Remapping India

There is a widespread consensus today that the constitutional flexibility to alter state boundaries has bolstered the stability of India’s democracy. Yet debates persist about whether the creation of more states is desirable. Political parties, regional movements and local activists continue to demand new states in different parts of the country as part of their attempts to reshape political and economic arenas. Remapping India looks at the most recent episode of state creation in 2000, when the states of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand came into being in some of the poorest, yet resource-rich, regions of Hindi-speaking north and central India. Their creation represented a new turn in the history of the country’s territorial organisation. This book explains the politics that lay behind this episode of ‘post-linguistic’ state reorganisation and what it means for the future design of India’s federal system.

This book critically examines the postcolonial canon, questioning both the disproportionate attention to texts written in English and their overuse in attempts to understand the postcolonial condition. The author addresses the non-representation of Indian literature in theory, and the inadequacy of generalizing postcolonial experiences and subjectivities based on literature produced in one language (English). It argues that, while postcolonial scholarship has successfully challenged Eurocentrism, it is now time to extend the dimensions beyond Anglophone and Francophone literatures to include literatures in other languages such as Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Tagalog, and Swahili.

This book is an attempt to find new ways of inter-disciplinary theorisation about this moment when both the unitary idea of the Indian nation and the bureaucratic dream of a centralised Indian state are falling apart. At this juncture, the Indian state has two choices. Either it can recognise the political nature of the struggles confronting it and radically re-imagine itself or it can wage a losing war against the democratic aspirations of people. It is essential that political movements in the subcontinent let go of their differences and organise together to agitate for modernisation. By bringing these disparate struggles together, this book explores the possibility of an alliance between them such that they are able to inform each other against a colonial state. Taken together, this book is thus an experiment in politics, rather than being about specific events. The chapters in this book were originally published in various Taylor & Francis journals.

Majoritarian State traces the ascendance of Hindu nationalism in contemporary India. Led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP administration has established an ethno-religious and populist style of rule since 2014. Its agenda is also pursued beyond the formal branches of government, as the new dispensation portrays conventional social hierarchies as intrinsic to Indian culture while condoning communal and caste- and gender-based violence. The contributors explore how Hindutva ideology has permeated the state apparatus and formal institutions, and how Hindutva activists exert control over civil society via vigilante groups, cultural policing and violence. Groups and regions portrayed as 'enemies' of the Indian state are the losers in a new order promoting the interests of the urban middle class and business elites. As this majoritarian ideology pervades the media and public discourse, it also affects the judiciary, universities and cultural institutions, increasingly captured by Hindu nationalists. Dissent and difference silenced and debate increasingly sidelined as the press is muzzled or intimidated in the courts. Internationally, the BJP government has emphasised hard power and a fast- expanding security state. This collection of essays offers rich empirical analysis and documentation to investigate the causes and consequences of the illiberal turn taken by the world's largest democracy.

This invaluable collection of information provides an in-depth guide to the regional dimension of the politics and economy of this vast and complex country. Incomparable in its coverage, which includes a detailed chronology for India as a whole, a bibliography, contact details for leading officials, and an historical account and economic survey for each of the twenty-nine states and seven territories, it supplies the reader with a more complete understanding of India as a whole.

16. Political Regimes and Economic Reforms: A Study of Bihar and Madhya Pradesh -- Notes on Contributors -- Index

Cover -- Half-title -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- ONE: The Indian State's Capacity to Get Things Done -- TWO: Ascending Major Powers -- STATE CAPACITY -- THREE: Conceptualizing and Measuring State Strength -- FOUR: Extraction and Legitimacy -- FIVE: Violence Monopoly -- STATE-CAPACITY COROLLARIES -- ECONOMIC -- SIX: The Economy -- SEVEN: Infrastructure -- EIGHT: Inequality -- POLITICAL -- NINE: Democratic Institutions -- TEN: Grand Strategy -- ELEVEN: Defense and Security Policies -- SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION -- TWELVE: Ascending India-Its State-Capacity Problems and Prospects -- Notes -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- X -- Y -- Z