India’s growing economic and socio-political importance on the global stage has triggered an increased interest in the country. This Handbook is a reference guide, which surveys the current state of Indian politics and provides a basic understanding of the ways in which the world’s largest democracy functions.

1. Introduction: Politics in India Part 1: Political Change 2. The Historical Inheritance of India’s Democracy 3. Gandhi’s India, the World’s Gandhi; Gandhi at Home and in the World 4. Nehru and his Legacy 5. India’s Minority Leaders 6. Panchayati Raj Institutions 7. The Changing Fortunes of the Bharatiya Janata Party 8. Regional and Caste Parties 9. Caste and Political Parties in India: Do Indians vote their Caste – while Casting their vote? 10. Dalit Politics: Untouchability, Identity and Assertion 11. Class Politics in India: Euphemization, Voting, and Power 12. Reservations 13. The State and Civil Society in Communal Violence: Sparks and Fires 14. Insurgencies in India 15. People’s Movements in India Part 2: Political Economy 16. India’s Economic Development 17. The State and the Capitalist Class in India 18. Politics and Redistribution in India 19. Corruption in India 20. Public Goods Provision and Social Development in India 21. Labor Regulation, Trade Unions and Unemployment Part 3: Diversity of Regional Developments 22. Uttar Pradesh: New Patterns of Mobilization in the 1990s and Beyond 23. Kerala in Comparative Perspective: Movements, Politics and Democracy 24. Tamil Nadu Adam 25. West Bengal 26. Bihar Part 4: India and the World 27. India and the World: The Vicissitudes of Mutual Adjustment 28. India in Asia: Geostrategic and Economic Considerations 29. The Indo-Pakistani Conflict 30. India and Nuclear Weapons 31. India's Evolving Security Strategy 32. International Migration and its Consequences for India

This coedited handbook navigates major themes of Indian history to explain Indian politics, political-economy, regional development, and India’s role in international relations. The analysis in part 1 covers the context of India’s colonization; key Indian leaders and their legacies; the dynamics of India’s political institutions centering on democracy, centralization-decentralization, ideologies of nationalism, secularism, and Hindu fundamentalism; and the "politics of empowerment" within India’s lower caste system. In part 2 contributors address India’s political economy, namely, its shift from a "reluctant" to an "enthusiastic" pro-capitalist state, and assert that this shift (evidenced in a "state-capital alliance" and the growing power of business groups) leaves much to be done in the areas of poverty removal, land redistribution, primary education, and public health. Part 3 addresses the diversity of India’s regional development involving roles of some "neo-patrimonial" governments and "authority structures" in this process. Part 4 analyzes India’s role in the regional and world arena (including international migration and its consequences for India) through the lens of India’s colonial past, nationalist, and world visions—which are also being shaped by ideational and structural factors of strategic interdependence. In pointing to new directions of thinking and research in these contexts, the handbook shows how power distribution in the society is constantly being negotiated and renegotiated.--R. Das, University of Minnesota-Duluth Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.