Search

This book elaborates the politico-ideological viewpoints of Aurobindo, as displayed when he reigned as one of the major nationalist leaders defining Indian nationalism. Bidyut Chakrabarty examines Aurobindo's politico-ideological ideas during the period (1893-1910) when he was an active participant in the'New Nationalist'or'Democratic Nationalist'campaign, which started with the bifurcation of the Indian National Congress between the Moderates and Extremists (also known as the Revolutionary Nationalists) in its 1907 annual session, held at Surat.Chapters cover Aurobindo's distinctive ideas of nationalism, which he evolved in collaboration with his colleagues, especially Lal-Bal-Pal (Lala Lajpat Rai, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, and Bipin Chandra Pal), and how he redefined the practice of nationalism. The book also demonstrates that unlike his predecessors, the Moderates, Aurobindo set out many strategies - including boycott and passive resistance - to execute the distinctive plan he designed to attain his politico-ideological goal. Other topics include the relatively less discussed aspect of Aurobindo's socio-political ideas, namely his unique model of education as an antidote to many of the crippling socio-cultural prejudices, and the importance of Bhagavad Gita in shaping Aurobindo's politico-ideological priorities.

This book presents a comprehensive portrait of how Indians conceived of the idea of India. It highlights the diverse traditions and intellectual threads that contributed to the making of vibrant democracy.The book:• Examines the different ideas of India through 14 eminent Indian thinkers: Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, Dayanand Saraswati, VD Savarkar, Savitribai Phule, Pandita Ramabai, Maulana Azad, Jawaharlal Nehru, BR Ambedkar, Subhash Chandra Bose, Aurobindo Ghosh, Sarala Devi Chaudhurani and MA Jinnah;• Highlights how ancient and modern intellectual discourses coalesced with the aspirations of ordinary Indians under the yoke of colonialism;• Challenges colonial constructs and linear approaches to studying India.Accessibly written, this book is essential reading for students and researchers of Indian political thought, modern history, political science, and South Asian studies.

This biographical account situates the unfolding of the life of an educator in varied socio-economic contexts. It is not just a narrative of how an individual evolves but also analyses how a particular mindset develops by being dialectically entwined with the milieu in which one passes different stages of their life. At one level, it is a historical narrative since it deals with a particular period of human history critical to the growth of a specific individual. At another, it provides ethnographic inputs to those who want to understand the peculiarities of the twentieth century. It offers first-hand accounts of the nature of transformative politics which evolved at the behest of Naxalites in India; it also has obvious twists and turns as the individual is exposed to a world beyond India. So, the narrative is individualistic, and it has elements of influences acquired through exposure to an alien socio-cultural milieu. Apart from its analytical importance, this memoir provides a very realistic assessment of India's education system through the lens of an educator and an academician.

This book explores Tagore's socio-political ideas through his novels, short stories, and essays. It looks at Tagore beyond his literary achievements and examines his notions of friendship, religion, nationalism, civilization, and knowledge. It highlights his uniquely textured and innovatively argued views on critical aspects of humanity in the tumultuous phase of Indian nationalist campaign that also witnessed a kaleidoscope of myriad ideological voices, besides the hegemonic mainstream nationalist campaign, led by Gandhi. It captures the bard's creative ideational priorities and his attempts to radically transform the prevalent socio-economic and politico-cultural environment.The volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of history, politics, literature, and South Asian studies.

This textbook is essential reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students of Public Administration, Political Science and UPSC aspirants. Lucid, accessible and student-friendly Public Administration in India: Familiarizes students with the theory, practice and evolution of Indian administration through contextual analysis Adopts a multi-disciplinary approach in discussing the traditional and emerging issues of the Indian administration Focuses on the processes of administration with reference to their constitutional provisions as well as socio-economic and political contexts; and Highlights new issues and challenges in the field of public administration in India through critical analysis of its growth and development since Independence This book will be key reading for the candidates appearing for various civil service examinations as well as for students and researchers of political science and public administration.

«Bidyut Chakrabarty's Nationalizing India constitutes exactly what the subtitle states: ‘a creative blending of derivative and indigenous traditions.'In this context, two central themes are developed: first, that Indian nationalist thinkers redefined the entire concept of nationalism in a unique and ingenious manner, unprecedented in the long intellectual history of the idea. They built a united front against a common adversary by eliciting the fundamental civilizational amity forged in unison for gaining India's emancipation.Second, as an outstanding and prolific scholar in this field, professor Chakrabarty explores relatively unknown innovative nationalist figures to demonstrate that the advent of nationalist thought was a collective endeavor of myriad figures, a unity in diversity. This is another brilliant study by Chakrabarty that merits inclusion among the finest works on nationalism.» (Dennis Dalton, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Barnard College, Columbia University, USA) Dwelling on how nationalization was conceptualized by major Indian nationalist thinkers, this book breaks a new ground in contemporary studies on nationalism. In contrast with the Western notion of nationalism, this book provides an appropriate model of nationalizing India with reference to the creative writings of Rabindranath Tagore, Aurobindo Ghose, Sarala Devi Chaudhurani and Nazrul Islam. This book is a powerful intervention in the available scholarship which shows that nationalization needs to be comprehended differently in the context of India since underlying a collective India is a civilizational bond unique to Afro-Asian countries.

This textbook is a comprehensive, student-friendly guide to public policy in India. It highlights the critical aspects of public policy-making and its implementation by contextualizing it in the Indian historical and modern-day perspective. Public Policy in India: • Provides lucid explanations of theoretical aspects of public policy and its practice in the Indian context; • Captures the complexities in making, implementing and evaluating public policy; • Studies the dialectical interconnection that public policy has with the socio-economic and political environment; • Highlights the influence of culture on public policy; and • Analyses public policy as an outcome of a very complex contextual dialogue involving various kinds of actors. Accessibly written, this book covers a range of university syllabi and will be essential reading for students and researchers of political science and public administration. It will also be indispensable for civil service examinations, including the UPSC.

Humanizing Humanity is distinctively framed advocacy of the ways in which the concept of humanity has been defended by various ideologues of India like Tagore, Gandhi, and Ambedkar. By grounding itself in the epistemology of intellectual history, the book delineates how these three major thinkers visualised the ways in which society can be better humanized. Such a process of humanization for these thinkers forms the bedrock of the trajectory in which humanity may be preserved, amidst intense authoritarianism and the violent quest for power by a small minority in the society. The book is an attempt at exploring the strands of inter-textuality that exist when Tagore, Gandhi and Ambedkar's thinking is situated in the ontic and epistemic context of a few humans'tendency to destroy humanity and the efforts of another section to create conditions for its preservation. Bidyut Chakrabarty does this by comparing the ways in which the Federalist Papers of the United States of America and the Indian Constitution manifest as quintessential texts that uphold the principles of liberty, equality, justice, and the protection of the weaker sections of society from structured strands of domination and exploitation.

This textbook is a comprehensive, student-friendly guide to understanding the fundamentals of public administration. It examines the recent developments and relevant theoretical underpinnings in an accessible manner.Public Administration: Helps students grasp key dialectical interconnections between theoretical conceptualizations and prevalent socio-economic and political circumstances Provides understanding of issues in governance Analyses significant transformations in civil society and administrative set-ups across the world Highlights the contributions of non-Western thinkers in the development of conceptual ideas of the discipline Accessibly written, it caters to a wide range of university syllabi in public administration and will be essential for students and researchers of political science, public policy and public administration. It will also be particularly useful for those preparing for the civil service examinations.

Rabindranath Tagore and Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi constitute the key pillars of Indian nationalist thought. In this book Bidyut Chakrabarty demonstrates how Tagore and Gandhi drew on each other as they articulated their unique mode of thinking, which led to an innovative discourse. Tagore and Gandhi agreed on many ideas but also had serious differences on quite a few, for instance, on whether to support the British during the Boer War.Confluence of Thought brings out the compatibility as well as the differences in their thoughts by asserting that both of them, despite their differences in approach, are essentially informed and shaped by Western and indigenous discourses as well as by colonial rule.The chapters in the volume dwell on their views on nationalism, civilisation, religion, rural construction and religion. These ideas and arguments moulded the freedom struggle and shaped the future of a free India.

This volume examines the distinct structural characteristics of Indian politics and unearths significant sociopolitical and economic processes which are critical to the political articulation of governance in the country. It reflects on the foundational values of Indian polity, the emergence of the nation post-colonialism, the structural fluidity of federalism in India, and the changing nature of the planning process in the country. The book also studies the electoral processes, social movements, party system, local and state governance. Apart from analyzing corruption and public grievance systems, the volume also probes into significant issues in Indian politics.This book will be useful to the students, researchers and faculty working in the field of political science, public administration, political sociology, political economy and post-colonial contemporary Indian politics in particular. It will also be an invaluable and interesting reading for those interested in South Asian studies.

By focusing on the socio-political ideas of the nationalist Aurobindo Ghosh (1872-1950), the book is an analytical dissection of his ideational vision which is still a relatively under-studied area of nationalist thoughts. During the perod, 1893-1910, Ghosh radically altered the texture of Indian nationalism by dwelling on how nationalism flourished in different parts of India, particularly, Japan, Italy and Ireland. conceptually different from the prevalent form of nationalist voice, it was he who clearly charted out a new course for anti-British campaign that fully unfolded with the appearance of Gandhi (1869-1948) on the Indian political scene. So, Aurobindo's politico-ideological vision ushered in a new era in the nationalist battle for India's political emancipation. Not only is the book therefore an intervention in the nationalist thought, but also devised new conceptual parameters for comprehending the radicalization of politico-ideological voices while simultaneously mobilizing those who were ready to make supreme sacrifices for the cause.

This book is an unconventional articulation of the political thinking in India in a refreshingly creative manner in more than one way. Empirically, the book becomes innovative by providing an analytically more grasping contextual interpretation of Indian political thought that evolved during the nationalist struggle against colonialism. Insightfully, it attempts to unearth the hitherto unexplored yet vital subaltern strands of political thinking in India as manifested through the mode of numerous significant socio-economic movements operating side by side and sometimes as part of the mainstream nationalist movement. This book articulates the main currents of Indian political thought by locating the text and themes of the thinkers within the socio-economic and politico-cultural contexts in which such ideas were conceptualised and articulated.The book also tries to analytically grasp the influences of the various British constitutional devices that appeared as the responses of the colonial government to redress the genuine socio-economic grievances of the various sections of Indian society. The book breaks new ground in not only articulating the main currents of Indian political thought in an analytically more sound approach of context-driven discussion but also provokes new research in the field by charting a new course in grasping and articulating the political thought in India.This volume will be useful to the students, researchers and faculty working in the fields of political science, political sociology, political economy and post-colonial contemporary Indian politics in particular. It will also be an invaluable and interesting reading for those interested in South Asian studies.

Rabindranath Tagore's Ideational Challenges is an analytical attempt to show that Rabindranath Tagore in his own unique style raised some troublesome sociocultural issues that constrained the attainment of the politico-ideological objectives that the nationalists espoused. His creative texts were not merely literary articulation of the issues but were powerful responses to the prevalent conceptual parameters on which humanity rested. Although the poet did not appear to have made such a claim, his writings dealt with politico-ideologically innovative ideas about human diversity that naturally fl­ourished in the Indian subcontinent. By approaching the pertinent sociocultural and politico-ideological issues from a literary perspective, the poet seemingly refashioned the dominant views on humanity.The selected novels and short stories in this book represent a distinct voice explicit in the politico-ideological message. Keeping this in view, each chapter is an articulation of the views that Rabindranath championed while contributing to ushering in a new vision based on his perception of well-entrenched sociocultural values of the time.

Rabindranath Tagore's Ideational Challenges is an analytical attempt to show that Rabindranath Tagore in his own unique style raised some troublesome sociocultural issues that constrained the attainment of the politico-ideological objectives that the nationalists espoused. His creative texts were not merely literary articulation of the issues but were powerful responses to the prevalent conceptual parameters on which humanity rested. Although the poet did not appear to have made such a claim, his writings dealt with politico-ideologically innovative ideas about human diversity that naturally fl­ourished in the Indian subcontinent. By approaching the pertinent sociocultural and politico-ideological issues from a literary perspective, the poet seemingly refashioned the dominant views on humanity.The selected novels and short stories in this book represent a distinct voice explicit in the politico-ideological message. Keeping this in view, each chapter is an articulation of the views that Rabindranath championed while contributing to ushering in a new vision based on his perception of well-entrenched sociocultural values of the time.

The three Tagores represent three different eras of British colonialism in India; beginning with Dwarkanath, born in 1794, and ending with his grandson Rabindranath, who died in 1941. The Three Tagores, Dwarkanath, Debendranath and Rabindranath: India in Transition analyses the history of the modern British period of undivided Bengal in setting of the three Tagores. Rather than providing a biographical study of the three most pivotal figures of the Tagore family, this work sees their lives as a prism through which to understand the complex unfolding of India's socio-economic and cultural milieu during the onset, high-noon and decline of colonial rule in India. Limning the experiences and activities of the three Tagores with reference to the contexts in which they lived, this work offers the missing link in our understanding of renaissance in India.

Electoral Dynamism of Indian Politics: Deciphering the Enigma explores Indian politics through the prism of electoral landmarks. It studies the substantive contribution of elections towards the strengthening of democratic institutions and consolidation of the democratic process in the country. Looking at elections that left an indelible mark on the Indian political landscape and radically transformed the country's democracy, this book studies the national elections with reference to how voters exercise their franchise. It also emphasizes that voting behaviour cannot be understood in a purely theoretical format as it is context-dependent and subject to constant change. Furthermore, it evaluates the outcomes and implications of these elections that brought certain political issues and forces to the centre-stage. In a country where the electoral process demonstrates the strength (or lack thereof) of the democratic will, it becomes crucial to understand elections, and by extension, the spirit of democracy.

Rabindranath Tagore, an icon of humanism and universalism who always privileged India's argumentative traditions, remains a source of inspiration for humanity. However, Tagore's social and political ideas appear to have received inadequate attention presumably because of the hegemonic influence of derivative Western ideas and thoughts. This is where Tagore stands out, not only as a poet but also a visionary who charted a course of action in tune with human betterment, cutting across all kinds of man-made barriers and customary restrictive social, economic and political practices. Socio-political Thought of Rabindranath Tagore presents a comprehensive and detailed analysis of the socio-political, socio-economic and ideological preference of Tagore, with emphasis on nationalistic, inclusive and gender development ideas. It shows that Tagore's socio-political ideas continue to remain relevant not merely as a package for intellectual rejuvenation but also as a meaningful device for socio-economic transformation for the world.

Politics, Ideology and Nationalism: Jinnah, Savarkar and Ambedkar versus Gandhi is a new argument based on familiar historical evidences. It discusses three leaders—Savarkar, Ambedkar and Jinnah—in their opposition to Gandhiboth in terms of ideology as well as social and political discourse. Although there are biographical works and other notable publications on them, none of these attempt to engage in contrasting their ideology and practices on a common platform. This book examines Gandhi and Savarkar–Ambedkar–Jinnah's commonality of opposition and their differing ideas of modernity. All three of them saw Gandhi as the biggest hurdle to the projects that they conceived. The book explores how these differences went beyond politics and shaped the contours of Indian politics during the 1930s and 1940s, and continue to affect it even today.

Although the adoption of a democratic system of government based on universal adult franchise has been considered a gamble on the part of the fathers of the Indian constitution, it has undoubtedly paid rich dividends in terms of establishing India as one of the most vibrant democracies in the world. Reconceptualizing Indian Democracy adopts a new prism in analysing the institutional vibrancy and functional dynamism of democratic experiences in India. It suggests that elections are not only mechanisms that change the political guard, but also devices for reconceptualizing the politico-constitutional fabric on which the Indian polity rests. Among the different factors that have made democracy a way of life for Indian people, elections, particularly the Lok Sabha elections, stand out prominently. In the first four general elections, the electorate appeared duty bound to vote for the Congress, but the 5th Lok Sabha elections saw a real churning in the political psyche of the common people. The book, thus, begins with an exploration of the 5th Lok Sabha elections and comprehensively studies each of the general elections from the 5th (1971) to the 17th (2019). By directing attention to the processes changing the texture of Indian democracy, the book highlights the inputs that democratic experiences in India offer to both the literature on democracy and to democratic experiences across the world.

Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (1891–1956), popularly known as Babasaheb stands out for his relentless battle against caste discrimination. He was a voice for the marginalized of India's demography that remained peripheral due to well-entrenched socio-economic and political prejudices.This book is an analytical account of how Ambedkar's socio-political ideas evolved as part of his wider politico-ideological challenge against self-motivated designs for exploitation of human beings by human beings. The author contends that it was an ideological discourse that he built in a context when dominant nationalist viewpoints seem to have hardly left space for any other discourse to grow. The book argues that Ambedkar's socio-political ideas were an outcome of his personal experiences of social atrocities which were justified as integral to the caste system. The book comprises six substantial chapters which delve into the socio-political ideas of BR Ambedkar, concentrating on those sets of ideas through which he established his claim as an original thinker in opposition to the dominant nationalist discourse. Unlike the most conventional studies of Ambedkar's thoughts and ideas, the book provides a new methodological tool to decipher their conceptual roots. It is therefore argued that Babasaheb's unique conceptualization of social justice was not just an outcome of his existential existence of being a Dalit, but an offshoot of his own understanding of liberalism as a mode of emancipating human beings from shackles of authority, power and domination.Examining Ambedkar's ideas, the book charts and examines the growth and consolidation of constitutional democracy in India since it was inaugurated with the acceptance of the 1950 Constitution. It will be of interest to scholars in the fields of Indian political theory, South Asian politics and history.

An analysis of selective aspects of India's constitutional identity, this book provides an analytical account of the changing and changed texture of India's constitutional identity bearing in mind the historical context in which it is articulated.The book conceptualizes the gradual evolution of an idea by tracing the history of India's constitutionalism with reference to its conceptual roots, historical antecedents and the landmark judicial pronouncements in which the concern for its retention and protection is always privileged. The author examines specific constitutional designs that the 1950 Constitution of India put in place and argues that constitutional identity, despite being drawn on specific constitutional provisions, is also changeable in view of the rapidly transforming socio-economic milieu. He demonstrates that there are numerous instances where India's constitutional identity has undergone a metamorphosis in circumstances where newer politico-ideological values and norms are privileged. A valuable addition to the literature on constitutionalism and constitutional practices in general and their manifestation in India's democratic experiences, in particular, this book will be of interest to academics in the fields of Government, Political Science, Law and Jurisprudence, Constitutional and Legal History and Asian Studies.

This book offers an in-depth study of right-wing politics in India by analysing the shifting ideologies of Hindu nationalism and its evolution in the late nineteenth century through to twenty-first century.The authors provide a thorough overview of the chronological evolution of Hindu nationalist organizational outfits to reveal how Hindu nationalist ideology has adapted in ways that have not always corresponded with the orthodox Hindu nationalist position. An examination of the overriding preference for Hindu nationalism demonstrates how it has flourished and continues to remain relevant in contemporary India despite being marginalized at the dawn of India's independence. The book demonstrates that Hindu nationalism is a context-driven ideological device which is sensitive to the ideas and priorities that gradually gain salience. It also explores Hindu nationalism as a vote-catching device, especially from the late twentieth century onwards. Providing a nuanced analysis of Hindu nationalism in India as a constantly evolving phenomenon, this book will be of interest to researchers on Asian political theory, nationalism, religious politics and South Asian and Indian politics.