Book Review: The Indian Ideology. Gurgaon: Three Essays Collective
| DOI | 10.1177/2321023013482795 |
| Date | 01 June 2013 |
| Published date | 01 June 2013 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
Studies in Indian Politics, 1, 1 (2013): 109–126
Book Reviews 115
Kohli’s distinction between politically insulated technocratic politics at the apex of the state and the
politics of popular mobilization develops analysis proposed by scholars as diverse as Partha Chatterjee
and Ashutosh Varshney. While capturing a noteworthy development in India’s political economy, it
obscures important political dynamics that shape economic policy-making. Technocrats do not speak
with one voice, and differences among them shape the reform process. Arguably contention between
relentless liberalizers associated with the Ministry of Finance and calibrating conservatives such as Y.V.
Reddy and Rakesh Mohan at the Reserve Bank of India have shaped financial sector reform and contrib-
uted to India’s relatively successful response to the global financial crisis. The fragility of the reform
process is illustrated by the counterproductive tenure of Pranab Mukherjee as finance minister with his
politicization of administrative appointments, his crude measures to regulate capital like General Anti-
Avoidance Rules, and his stalling of other reforms.
Finally, the distinction between technocratic and mass politics obscures the manner in which mass
politics shapes technocratic politics and vice versa. The impact is most clear in India’s fiscal politics
where subsidies to powerful political constituencies creates fiscal and current account deficits that must
somehow be managed by the technocrats. At the same time, technocratic decisions regarding the regula-
tion of markets, pension schemes, and even poverty alleviation policies play an important role in shaping
mass politics.
Kohli sees India’s pro-business turn largely in reference to its earlier quasi-socialist era. Cross-
national comparison suggests different implications. Does India’s pro-business turn represent a normali-
zation of Indian politics? Countries as diverse as Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom and the
United States all provide business a privileged place in politics. Depending on the dynamism of private
capital to drive economic growth requires coordinating policy with the needs of capital, even though it
allows space for a range of responses.
Kohli’s book incites us to explore two current issues that are central to the drama of contemporary
India’s economic development. Will business influence create an endogenous political process generat-
ing an enduring bias detrimental to broader social welfare, or will the pressure of popular politics drive
the Indian state towards the autonomy necessary for equitable business regulation? And finally, will the
policies resulting from India’s recent ‘rights revolution’ including the right to work, education, and
information about government activities, produce an equitable social welfare state that provides the
population with the capacity to effectively participate in India’s market economy and contribute to its
growth or will they deteriorate into a populist drag on India’s economic development? The dynamics of
the relationship between technocratic and popular politics will be central to the outcome of these issues.
John Echeverri-Gent
University of Virginia
E-mail: jee8p@cms.mail.virginia.edu
Perry Anderson, The Indian Ideology. Gurgaon: Three Essays Collective. 2012. 190 pages. ` 350.
DOI: 10.1177/2321023013482795
This book contains three essays earlier published in the London Review of Books in the summer of
2012. It attempts to critically engage with the nationalist discourse, and the ensuing ‘hegemony of the
edulcorated versions of the national past’ as represented by the ‘the liberal mainstream of Indian
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