India has been catapulted to the centre of world attention. Its rapidly growing economy, new geo-political confidence, and global cultural influence have ensured that people across the world recognise India as one of the main sites of social dynamism in the early twenty-first century.
In this book, research leaders John Harriss, Craig Jeffrey and Trent Brown explore in depth the economic, social, and political changes occurring in India today, and their implications for the people of India and the world. Each of the book’s fourteen chapters seeks to answer a key question: Is India’s democracy under threat? Can India’s Growth be sustained? How are youth changing India? Drawing on a wealth of scholarly and popular material as well as their own experience researching the country during this period of major transformation, the authors draw the reader into key debates about economic growth, poverty, environmental justice, the character of Indian democracy, rights and social movements, gender, caste, education, and foreign policy. India, they conclude, has undergone some extraordinary and positive changes since the early 1990s but deeply worrying threats remain: increasing authoritarianism, growing inequality, entrenched poverty, and environmental vulnerability. How India responds to these crucial challenges will shape the world’s largest democracy for years to come.
About the Authors Preface and Acknowledgements 1 Making Sense of Twenty-First-Century India 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Past and Present 1.3 The Impact of Colonialism in India 1.4 The Invention of Modern India 1.5 The Reinvention of India Part One: Economy and Environment 2 When and Why Has India’s Economic Growth Accelerated? 2.1 Introduction: Thinking About Economic Growth 2.2 India’s History of Economic Growth 2.3 Economic Growth 1950–1992: A Story of Failure? 2.4 India’s ‘Economic Reforms’ and Growth in 1993–2001 2.5 ‘Superfast’ Growth, Slowdown and Questionable Recovery: 2002–2015 2.6 Conclusion 3 How ‘Inclusive’ is India’s Economic Growth? 3.1 Introduction: Economic Growth and ‘Development’ 3.2 Constructions and Measurements of Poverty 3.3 Poverty Trends in India 3.4 Durable Inequalities in Indian Society, Mobility and the Missing Middle Class 3.5 Conclusion 4 Why Isn’t India Doing Better at Realizing ‘Inclusive Growth’? 4.1 Introduction: The Pattern of India’s Economic Growth 4.2 Has the Growth Process Ignored Indian Agriculture? 4.3 ‘Jobless Growth’, ‘Excluded Labour’ and ‘Make in India’ 4.4 Conclusion: Binding Economic and Social Constraints 5 Can India’s Economic Growth Be Reconciled with Sustainability and Environmental Justice? 5.1 Introduction: The Costs of Environmental Degradation 5.2 The Environment and Development Debate: Must Growth Come First? 5.3 Environmental Conflicts: Capital, State, Civil Society and People 5.4 Environmental Policy and the Practice of Regulation 5.5 Conclusion Part Two: Politics 6 Has India Become the Hindu Rashtra? 6.1 Introduction: ‘God Man’ to Government 6.2 The RSS, the BJP and the Struggle for Hindutva 6.3 Temples, Gods and Gurus: Banal Hinduism, Banal Hindutva 6.4 Banal Hindutva, Communal Violence and the State 6.5 Hindutva Rising 6.6 Authoritarian Populism and the Indian Case 6.7 Conclusion 7 Is India’s Democracy at Risk? 7.1 Introduction 7.2 India as a Formal Democracy 7.3 India as Substantive Democracy 1947–2014 7.4 Substantive Democratization Since 2014 7.5 Conclusions 8 Why Hasn’t Democracy Made Indian Governments More Responsive? 8.1 Introduction: Economic and Social Rights and the Indian Constitution 8.2 The ‘New Rights Agenda’ 8.3 From Rights Legislation to Implementation 8.4 Social Rights under the First Modi Government 8.5 How Government Works 8.6 Conclusions 9 Is There a Countermovement against Neoliberalism in India? 9.1 Introduction: Polanyi’s Idea of the ‘Double Movement’ and India Today 9.2 Towards Social Movement Unionism? 9.3 Rural Struggles: Agrarian Crisis, and the ‘New’ Land Question 9.4 Middle-Class Activism 9.5 Conclusions Part Three: Society 10 Is India Witnessing a Social Revolution? 10.1 Introduction 10.2 What is the Social Revolution? 10.3 Cultural Renaissance 10.4 Growing Prominence of Civil Society 10.5 Constraints on India’s Social Revolution 10.6 Conclusion 11 Does Caste Still Matter in India? 11.1 Introduction 11.2 Caste in Mid-Twentieth-Century India 11.3 The Decline of Caste Hierarchies 11.4 Caste, Identity and Politics 11.5 Caste as Habitus: Hierarchy Revisited 11.6 Conclusions 12 Why Does Gender Inequality Persist in India? 12.1 Introduction 12.2 Gender Relations and the Family 12.3 Gender Inequality in Education and the Workplace 12.4 Politicizing Gender Inequality 12.5 Conclusion 13 Can Youth Transform India? 13.1 Introduction: Ideas about ‘Youth’ 13.2 School Education 13.3 Higher Education 13.4 Unemployment 13.5 The Politics of Youth Unemployment 13.6 Conclusions Afterword 14 Afterword: Is India Now a ‘Leading Power’? 14.1 Introduction: India’s Transformations and the International Arena 14.2 Coming in from the Margins: India in the World in the Late Twentieth Century 14.3 After the Cold War: An ‘Emerging and Responsible Power’? 14.4 Conclusion: Still an Aspirant as a ‘Leading Power’ Glossary References Index
John Harris is Professor Emeritus of International Studies at Simon Fraser University. Craig Jeffrey is Director of the Australia India Institute and Professor of Geography at the University of Melbourne. Trent Brown is DECRA Research Fellow in the School of Geography at the University of Melbourne.
Reviews for India: Continuity and Change in the Twenty-First Century
�As a book that covers a tremendous range of issues and refuses to fall for easy explanatory traps, India: Continuity and Change in the 21st Century offers an original, unique and comprehensive coverage of the economy, society and politics in 21st century India.� Philippa Williams, Queen Mary University of London �This book asks some of the most compelling questions about politics, society and the economy in contemporary India, and offers answers with historical depth, a comprehensive engagement with the latest scholarship on the subject, and nuanced analysis. An indispensable guide to understanding the multiple complexities of India today.� Niraja Gopal Jayal, Jawaharlal Nehru University �A crisply written account of key issues in the study of contemporary India. It will be an invaluable resource for scholars and students alike.� Rob Jenkins, City University of New York
