ABSTRACT
The notion that the Congress constructed an imagined governmentality is a departure from the hitherto existing treatments of Indian nationalism. It seeks to revisit Congress leaders’ attitudes on the subject, using their views to correct the distortions of historiography.3 Previous analyses assess Congress policies and assume that Congress leaders sought to mould an Indian nation.4 In a sense, considering the ideal state illustrates the origins of what Paul Brass has described as a process of national integration, in which national interests were articulated by nationalist elites in control of instruments of governance; these interests were then transmitted to the masses, resulting in a “transformation of mass values,” making them compatible with elite interests.5 In this case, however, Congress leaders did not control the instruments of the state, but were instead conceptualizing what these would be when independence was achieved.
