Editorial

Published date01 December 2016
Date01 December 2016
DOI10.1177/2321023016665457
Subject MatterEditorial
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Editorial
Studies in Indian Politics
4(2) vii
© 2016 Lokniti, Centre for the
Study of Developing Societies
SAGE Publications
sagepub.in/home.nav
DOI: 10.1177/2321023016665457
http://inp.sagepub.com
Studies in Indian Politics (SIP) began 4 years ago as an endeavour to present readers with scholarly
contributions that span the broad space called Indian Politics. This issue is an instance of that endeavour:
It covers issues and themes that touch upon as diverse areas of scholarship as political thinking, ethnic
politics in the northeast, gender and policing, health and NGOs and international water disputes. We
hope that readers would welcome this diversity of themes and approaches and that contributions like
these would ensure the broadening of the field of Indian Politics.
At the same time, this issue also includes an article on the recent (and ongoing) controversy that
erupted during this year—the Patel agitation in Gujarat over their inclusion in the category of backward
classes. Indeed, this issue is not merely confined to Gujarat. Patels of Gujarat are agitating; so are many
other communities elsewhere (for instance, for a brief period, the Kapus of Andhra Pradesh came on the
streets with a similar demand). As India’s political economy enters a delicate phase of limited growth,
narrow employment base and the political ascendance of the middle classes, the clamour for inclusion in
the group of beneficiaries of the affirmative action policies has markedly increased among the communi-
ties that were once described as the ‘middle peasantry’. It is noteworthy also that from the same
...

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