Tag Archives: Politics

inordinately large numbers of young Keralites remain unemployed or under-employed; though female labour force participation is comparatively high, it has declined significantly since the 1980s. Discussing the Kudumbashree experience, KB Valsala Kumari points to the meagre presence of women in political leadership, and hopes the substantial social capital that the programme has generated will translate into political capital too. K Ellangovan points out Kerala’s health paradox: ‘despite high public spending, individuals still bear the brunt of healthcare costs’, most of the health budget goes towards salaries at the expense of quality improvement.

Vijay Shankar Choudhry has evaluated the journey of the idea and practice of federalism in postcolonial India. The idea of federalism faced different stages and challenges, and after diverse experiences now scholars and policy makers have accepted the idea of cooperative federalism. Sweety Sinha differentiates between competitive and cooperative federalism and argues that in recent times one can find the existence of competitive-cooperative federalism in India, where the Centre and different States are competing for foreign investment and also cooperating on different aspects of governance and welfare. However, another contributor,

He sheds light on its planning and the major sites of conflict, besides making a realistic assessment of its successes and failures. He also dwells on the counter-insurgency operation of the Indian army. It was to suppress this very uprising that the Indian Air Force launched an attack within its own territory, the only such instance to date. The author mentions many of the places where the air force struck. The army’s strategy of grouping villages into guarded enclaves is also critically discussed. While its purported objective was to shield villagers from the conflict, according to him the real reason was to cut off supplies and information to the rebels.

The Central Government’s persistent meddling in State affairs under Indira Gandhi’s leadership, the dismissal of the Akali-Janata Party Government, the refusal to return Chandigarh to the State, and the repression of the peaceful Dharam Yudh Morcha, all contributed to the rise of Sikh militancy in the 80s. Chopra highlights the State’s violations of human rights as the security agencies employed coercive tactics to quell militancy. Many of the Sikh youth who sought refuge abroad during the period later developed sympathies for the separatist cause. Shruti Devgan examines the diaspora community’s attempt to digitally create, reconstruct, and revive the horrific memory of the anti-Sikh violence in order to subvert the Indian state’s attempt to erase the hurtful memories of the anti-Sikh pogrom in 1984

Also incarcerated in Rajshahi Central Jail at the time was the legendary peasant leader Ila Mitra—an Olympic-level athlete who had suffered sexual violence and torture in police custody. In prison, Amin studied Marxism, political economy, history of religion and Bengali. He had the responsibility of reading and explaining English newspapers to those who could not read English. Amin used this to improve his command over both English and Bengali—something he put to use after his release by writing an Urdu-Bengali dictionary.

Her arrest on 6 February 2010 along with her husband, her incarceration in Naini Central Jail, and the charges brought against her under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act or UAPA, accusing her of waging war against the state and having Maoist links, do not read like an exceptional episode from the past, especially when one considers how long she remained in prison before being granted bail by the Allahabad High Court.
What is particularly compelling about the diary is that it does not try to turn prison into a site of constant spectacle or heightened drama

Historical Antecedents and Contemporary Trends’ describe the history of election studies and voting behaviour analysis in India post 1990. They claim that the ‘coming together of a plethora of Hindu castes and communities under the political banner of BJP forces us to rethink existing theories of caste-class cleavages’ used to explain Indian electoral politics (p. 235).

Second, it offers a nuanced account of federalism by examining the dynamic interplay between central authority and regional autonomy. While acknowledging the rise of centralizing tendencies in recent years, the contributors demonstrate that States continue to remain critical arenas shaping political discourse and governance practices. The volume also shows how regional parties have challenged the dominance of national formations, reshaping the competitive landscape of State politics.

Surendran underscores the importance of Dharmapala to this project of universalizing Buddhism by decoupling him from the nation-state frame. Dharmapala is even today popularly remembered as a Sinhala nationalist. However, Surendran argues that we ought to understand his role in making Buddhism the first non-semitic religion to be named and placed in the category of a ‘world religion’.

My memory of the word goes back to the year 2008, when I was seven years old. The Valley erupted in a major agitation against the land transfer of 40 hectares of forest land to Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board (SASB). The Valley reverberated with loud chants of the word. The lyrical, catchy slogans were registered in my young and impressionable mind. Back then mostly for the rhythm.

Instead of seeking proportional representation based on identity, the Constitution seems to expect that elected MPs must act as ethical advocates for all citizens. This shifts the focus from who the representatives are to how they act, turning the protection of marginalized minorities into a collective moral obligation rather than mere numbers game. Representation, in this sense, is envisaged as an entirely secular act. The Constitution, nevertheless, is conscious of group rights.

A new social and political class dissociated from the Congress and with considerable political clout was emerging in rural areas. As a result, policies like the Employment Guarantee Scheme (EGS) and the Integrated Rural Development Program (IRDP) emerged during this time.

In his own way, though, he was defying stereotypes associated with pracharaks. He had little by way of a formal education’ (p. 324). It was Advani who persuaded Vajpayee to send this pracharak from a little room of the Party office in New Delhi as Chief Minister of Gujarat. Second, the author’s narrative of Vajpayee’s indifference towards the Ayodhya issue, even with the ongoing Allahabad Kumbh Mela.

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.