Tag Archives: Politics

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.

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