Crisis and Change in Contemporary India

"Most scholars and students will find something of value in this book." --Asian Affairs "The book contains a wealth of information and thoughts about the transformation taking place in India. The good as well as the bad points about tradition and modernity have been recognised." --Journal of Indian School of Political Economy "The essays offer illuminating analytical approaches toward an understanding of our recent past. They explore the dilemmas we confront in our day-to-day social and political life in a contextually rich analysis of the historical roots of our present discontents. . . . Individually and collectively the essays greatly enrich our understanding of the dialectic of modernity in India. . . . The great merit of Crisis and Change in Contemporary India is that the trajectory of modernity in India is scrutinized from a variety of perspectives emanating from the principal insights of our own tradition. It succeeds admirably in shaking the confidence of the smug modernizer, especially of the free market persuasion." --The Book Review "The collection of essays is rich in its variety of thought ingredients and sharp cognitive instruments to strike at truth." --Asian Studies "This is in all senses a weighty volume, one of exceptional quality and extensive range.... The main contributions are seventy in number and extend over a wide variety of topics from politics and history to religion and society. In addition to making their own contributions, the editors have secured seminal chapters from Anthony Parel, Judith Brown and Thomas Pantham on Gandhi, from Ashis Nandy, Prakash Desai, Subrata Mitra and Rajni Kothari on the psychology of politics and from Sudipta Kaviraj, Rajeev Bhargava and Gurprett Mahajan on the interpentration of religion and politics. Although the range of topics is thus varied, there is a fascinating consensus of views to be found among the contributors: the thrust of most of the chapters is that a Western-devised approach to analysis of Indian politics and sociology is now ready to be discarded and replaced by an inwardly Indian perception of their own distinctive world." --W.H. Morris-Jones in Political Studies "Their desire to honour Professor Patel is well served by a volume of such calebre and breadth.... Edited collections pose a problem for reviewers at any time, but with this volume the difficulty is exacerbated by the richness and diversity of the contributios themselves.... Anyone interested in the problematic of tradition and modernity, or, more broadly, in aspects of India's social and political transformation will find something of interest in this stimulating and intellectually rewarding volume." --South Asia "The editors of this interesting volume should be commended." --The Statesman India is enduring anxious times. Although the current policy of economic liberalization offers indisputable advantages, it is also potentially explosive; compounded by recent challenges to secularism, it has created grave political problems. Underscoring the need for a critical examination of the constitutive principles and current status of India's polity and society, this volume of original essays addresses these and a diversity of related concerns. The first section analyzes the contributions of Gandhi, Nehru, and Ambedkar--the founders of modern India--to Indian political and social transformation. Postindependence polity is evaluated next, including such elements as civic loyalty, the politics of language, and the crisis of governability. The third section considers religious and secular identities within the framework of the construction of modernity, and issues from public health and critical psychology to the ecopolitics of development are assessed. The internationally distinguished authors represented in this work express a variety of viewpoints, cover a range of fascinating themes, and raise issues of both philosophy and praxis. This powerful volume will be invaluable to professionals and students of political science, development studies, sociology, history, and South Asian studies.