Description
Book SynopsisWhen India was invented as a modern country in the years after Independence in 1947 it styled itself as a secular, federal, democratic Republic committed to an ideology of development.
Trade Review"This is a major contribution on the political sociology of contemporary India. It is a detailed and incisive account of the changing state-society relationships in the context of elite movements (economic liberalization and Hindu nationalism) on the one hand and the popular mobilizations of the long-suppressed subordinate classes and castes on the other."
Pranab Bardhan, University of California at Berkeley
"This is a superb analysis of India's changing political economy from the 1940s to 2000. The authors sustain a clear and compelling argument while negotiating a thicket of contentious issues related to politics and the state at different levels, democracy, class structures, modes of accumulation, development, ideologies and religions. Essential reading for all scholars who have an interest in these subjects." David Potter, The Open University
'This is a useful book. The authors should be congratulated for providing a comprehensive treatment of a complex and fast changing political economy. The book can be used with profit for upper division courses dealing with post-independence India.' Contemporary Sociology
"This is a Superb book, deserving readers from several fields." Canadian Journal of Sociology Online
"Those who are seriously interested in acquiring an understanding of contemporary India are recommended to tackle this scholarly text." Progress in Human Geography
"Interesting to the student of contemporary democracies, and i found reading them in conjunction very illuminating. When there is such an excellent body of English Language Literature on contemporary India society one wonders why it is that so many sociology students in the west will complete their studies without ever having read an article or picked up a book written on the 'world's largest democracy'." Journal of the British Sociological Association
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements.
Abbreviations.
Glossary.
Map 1 Territorial growth of the East India Company, to 1843.
Map 2 Contemporary India.
Preface.
Part 1: The Invention of Modern India.
Chapter 1: The Light of Asia? India in 1947.
Chapter 2: 'Sovereign, Democratic, Federal, Socialist, Secular': the Invention of Modern India.
Part Two: Contesting Modernity.
Chapter 3: the 'Tall Men' and the 'Third way': Nehru, Patel and the Building of Modern India.
Chapter 4: Jealous Populism, Crises and Instability: Indira's India.
Chapter 5: Drifting Towards Catastrophe: The Powerlessness of the Congress.
Chapter 6: 'Elite Revolts': Reforming and Reinventing India in the 1990s.
Part Three: The Reinvention of India.
Chapter 7: The Dialectics of Reform: the State and Economic Liberalization.
Chapter 8: The Guilty men? Militant Hinduism and the Politics of Anti-Secularism.
Chapter 9: Transfers of Power? Subaltern Politics, Sites of Empowerment and the Reshaping of India's Democracy.
Chapter 10: Conclusion.
Notes.
References.
Index
