More people live with electoral democracy in India than in Europe and the US combined. If we are to understand democracy as a form of government, with its successes and failures, its ability to create peace and development or its ability to falter, create division and give rise to majoritarianism, authoritarian leaders or identitarian movements, we need to understand democracy in India. This intellectually engaging collection of articles is a valued contribution to this endeavour because it challenges us to investigate democracy as an ongoing process, its final goal never defined. The collection has profound lessons not just for understanding India’s democracy but for democracy, political legitimacy and societal capacity world-wide. Arild Engelsen Ruud University of Oslo Contents Preface and acknowledgments List of Tables List of Figures Notes on Contributors Harihar Bhattacharyya: Introduction: Democracy, More Questions, Few Answers Chapter 1 Subrata K Mitra: Citizenship in India: the puzzling resilience of an imported concept Chapter 2 Sudipta Kaviraj: Two Concepts of Democracy and the Left in West Bengal Chapter 3 Sobhanlal Datta Gupta: Revisioning the Left in today's India : Towards an alternative understanding Chapter 4 Surajit Ch. Mukhopadhyay: The Right and the Left: Contemporary India and the crises in Indian Democracy Chapter 5 Kaushik Bhattacharya: Independent Candidates in Lok Sabha Elections Chapter 6 Sumantra Bhattacharya: Political Marketing in India: How Political Parties in India Make Use of the Marketing Tools Chapter 7 Sukanta Bhattacharyya: Limits of Positive Discrimination in India’s Localities: Does it signal a failure of India’s Democracy? Chapter 8 Bibhas Bagchi: For a Radical Democracy: Understanding and Contesting Hierarchies in India Chapter 9 Syeda Layla Khaled: Muslim Women in India: Between Democratic Citizenship and Muslim Identity Chapter 10 Abhisek Karmakar: The Making of India’s Democracy Discourse: Contributions of Dwarakanath Vidyabhusan Chapter 11 Sahon Bhattacharyya:Reappraising the value of the traditional: Indian social ontology beyond the Western episteme Chapter 12 Joyjit Ghosh: Symptomatic Politics, Asymptomatic Media in India Chapter 13 Harihar Bhattacharyya: Indian Democracy’s Civil and Political Society: A critique of Partha Chatterjee Appendices 1. Jyotirmay Bhattacharya: A short Biography of late Kalyan K Bhattacharya 2. Kalyani Bhattacharyya: Kalyan Bhattacharya: A Reminiscence 3. Writings of Kalyan Bhattacharyya: (re-reprinted) a. Sociology of Inequalities: Bankim Chandra’s Essay on Samya (1992) (pp. 85-107) Journal of Socio-Political Studies, Vol 1, 1992. b. Bhudev and Modernity: Nationalism and Beyond (2007) (pp. 30-45) Index Learn More