Constitutional Law (Books and Journals)

• Studies in Indian Politics

The article focuses on the subaltern system of micro appropriations or Jugaads used by young Kashmiris to survive within precarious situations inflicted due to armed conflict. More particularly, it argues that such Jugaads are invoked by the subaltern consciousness of Tehreeq-e-Azadi, which offers space for not just the negotiation with the state but also the creative improvisation of daily...

• Studies in Indian Politics

Elizabeth Chatterjee and Matthew McCartney, eds. Class and Conflict: Revisiting Pranab Bardhan’s Political Economy of India. Delhi: Oxford University Press. 2019. 299 pages. ₹1,395

• Studies in Indian Politics

Stemming essentially from D. L. Sheth and the work embodied in his 1999 essay ‘Secularisation of Caste and Making of New Middle Class’, the article attempts to outline the pathways for an alternative engagement with caste and politics. In perspective is what is termed the ‘triumphalist’ mode of encountering caste identities; and, along this course, the extant possibilities of the constructivist...

• Studies in Indian Politics

Scholars have long theorized on the limits of patronage politics and the possibility of counter-mobilization it produces against clientelist strategies. Analysing the recent win of the Aam Aadmi Party in the 2020 Assembly election in Delhi, this article shows that programmatic policies of welfare can help parties to circumvent this trap and avoid targeted patronage networks. We find that this...

• Studies in Indian Politics

This article contests the conventional view that the ‘Depressed Classes’ lost out on representation by agreeing to joint electorates in the Poona Pact. It analyses the results of the elections to the provincial legislatures in British India that took place in 1936–1937 and 1945–1946 under the Government of India Act, 1935, to concretely appraise the working of the Poona Pact. The article argues...

• Studies in Indian Politics

Sanjib Baruah, In the Name of the Nation (New Delhi: Navayana Publishers, 2020), 278 pp. ₹599.

• Studies in Indian Politics

Shirin M. Rai and Carole Spary. Performing Representation: Women Members in the Indian Parliament. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. 2019. 398 pages. ₹995.

• Studies in Indian Politics

The article focuses on two moments in India’s political history, in which out-rightly expressed dissent underlines analytical shifts in the nature and course of the country’s democracy. It asks two questions: First, what does a self-proclaimed, democratic state do with peaceful dissenting artists? The second question follows from this. If indeed the state stigmatizes and suppresses that dissent,...

• Studies in Indian Politics

• Studies in Indian Politics

• Studies in Indian Politics

The common association of political trust, legitimacy and participation within democratic states has engaged scholars to answer questions like: what are the bases of trusting the state and its institutions? And how enculturing trust can strengthen democratic governance? In this direction, institutional trust, which is invariably linked to political legitimacy, is critical to measure the health of

• Studies in Indian Politics

‘We, the people’ is the most popular phrase from the constitutions. In spite of the fact that the number of countries including preamble as part of their constitution has been on the rise, preambles have received scant attention in academia. The importance of preambles has been established in multiple studies yet preambles have been looked at in isolation from socio-economic-environmental...

• Studies in Indian Politics

Florian Matthey-Prakash, The Right to Education in India: The Importance of Enforceability of a Fundamental Right (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2019), 446 pp. ₹1,495.

• Studies in Indian Politics

• Studies in Indian Politics

On 1 November 1947, Harekrushna Mahtab, premier of Orissa, British/independent India’s youngest province, wrote a letter to Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. This was in reply to the first of Nehru’s famous letters to the provincial chiefs. In it, Nehru had expressed his wish to read similarly from them and Mahtab responded in kind. For the next 2 years, Mahtab wrote to Nehru, before leaving...

• Studies in Indian Politics

• Studies in Indian Politics

• Studies in Indian Politics

Devesh Kapur and Madhav Khosla (Eds.), Regulation in India: Design, Capacity, Performance (New Delhi: Bloomsbury, 2019), 407 pp. ₹739. ISBN 978-93-88630-66-5.

• Studies in Indian Politics

Paul Wallace (Ed.), India’s 2019 Elections: The Hindutva Wave and Indian Nationalism (New Delhi: SAGE Publications, 2020), 428 pp. ₹1,395 (Hardback). ISBN: 978-93-5388-244-0.

• Studies in Indian Politics

• Studies in Indian Politics

• Studies in Indian Politics

Jyotiprasad Chatterjee and Suprio Basu. Left Front and After: Understanding the Dynamics of Poriborton in West Bengal. New Delhi, India: Sage. 2020. 255 pages. ₹1,195. Suman Nath. People-Party-Policy Interplay in India: Micro-dynamics of Everyday Politics in West Bengal, c. 2008–2016. New Delhi, India: Routledge. 2020. 221 pages. ₹995.

• Studies in Indian Politics

Ujjwal Kumar Singh and Anupama Roy. Election Commission of India: Institutionalising Democratic Uncertainties. New Delhi, India: Oxford University Press. 2019. 366 pages. ₹1,100.

• Studies in Indian Politics

This ethnographic account chronicles the journey of one of the largest anti-government protests since India’s independence. It examines the pivotal role of students—initially activists and then first-time participants—in crystallizing challenges to the ruling dispensation, not only by opposing it directly, but through subverting its way of claiming representation. More specifically, it is the...

• Studies in Indian Politics

Jennifer Bussell. Clients and Constituents: Political Responsiveness in Patronage Democracies. Delhi, India: Oxford University Press, 2019. 369 pages. ₹1,100.

• Studies in Indian Politics

The Mizo War of Independence, also labelled as the Mizo Insurgency Movement, spanned over a period of nearly 20 years, during which significant events and developments occurred, which greatly shaped and moulded the socio-political landscape of the state. Accounts and narratives of what took place during those turbulent years are aplenty. However, not much literature or narrative could be found...

• Studies in Indian Politics

Obituaries on the demise of caste politics in India have already been read. It is argued that religious identity has trumped caste as a tool of political mobilization. Underlining that changing terms of political discourse represents a major break from the past; this article finds the coexistence of ‘casteless’ politics and the ascendancy of dominant castes in electoral politics perplexing. The...

• Studies in Indian Politics

Literature on Indian politics has largely under-examined the role of the family in shaping party politics with the exception of the studies on dynasticism. There is a paucity of research that looks at the complex ways in which intimate lives and party politics are intertwined. This article contributes to the existing feminist analyses of Indian party politics by conceptualizing politics and...

• Studies in Indian Politics

This article analyses how the infrastructural architecture of social networking sites (SNS) is conducive to the emergence of religious subjects and digital collectivities. I argue that SNS enable social connections, and subjectivities are created to reify discriminatory religious and political practices and discourses online. This study identifies and responds to three critical arguments about...

• Studies in Indian Politics