The Politics of India Since Independence PDF
Preview The Politics of India Since Independence
The first edition of the Politics of India since Independence argued that the Indian state, society, and economy were in the midst of a systemic crisis produced by the centralizing drives of a national leadership determined to transform the country into a modern, industrialized, militarily strong state. In the three years since this edition was published, this crisis has intensified, revealing itself in secessionist movements and in increased inter-caste conflicts. The country has witnessed the rise of Hindu nationalism and the worst communal massacres since Independence following the destruction of the mosque in Ayodhya. The issue before the country now is whether or not it can find within its own traditions the moral and material resources and the leadership to restore a political and communal balance in state and society. THE NEW CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF INDIA The politics of India since Independence THE NEW CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF INDIA General editor GORDON JOHNSON President of Wolfson College, and Director, Centre of South Asian Studies, University of Cambridge Associate editors C. A. BAYLY Vere Harmsworth Professor of Imperial and Naval History, University of Cambridge, and Fellow of St Catharine's College and JOHN F. RICHARDS Professor of History, Duke University Although the original Cambridge History of India, published between 1922 and 1937, did much to formulate a chronology for Indian history and describe the administrative structures of government in India, it has inevitably been overtaken by the mass of new research published over the last fifty years. Designed to take full account of recent scholarship and changing conceptions of South Asia's historical development, The New Cambridge History of India is pubHshed as a series of short, self-contained volumes, each dealing with a separate theme and written by a single person, within an overall four-part structure. The four parts are as follows : I The Mughals and their contemporaries II Indian states and the transition to colonialism III The Indian empire and the beginnings of modern society IV The evolution of contemporary South Asia A list of individual titles already published and in preparation will be found at the end of the volume. THE NEW CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF INDIA IV-1 The politics of India since Independence SECOND EDITION PAULR. BRASS PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL SCIENCE AND SOUTH ASIAN STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, Sao Paulo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York ww w. Cambridge. org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521453622 © Cambridge University Press 1994 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 1990 Reprinted 1991 Second edition 1994 Reprinted 1995, 1996, 1997, 2001 A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data Brass, Paul R. The politics of India since independence / Paul R. Brass. - 2nd ed. p. cm. - (The New Cambridge history of India : IV, 1) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0 521 45362 3. - ISBN (invalid) 0 521 45970 2 (pbk.) 1. India - Politics and government - 1947- I. Title. II. Series. DS480.84.B67 1994 320.954 - dc20 93-30782 CIP ISBN-13 978-0-521-45362-2 hardback ISBN-10 0-521-45362-3 hardback ISBN-13 978-0-521-45970-9 paperback ISBN-10 0-521-45970-2 paperback Transferred to digital printing 2006 For SU, with my love CONTENTS List of figures and tables page x Preface xiii List of abbreviations xvii i Introduction: continuities and discontinuities between pre- and post-Independence India i PART I POLITICAL CHANGE Introduction 31 2 Political change, political structure, and the functioning of government 35 3 Parties and politics 67 4 State and local politics 116 PART II PLURALISM AND NATIONAL INTEGRATION Introduction 151 5 Language problems 157 6 Crises of national unity: Punjab, the northeast, and Kashmir 192 7 Communal and caste conflict: secularism, Hindu nationalism, and the Indian state 228 PART III POLITICAL ECONOMY Introduction 269 8 Politics, economic development, and social change 273 9 Political aspects of agricultural change 303 10 Conclusion: problems and prospects 336 Bibliography 368 Index 387 IX
The list of books you might like
