Description
Book SynopsisNazmul Sultan explores Indian contributions to democratic theory, as anticolonial thinkers developed principles of peoplehood and self-rule. Indians contested British claims that the “backwardness” of the Indian people offered a democratic justification for imperial domination.
Trade ReviewA brilliant demonstration of anticolonialism’s critical contributions to the history of democratic political thought. Sultan’s historically nuanced and theoretically insightful account of how the leading thinkers and activists of India’s anticolonial struggle confronted the fraught colonial legacies of democratic developmentalism and the problem of peoplehood makes an essential contribution to contemporary democratic theory. -- Jason Frank, author of
The Democratic SublimeA dazzling reconstruction of how the problem of peoplehood spurred conceptual innovations in Indian anticolonial thought. Sultan demonstrates, with style and rigor, that to answer the challenge of colonialism, Indian thinkers had to reinvent the very meaning of democracy. -- Karuna Mantena, author of
Alibis of EmpireAn engaging, innovative, and wide-ranging account of the way in which anticolonial thought in India creatively reconceptualized the idea of popular sovereignty. It sheds new light on the theoretical relationship between democratic legitimation and development. -- Pratap Bhanu Mehta, author of
The Burden of DemocracyAn indispensable intervention to the fields of postcolonial theory and democratic theory,
Waiting for the People illustrates how the colonial construction of India’s backwardness gave rise to a very distinct dilemma for anticolonial thinkers and actors. Seeking to authorize their demands for independence in the name of the people, they found that the people had not yet arrived. Traversing a range of figures and periods in the history of Indian anticolonial political thought, Sultan tracks the innovative conceptual and institutional strategies advanced in response to this dilemma of colonial peoplehood. -- Adom Getachew, author of
Worldmaking after EmpireWith dazzling insight,
Waiting for the People demonstrates how Indian anticolonial thinkers reimagined democracy and popular sovereignty. A sure-footed guide through the fault lines between political thought and practical politics, this highly original work shows us the global future of democratic government. -- Rohit De, author of
A People’s Constitution
