Routledge Handbook of Indian Politics

This coedited handbook navigates major themes of Indian history to explain Indian politics, political-economy, regional development, and India’s role in international relations. The analysis in part 1 covers the context of India’s colonization; key Indian leaders and their legacies; the dynamics of India’s political institutions centering on democracy, centralization-decentralization, ideologies of nationalism, secularism, and Hindu fundamentalism; and the "politics of empowerment" within India’s lower caste system. In part 2 contributors address India’s political economy, namely, its shift from a "reluctant" to an "enthusiastic" pro-capitalist state, and assert that this shift (evidenced in a "state-capital alliance" and the growing power of business groups) leaves much to be done in the areas of poverty removal, land redistribution, primary education, and public health. Part 3 addresses the diversity of India’s regional development involving roles of some "neo-patrimonial" governments and "authority structures" in this process. Part 4 analyzes India’s role in the regional and world arena (including international migration and its consequences for India) through the lens of India’s colonial past, nationalist, and world visions—which are also being shaped by ideational and structural factors of strategic interdependence. In pointing to new directions of thinking and research in these contexts, the handbook shows how power distribution in the society is constantly being negotiated and renegotiated.

--R. Das, University of Minnesota-Duluth

Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.