Full Description
This book presents a sociological interpretation of the emergence of modernity in India via the colonial encounter, and its ramifications for Indian society, economy, and polity. It outlines the main features of modernity and the Western context in which it was defined, both in classical and later sociological works, as well as the Western roots of India's development project after independence. The Eurocentric origins of modernity in India are summarised, along with the challenges it has posed in the political realm in the building of a pan-Indian or national consciousness, and in the emergence of dominant caste politics and regional and regionalistic parties to counter what was perceived to be an elite and marginalising project to modernise the Indian nation. It describes the trajectory that the Indian economy has undertaken from state-supported capitalism at the time of independence to market-centric neoliberalism by the 1990s, and the effects of this trajectory on both rural and urban India. The dominating role of both the 'old' and the 'new' middle classes as formidable cultural forces and the heterogeneous character of the latter, as a result of the upward mobility that has been underway since independence, are also summarised, as are the debates around the ever-imminent breakup of the Indian family and its implications for women and the elderly. It ends by outlining the history and persistence of various economic and cultural forms of social exclusion in contemporary India. This book would be useful for students, researchers, and teachers of sociology, history, political science, and interdisciplinary courses in the social sciences, such as modern Indian studies.
Contents
List of figures vii
List of boxes viii
Preface ix
1 Understanding modernity: An outline of the main sociological perspectives 1
2 The colonial encounter in India: Towards a complex modernity 24
3 Conceptualizing development: The early modernisation model 47
4 India after independence: Community, identity, and nation 70
5 From village factions to regional parties: The democratising of caste in the field of electoral politics 93
6 Village India: From colonial idea to capitalist takeover 116
7 Public sector, LPG, and workers' struggles: An outline of the impact of state-driven capitalism on the working class 141
8 The middle class in India: Its colonial, post-independent, and contemporary forms 164
9 The family and the household: Changing social dynamics 185
10 The economic and cultural dimensions of social exclusion in India: Definitions, history, and contemporary practices 209
Index 232
