When India was invented as a "modern" country in the years afterIndependence in 1947 it styled itself as a secular, federal,democratic Republic committed to an ideology of development.Nehru's India never quite fulfilled this promise, but more recentlyhis vision of India has been challenged by two "revolts of theelites": those of economic liberalization and Hindu nationalism.These revolts have been challenged, in turn, by various movements,including those of India's "Backward Classes". These movements haveexploited the democratic spaces of India both to challenge forpower and to contest prevailing accounts of politics, the state andmodernity.Reinventing India offers an analytical account of thehistory of modern India and of its contemporary reinvention. PartOne traces India's transformation under colonial rule, and theideas and social forces which underlay the deliberations of theConstituent Assembly in 1946 to consider the shaping of thepost-colonial state. Part Two then narrates the story of the makingand unmaking of this modern India in the period from 1950 to thepresent day. It pays attention to both economic and politicaldevelopments, and engages with the interpretations of India'srecent history through key writers such as Francine Frankel,Sudipta Kaviraj and Partha Chatterjee. Part Three consists ofchapters on the dialectics of economic reform, religion, thepolitics of Hindu nationalism, and on popular democracy. Thesechapters articulate a distinct position on the state and society inIndia at the end of the century, and they allow the authors toengage with the key debates which concern public intellectuals incontemporary India.Reinventing India is a lucid and eminently readableaccount of the transformations which are shaking India more thanfifty years after Independence. It will be welcomed by all studentsof South Asia, and will be of interest to students of comparativepolitics and development studies.

Acknowledgements.Abbreviations.Glossary.Map 1 Territorial growth of the East India Company, to 1843.Map 2 Contemporary India.Preface.Part 1: The Invention of Modern India.Chapter 1: The Light of Asia? India in 1947.Chapter 2: 'Sovereign, Democratic, Federal, Socialist, Secular':the Invention of Modern India.Part Two: Contesting Modernity.Chapter 3: the 'Tall Men' and the 'Third way': Nehru, Patel andthe Building of Modern India.Chapter 4: Jealous Populism, Crises and Instability: Indira'sIndia.Chapter 5: Drifting Towards Catastrophe: The Powerlessness ofthe Congress.Chapter 6: 'Elite Revolts': Reforming and Reinventing India inthe 1990s.Part Three: The Reinvention of India.Chapter 7: The Dialectics of Reform: the State and EconomicLiberalization.Chapter 8: The Guilty men? Militant Hinduism and the Politics ofAnti-Secularism.Chapter 9: Transfers of Power? Subaltern Politics, Sites ofEmpowerment and the Reshaping of India's Democracy.Chapter 10: Conclusion.Notes.References.Index