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Decentring the Indian Nation
First published in 2003, Decentring the Indian Nation examines the various centrifugal forces apparent in recent Indian politics. After achieving independence in 1947 India’s elite opted to build a modern nation-state. This idea was carefully nurtured during the fight for freedom from British rule by the dominant Congress movement. In recent years, the idea of a centralised state has been challenged from a number of directions. Strong regional political movements have questioned the assumption that India’s federal system requires a dominant centre. The related trend of identity-based mobilisation has challenged settled notions of Indian national identity. The authors discuss the idea that as a nation, India is becoming ‘decentred’, and consider the implications of this idea for the development of the Indian polity. This book will be of interest to students of politics, geography and development.
Ethnicity and Populist Mobilization
Studies of ethnic politics have for long focused on how governments and ethnic leaders interact. This book examines how the interactions of parties and society continually reshape ethnic identities and redirect ethnic politics. By exploring the course taken by the Dravidian parties of South India, it shows how citizens and leaders may act to preserve tolerance and democracy amidst considerable ethnic mobilization, even if governments are unable or unwilling to do so. A wide range of sources are used, ranging from electoral data, newspapers, and political tracts to films and interviews with activists. Methods drawn from political science, sociology, and historical anthropology help account for the effects of political mobilization on popular mentalities and civil society. South Indian experiences are illuminated by comparisons with changes elsewhere in South Asia, and in Latin America and Europe. The book suggests new approaches to making theory in the social sciences.
The State in India After Liberalization
This book assesses the changing nature of the state in the period after liberalization in India. It includes detailed analysis of its implications for important issues such as inequality, poverty, basic needs provision, citizenship, federalism and democratization.
Crafting State-Nations
Political wisdom holds that the political boundaries of a state necessarily coincide with a nation's perceived cultural boundaries. Today, the sociocultural diversity of many polities renders this understanding obsolete. This volume provides the framework for the state-nation, a new paradigm that addresses the need within democratic nations to accommodate distinct ethnic and cultural groups within a country while maintaining national political coherence. First introduced briefly in 1996 by Alfred Stepan and Juan J. Linz, the state-nation is a country with significant multicultural—even multinational—components that engenders strong identification and loyalty from its citizens. Here, Indi...
National Myths
National myths are now seriously questioned in a number of societies. In the West, for instance, a number of factors have combined to destabilise the symbolic foundation of nations and collective identities. As a result, the diagnosis of a deep cultural crisis has become commonplace. Indeed, who today has not heard about the erosion of common values or the undermining of social cohesion? But to efficiently address this issue, do we know enough about the nature and role of myths in modern and postmodern societies? Against this background, National Myths: Constructed Pasts, Contested Presents relies on a sample of nations from around the world and seeks to highlight the functioning of national...
Nation and Family
The distinct personal laws that govern the major religious groups are a major aspect of Indian multiculturalism and secularism, and support specific gendered rights in family life. Nation and Family is the most comprehensive study to date of the public discourses, processes of social mobilization, legislation and case law that formed India's three major personal law systems, which govern Hindus, Muslims, and Christians. It for the first time systematically compares Indian experiences to those in a wide range of other countries that inherited personal laws specific to religious group, sect, or ethnic group. The book shows why India's postcolonial policy-makers changed the personal laws they i...
Religion and Society
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India's 1999 Elections and 20th Century Politics
This book examines the consequences and results of the 1999 general elections in light of the recent developments in Indian politics and the Indian party system.
