Politics and the State in India: 3 (Readings in Indian Government and Politics series)

Examining the processes of state formation and consolidation, and the erosion of the post-colonial state, this book highlights three themes: the constraints of modernization; the contradictory logic of modernization vis-a-vis assertive political identities; and the politics of the governed and the battle for equal status at the level of the state. It sees the present crisis of the Indian state as a direct result of the post-colonial state′s inability to grapple with the social and multicultural realities of the Indian polity, thus making way for various religious, caste and regional frictions to surface. Cover Page 1 Title Page 3 Copyright Page 4 Contents 5 Preface 7 Acknowledgements 8 1. Introduction: The Political Career of the State in Independent India 10 Part: I 34 2. The Modern State in India 35 3. The Political Culture of the Indian State 61 4. The Social Character of the Indian State 86 Part: II 109 5. Development Planning and the Indian State 110 6. The State in India's Economic Development 136 7. The Political Economy of Reform in India 151 Part: III 167 8. The Decline of the Moderate State 168 9. Centralization and Powerlessness: India's Democracy in a Comparative Perspective 196 Part: IV 219 10. Decline of a Social Order 220 11. Changing Terms of Elite Discourse: The Case of Reservation for ‘Other Backward Classes’ 233 12. Religion and Politics in a Secular State: Law, Community and Gender 255 Part: V 275 13. ‘I am the Government Labour Officer...’: State Protection for the Rural Proletariat of South Gujarat 276 14. Blurred Boundaries: The Discourse of Corruption, the Culture of Politics and the Imagined State 312 About the Editor and Contributors 358 Index Keywords 360 Examining the processes of state formation and consolidation, and the erosion of the post-colonial state, this book argues that the present crisis of the Indian state is a direct result of the post-colonial state's inability to grapple with the social and multicultural realities of the Indian polity, thus allowing various religious, caste and regional frictions to surface