Reinventing India: Liberalization, Hindu Nationalism and Popular Democracy

by Stuart Corbridge, John Harriss

When India was invented as a "modern" country in the years after Independence in 1947 it styled itself as a secular, federal, democratic Republic committed to an ideology of development. Nehru's India never quite fulfilled this promise, but more recently his vision of India has been challenged by two "revolts of the elites": those of economic liberalization and Hindu nationalism. These revolts have been challenged, in turn, by various movements, including those of India's "Backward Classes". These movements have exploited the democratic spaces of India both to challenge for power and to contest prevailing accounts of politics, the state and modernity.

Reinventing India offers an analytical account of the history of modern India and of its contemporary reinvention. Part One traces India's transformation under colonial rule, and the ideas and social forces which underlay the deliberations of the Constituent Assembly in 1946 to consider the shaping of the post-colonial state. Part Two then narrates the story of the making and unmaking of this modern India in the period from 1950 to the present day. It pays attention to both economic and political developments, and engages with the interpretations of India's recent history through key writers such as Francine Frankel, Sudipta Kaviraj and Partha Chatterjee. Part Three consists of chapters on the dialectics of economic reform, religion, the politics of Hindu nationalism, and on popular democracy. These chapters articulate a distinct position on the state and society in India at the end of the century, and they allow the authors to engage with the key debates which concern public intellectuals in contemporary India.

Reinventing India is a lucid and eminently readable account of the transformations which are shaking India more than fifty years after Independence. It will be welcomed by all students of South Asia, and will be of interest to students of comparative politics and development studies.

Genres: India, History

336 pages, Paperback

First published November 29, 2000

Reviews

[Khitkhite Buri]

I wouldn't recommend this wholesale, but it is comprehensive and offers an exhaustive bibliography - it tries to balance various historiographies and only suffers towards the end to do this well. I agree with most of the broader points about structural economic theory as well as subaltern histories/agency - but a concern about federalism pervades this book and that's blandly annoying.

[Jake · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book looks at the connections between the state, Hindutva and liberalisations in India. It is interesting in places, but is largely unimaginably dry (even by the standard of academic political science).

The book is in some ways overambitious and the time period and breadth of themes covered is too much. This leaves the reader struggling to keep up, or confused as the writing is convoluted and at times poorly structured.

I finished this book no tfeeling like I had a good understanding of Corbridge and Hariss's core thesis, just slightly bamboozled by reams and reams of events and opinions from across the spectrum of thought in this area. In this sense it would be a good textbook.

[Brimate · Rating 3 out of 5]

read part of this for an evergreen class (India: Politics of Dance; Dance of Politics)