Power and Contestation

Nivedita Menon is Reader in the Department of Political Science at the University of Delhi . She is author of Recovering Subversion: Feminist Politics Beyond the Law (2004) and editor of Gender and Politics in India (1999). A feminist scholar and political theorist, she has been involved in a wide range of political and social movements, especially against the rise of sectarian politics, against mass displacement of workers and in the anti-nuclearization movement.Aditya Nigam is currently a Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies in Delhi. He has written and published on issues relating to Marxism, modernity, nationalism and identity, and is currently working on a book on the left in a post-utopian world. He is author of The Insurrection of Little Selves (2006). He was a full-time political activist with the Communist Party of India (Marxist) for over a decade and has worked with various social movements before reentering academia.

This book, written by two academics who are also campaigners, offers the best survey of recent Indian history that I have seen.

• 1. Introduction: The Conjuncture of the 1990s2. Revolt of the Lower Castes3. Hindutva: Politics of the Hindu Right4. Nation Under Siege5. Globalization I: Accelerated Development6. Globalization II: The New Economy of Desire7. Left and the Social Movements: Looking Towards the Future8. India in the World