India Today admirably captures this tension between progress and
inertia, and provides a readable synthesis of contemporary India’s politics,
economics, and society. As the authors write, “India today is a scene of great
change. But it is hard not to be struck as well by how much has not changed” .The book is
cleverly structured around 14 interesting and timely questions.
It is easy to be awestruck by the sweeping changes that have
transformed India’s political economy in recent decades. India’s economy, once
rooted in autarky and socialism, has embraced market capitalism. Politics are
no longer monopolized by the Congress party; instead, there is robust political
competition at the national, state, and local levels. India’s society has also
made great strides, as traditionally disadvantaged groups have successfully
clamored for greater political voice. These changes, paradoxically, are taking
place amidst a great deal of continuity. Economic reforms are a work in
progress, with the state reluctant to fully relinquish its reins.
In essence, each chapter is a self‐contained literature review, guiding readers through the most‐seminal pieces on a given
topic. The authors do well to avoid monocausal explanations of complex
phenomena.
Finally,
the chapter titled “Does India Have a Civil Society?” suffers from excessive
jargon and is not in keeping with the book’s overall accessibility.
This book is highly recommended for
comparative political scientists as well as members of the broader public
interested in the great debates taking place in India today
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