Tag Archives: Politics

Recent academic works have increasingly sought to critically engage with the complex and contested process of tribal identity formation in India. Much of this discourse locates the origins of such identity constructions in colonial epistemological and administrative frameworks. Early colonial representation depicted tribal communities as primitive, uncivilized, and as vestiges of a pre-Aryan, non-Vedic past.…

There are a few chapters in the book which present a systematic study on issues which have been rarely discussed in the academic discourse of electoral politics in India. For example, Ashutosh Kumar’s ‘Election Economy in India’ is one of the most crucial chapters in this volume, which discusses the advancement and working of election economy in India after Independence.

That is why, when Gokhale says, ‘You spoke of the university as a liberal space. My experience of teaching was different—it was not a liberal space at all. My problem is that the educational system, as it operates in many parts of this country, is extremely feudal,’ it shows the hurdles on the way to freedom. The intolerant state at the top of the power pyramid is safely ensconced in the middle of little tyrannies operating at various levels.

More than a scholarly revelation, the reintroduction of Hafeezuddin Ahmad’s manuscript calls for an ethical reckoning with the historiography of Delhi. The literary fame and scholarly prestige enjoyed by figures such as Sir Syed must now be revisited in light of the sources they used—and possibly co-opted.

Some readers are likely to be familiar with all the events painstakingly chronicled by the author. However, in an era of alarmingly low news consumption, this book performs an admirable function of effectively reminding and explaining to all readers why and how Indian democracy has been on trial over the past decade or so.

Unfortunately, the book doesn’t explore how societies can reliably identify and appoint individuals who embody these judicial ideals. The appointment of judges is a crucial issue in many democracies—including India—and a more in-depth discussion on institutional mechanisms for judicial selection would have strengthened the work.

However, one must point out that, a) the research focus on only ‘software professionals’ can be critiqued on the ground that it cannot be considered as representative of a much larger and a heterogeneous new middle class, as the author herself observes, which is not confined to urban metropolitan India, nestled in gated communities/SEZ or EPZ; b) the author needed to explain the shift in the cultural and political agenda of the new middle class in more detail.

The first chapter of the book titled ‘Backdrop’ maps out in detail the peculiar South Asian backdrop in which the stories unfold in the matrix often referred to as Mafia Raj. It also explores how ‘the art of making do’ (jugad) translates into ‘the art of bossing’ and how informal economy brushes with organized crime often supported by the political establishment.

The book stands out because it is a study which, having identified the visions which brought the group of seven together, also highlights the politico-ideological priorities of the members of this group. One notices a broad division of priorities among them.

The book later covers the last phase of Rai’s politics and his ultimate alignment with the Hindu Mahasabha. The work seriously engages with complete writings and required contextual readings and comes out with a coherent and fresh perspective on the life and thought of Lajpat Rai. Having said that, in her attempt to portray Lajpat Rai’s politics and work in a more coherent manner

This identity has various facets—historical, cultural, social, political, religious, and liberal—dealt with in separate chapters. Ahmed argues that there is a serious reconfiguration of these thematic aspects of Indian Muslim identity in the present time, the New India: arguably an ideological framework and a process that has redefined the Indian political context. This framework’s bent is on the ‘responsive government-responsive people’

These are notes helping us fathom how our own imperfections make us dream of a perfect world, how each time we heal the world a bit, we heal ourselves. No one who reads the book will be left with the excuse of not daring to change because they are ‘ordinary’, for this is a story of how ordinary seeming people can harness their individual and collective strengths to create solutions that had never been imagined. Like the author says

As an advocate of gender equality and women’s empowerment, if I were to add to this splendid volume in any future editions, I would add chapters on the relative merits, the synergies and distinctions between Maha Lakshmi and the other two Mahadevis in the trinity

For Jaffrelot, Modi’s personalization of power coupled with identifying the cosmopolitan origins of the Nehru-Gandhi family in particular allowed him to claim ownership to being a victim of elite politics along with the common people. This ‘national-populism’ for Jaffrelot is undergirded by a mimetic syndrome wherein Modi successfully managed to create a discourse of unanimism—the idea that the people and the leader are one and the same. This ‘Moditva’

The rest of the essays in Part II of the book are rooted in different aspects of elections. ‘Election Time’ by Anupama Roy and Ujjwal Kumar Singh reiterates elections as an expression of popular sovereignty, highlights the significance of the Election Commission of India (ECI). Election time also serves as a site of electoral morality in the Model Code of Conduct (MCC)

While reading the book I couldn’t help but think of a very disturbing image from news this year when a part of the roof at Delhi airport’s Terminal 1 collapsed, killing a cab driver waiting for passengers and injuring several others. Compensations were announced and allegations and counter allegations between the ruling government and the opposition followed.

Anup Shekjhar Chakraborty looks at the phenomenon of ‘notices’ in the Northeast which are handed out as local communitarian commands. Here the community replaces the state as the focal point of governance. Pratip Chattopadhyay analyses how debates are conducted in Indian tele-media. He calls for a more participatory model of debating to ensure more meaningful participation of the new generation. Vinod Pavarala draws our attention to a now forgotten medium of political communication

Chapters five, ‘Can Umbrella Parties Survive? The Decline of the Indian National Congress’, and seven, ‘Coalition Strategies and the BJP’s Expansion 1989-2004’ provide a long-term perspective on the two largest parties: the Congress and the BJP. Chapter five, coauthored with Adnan Farooqui, provides a critical assessment of Congress’s diminished capacity to act as an ‘umbrella party’ based on electoral rules

Coming to the limitations of the book, the author’s desire to give a simple and accessible introduction to the idea/ideal of secularism does not get involved with the various intellectual critiques of secularism as a western hegemonic ideology particularly put forth by Islamists and decoloniality theorists.

The most moving section in the entire book is the concluding part, ‘Suffering’. The four chapters in this portion are important in that they narrate in detail the miseries which were inflicted on the families of the sixteen ‘conspirators’. The uniqueness of this portion of the book lies in the fact that problems which the victims and their families faced are retold in their own voices.