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INDIA SINCE 1980. World Since 1980. By Sumit Ganguly, Rahul Mukherji. Cambridge [UK]; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011. xii, 201 pp. US$27.99, paper. ISBN 978-0-521-67804-9.
The book under discussion is part of a series that examines political, economic and social developments in countries undergoing change over the last three decades. Other countries examined in the series are Brazil, Mexico, Russia and the US, so including both developed and developing countries. The central focus in this volume is on the challenges faced by India since the early 1980s, when with the assassination of first Mrs Indira Gandhi and later of Rajiv Gandhi, it entered the post-Nehruvian era. At independence India, unlike many other countries undergoing de-colonization, decided to experiment with both democracy and development. Many of the policies of the Nehru period-marked by stable single party governance-have been swept aside and remarkable transformations have occurred over the last three decades. The aim of the authors is to examine how India has coped with the enormous challenges and, at times, crises it has faced during this period.
The authors analyze four closely related "transformative revolutions" and their impact on India's future: political mobilization, secularism, foreign policy and economic policy making. Priority is accorded, quite correctly, by the authors to political mobilization, a long-term, central driving force responsible for numerous changes. It has led to political consciousness among the lower castes/classes and social deepening of democracy; a new social order which is the cumulative result of a rise in literacy, voter turnout and widening exposure to mass media; and has contributed substantially...