The Enigma that is Politics in India
| Published date | 01 June 2013 |
| Author | Yogendra Yadav |
| Date | 01 June 2013 |
| DOI | 10.1177/2321023013482784 |
| Subject Matter | Symposium |
Military-Madrasa-Mullah Complex 13
India Quarterly, 66, 2 (2010): 133–149
A Global Threat 13
Symposium
Yogendra Yadav is Senior Fellow at the CSDS, Delhi. E-mail: yogendra.yadav@gmail.com
The Enigma that is Politics in India
Yogendra Yadav
Politics in India is a classic waiting to be read. If a classic is ‘a book to which you cannot remain
indifferent, and which helps you define yourself in relation or even in opposition to it’, Politics in India
attained this status instantly upon its much awaited arrival in 1970. Its publication was described
as ‘something of an event’. Much and justly celebrated, the book has retained this iconic status as per-
haps the only classic so far on India’s democratic experience (Kothari, 1970; unless specified, all page
citations to this book).
Yet there is something odd about this status. For one thing, very few actually read this book in its
entirety. Dated jargon and dense prose make sure that very few survive the first chapter. No wonder, the
book has been known more through hearsay than actual reading. Or, to be precise, the book is skimmed
in search of the one or two capsule-like formulations—the ‘Congress System’ and ‘politicization of
caste’ are the top contenders here—that were already famous through his writings in the run up to
Politics in India. The book was widely admired (for early and positive reviews see (Morris-Jones,
1971–1972; [Narain, 1970; Palmer, 1971; Weiner, 1974]). Norman D. Palmer was being matter of fact
when he described the book as ‘by far the most sophisticated general study of Indian politics that has
yet been written’. A Marxist critic chided Kothari for ‘producing an ideological justification for the
decaying Indian polity’ (Chopra, 1972, p. 76; see also Khaliq, 1978). But it is not clear if the book was
really understood by its admirers or critics. It may have sedimented into our collective unconscious even
before it was properly digested. All this makes Politics in India odd, but what makes it unique—in the
club of oddballs that classics are—is the peculiar indifference of the creator to his creation. Although
there is no trace of authorial reticence in the book itself, Rajni Kothari appeared to have turned his back
to his magnum opus soon after its birth. This commercially successful product never had a second
edition; apparently the author was reluctant to allow reprints. It had to be substantially rewritten for a
recent Hindi trans-creation. The book gets a passing mention in his Memoirs (Kothari, 2002, p. 113,
121–2) and other autobiographical reflections. Although he did not repudiate the book, much of his sub-
sequent writings effectively distanced him from many of the substantive positions in Politics in India.
There is no clear moment of epistemic rupture, yet his post-Emergency writings move beyond the frame
set out in the book. It would be hard to recognize that the same man was the author of State against
Democracy and Growing Amnesia.
Some reasons for the author’s apparent unease are not hard to guess. There must have been awkward-
ness about the inability of the book, just as most other academic writings of that time, to anticipate the
dramatic events that were to unfold almost immediately after its publication: Indira Gandhi’s spectacular
victory in the 1971 elections, resurgence of one-party dominance, protest movements in Gujarat and
Studies in Indian Politics
1(1) 13–20
© 2013 Lokniti, Centre for the
Study of Developing Societies
SAGE Publications
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New Delhi, Singapore,
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DOI: 10.1177/2321023013482784
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