Mount’s study uncovers the bitter truth that though the emergence and visibility of the trans woman may translate as an increased acceptance of GNC people in India, it is at the cost of further discrediting, marginalizing and othering of the hijras. The rise of the trans woman has perhaps meant the decline of the traditional guru-chela dynamics of the hijra tradition, a further stigmatization of the sex work hijras are associated with,
he book asserts that anticolonial struggle also focused on the socio-economic aspects of national life, which give prominence to the idea of centralization. Gandhi’s alternative developmentalism had a fatal weakness because he hoped to create a decentralized polity on the basis of an anticolonial movement which had a strong centralizing feature. The author also presents a critique of other aspects of postcolonial economic changes:
Yet, the book’s celebration of participatory constitutionalism occasionally risks romanticizing the democratic impulse. While De and Shani acknowledge that many public demands were unheeded, their treatment of exclusion remains understated. The book might have further examined the gendered hierarchies within these publics, or the tensions between caste solidarity and universal equality.
The next set of chapters move seamlessly from pure constitutional discourse to institutions of civil society, judiciary and federalism in India. Chapter four reiterates the liberal individualism that led to the preference for rule of law, a centralized state, rejection of localism, rejection of separate electorates and a preference for individual representation than the group.
The question is: Can Indian democracy survive the series of assaults on it, from Indira Gandhi’s Emergency in the mid-70s to the present decade, when such assaults have been exacerbated? According to Diego Maiorano, Manor’s optimism about the regenerative qualities of Indian democracy in the post-Emergency period is somewhat misplaced in today’s context. Maiorano sees the cumulative damage inflicted on Indian democracy as leaving permanent scars on its institutions.
Overall, Yechury’s analysis offers one of the most comprehensive examinations of the predicaments facing the Indian Republic from the benches of Indian political opposition. His Marxist training, academic background, and decades of experience as a senior CPI(M) politician have given his arguments analytical rigour and clarity. However, a significant lacuna remains regarding the question of ‘What is to be done?’.