo-journalism, part ethnography, Battleground UP: Politics in the Land of Ram is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand Uttar Pradesh and its politics.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
MANISH TIWARI: Manish has been associated with the electronic and print media for almost fifteen years - from newspapers in small towns (1996 in Ajmer) to top brands in the electronic media (Research Head for Devil’s Advocate with Karan Thapar, 2011). Manish has taught sociology, journalism and media & cultural studies at different colleges and universities since 2006. He has also been DFG-Post Doctoral Guest Lecturer in Political Communication at the Siegen University, Germany, in 2010. Manish has done his schooling, graduation and post-graduation from Ajmer, where he grew up, and M.Phil and Ph.D from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Manish has co-edited a book on participatory democracy with Prof Anand Kumar in 2009 and another on social aspects of water-management will be published later in 2013. He now works independently in fields of communications and social research. RAJAN PANDEY: Born in Maharashtra, brought up in his hometown in Mainpuri (UP), educated in Rajasthan and Delhi, and married to his classmate from Assam, Rajan is a Ph.D candidate at the Centre for Political Studies, JNU. Rajan has a diverse range of interests, from literature to strategic affairs, travelling, cooking and but of course, eating. A voracious reader, he goes through crime fiction and serious academic stuff with equal gusto. He is currently in Goettingen, Germany on a Doctoral Visiting Fellowship at the Centre for Modern Indian Studies. Associated with student politics for seven years, Rajan intends to take up politics after finishing his Ph.D. Alongside a political career, he wants to start a farmers’ cooperative in his home state on the lines of AMUL, which could bring similar prosperity and opportunities to rural Uttar Pradesh.
