Gurpreet Mahajan is Professor at the Centre for Political Studies, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. She has published widely on issues relating to multiculturalism, cultural diversity and minority rights, secularism and civil society. Her publications include Explanation and Understanding in the Human Sciences, Identities and Rights: Aspects of Liberal Democracy in India, and The Multicultural Path: Issues of Diversity and Discrimination in Democracy; she has edited Democracy, Difference and Social Justice and The Public and the Private: Issues of Democratic Citizenship.

A welcome text for specialists and general readers alike.

• 1. Indian political theory: beyond cultural essentialism2. Equality3. Freedom4. Religion5. Diversity6. The language of democratic discourse