Table of Contents

Introduction 1. Setting the Scene 2. Shaping Indian Politics: The Language of Identity 3. Indian Democracy: Liberalism in its Reinvented Form 4. Parliamentary Federalism in India: Redefining the Westminster Model 5. The Chaotic 1960s: A Decade of Experiments and Turmoil 6. The Left Front and the 2006 Assembly Elections in West Bengal: Marxism Reinvented 7. Coalition Politics in India: Cultural Synergy or Political Expediency. Conclusion

About the Author

India: Government and Politics in a Developing Nation Robert Hardgrave and Stanley Kochanek (Harcourt College Publishers, 2000) - GBP25.99 - A standard text thematically organized, with extensive lists of suggested readings. Supplementary material available at the "India Update" website Reinventing India Stuart Corbridge and John Harriss (Polity, 2000) - GBP17.99 The Politics of India Since Independence Paul R. Brass (Cambridge University Press, 1994) - (New Cambridge History of India) - GBP60.00 - More than a textbook but not quite a definitive in-depth political history, it has three parts: "Political Change" (structures, parties, state and local politics); "Pluralism and National Integration" (language problems, crises in Punjab, the Northeast, and Kashmir, Hindu-Muslim and caste conflict, and Hindu nationalism); "Political Economy" (economic development, social change, agricultural change) India Briefing, 1987-1999 [multiple volumes] (Sharpe, M.e., Inc. or Westview Press) - A series of volumes of essays covering politics, economy, society, and culture. Each volume has typically one essay on domestic politics and one on international relations, and frequently an additional essay on an aspect of domestic politics Contemporary India Satish Deshpande (Penguin-India, 2003) - Comments: The focus of this book is narrow and seeks to explain Indian politics with reference to sociological models that are not easy to comprehend unless the readers are acquainted with the literature. India after independence, 1947-2000 Bipan Chandra, Mridula Mukherjee and Aditya Mukherjee Penguin-India, 2000) Comments: The book is useful for the beginners given the lucidity (to the extent of even diluting the complex themes). It main weakness stems from the fact that it is hardly analytical. Modern South Asia: history, culture, political economy Sugata Bose and Ayesha Jalal (Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1998) - Comments: The book is dated and meant for beginners focusing on broad themes which are useful to initiate academic works on issues relating to the subcontinent.

Reviews

"!in the last ten years or so I have not read a book which is comparable to Bidyut Chakrabarty's in it richness of material, quality, rigour, scope, sweep, lucidity, and readability. I would even consider this script as a kind of trend-setter." - P. Radhakrishnan, Professor, Sociology, Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai, India, and prominent social critic "[T]he volume remains an appropriate and timely intervention that, with its thematically organised bibliography, will be an asset for all interested in the politics of modern India." - Soumen Mukherjee, University of Heidelberg, Germany; Contemporary South Asia, Vol. 18, No. 4, December 2010