Ajay Gudavarthy – författare

‘Re-framing Democracy and Agency in India: Interrogating Political Society’ critically unpacks the concept of ‘political society’, which was formulated as a response to the idea of civil society in the postcolonial context. The volume’s case studies, drawn from across India and combined with a sharp focus on the concept of political society, provide those interested in Indian democracy and its changing patterns with an indispensable collection of works, brought together in their common pursuit of highlighting the limitations of different core concepts as formulated by Chatterjee. Centred around five themes – the relation between the civil and the political; the role of middlemen and their impact on the mobility of subaltern groups; elites and leadership; the fragmentation and intra-subaltern conflicts and their implications for subaltern agency; and the idea of moral claims and moral community – this volume re-frames issues of democracy and agency in India within a wider scope than has ever been published before, and gathers ideas from some of the foremost scholars in the field. The volume concludes with a rejoinder from Partha Chatterjee.

How do emotions mobilise in politics? How do they frame ideologies? Broadly focusing on these questions, this book explains the role emotions play in Indian politics and the part they played in the aftermath of the 2019 general elections. It traces the consolidation of the Right in India and highlights the reasons for its electoral successes with a focus on the interplay between ethics and emotions such as fear, anxiety, guilt, shame, anger, hatred, betrayal, and violence. At the same time, it traces the changing dynamic in the way we think about politics and analyses the failure of liberal democratic institutions to make space for emotions in politics and political motivations.An accessible and essential guide to understanding contemporary India, this book will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of politics, especially governance and political theory, as well as South Asian studies.

How do emotions mobilise in politics? How do they frame ideologies? Broadly focusing on these questions, this book explains the role emotions play in Indian politics and the part they played in the aftermath of the 2019 general elections. It traces the consolidation of the Right in India and highlights the reasons for its electoral successes with a focus on the interplay between ethics and emotions such as fear, anxiety, guilt, shame, anger, hatred, betrayal, and violence. At the same time, it traces the changing dynamic in the way we think about politics and analyses the failure of liberal democratic institutions to make space for emotions in politics and political motivations.An accessible and essential guide to understanding contemporary India, this book will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of politics, especially governance and political theory, as well as South Asian studies.

‘Re-framing Democracy and Agency in India: Interrogating Political Society’ critically unpacks the concept of ‘political society’, which was formulated as a response to the idea of civil society in the postcolonial context. The volume’s case studies, drawn from across India and combined with a sharp focus on the concept of political society, provide those interested in Indian democracy and its changing patterns with an indispensable collection of works, brought together in their common pursuit of highlighting the limitations of different core concepts as formulated by Chatterjee. Centred around five themes – the relation between the civil and the political; the role of middlemen and their impact on the mobility of subaltern groups; elites and leadership; the fragmentation and intra-subaltern conflicts and their implications for subaltern agency; and the idea of moral claims and moral community – this volume re-frames issues of democracy and agency in India within a wider scope than has ever been published before, and gathers ideas from some of the foremost scholars in the field. The volume concludes with a rejoinder from Partha Chatterjee.

Civil Society has emerged as one of the most celebrated concept of the twentieth and the twenty-first centuries. It offers practices that are the means and certain normative ideals that are the ends to be achieved for the preservation of democracy and expansion of the process of democratization. When available practices fail, reasons have been sought in the ideals being too lofty, and when the ideals looked minimalist, the blame has been shifted to the nature of practices being free-floating and bereft of definitive borders. Politics of Post-Civil Society is an attempt to map the discourse and politics of contemporary political movements in India that have been negotiating with the hegemonic effects born out of the insidious co-habitation of political principles and practices in the domain referred to as the civil society. In course of constructing the political landscape of these movements, the book foregrounds the various strategies through which they are pushing and nudging towards a new politics of post-civil society.

Maoism, democracy and globalization are three distinct but inseparable currents marking Indian politics today. They are distinct in terms of their goals, direction, and modalities of forging social, political, economic and even cultural change, while mutually influencing each other in the emergent political process. This book is an attempt to precisely map processes that are internal to each of these currents while exploring and identifying the moments of mutual influence, areas of conflict and mutually exclusive pulls they bring to the contemporary politics in India.

Secularism is a tenet that is fundamental to Indian democracy and enshrined in the Constitution. However, its practice has been severely hampered in recent times largely due to the secular sectarianism pursued by secular, democratic and progressive political formations. This implies the tendency of specific secular political movements to act as if their agenda are exclusively important. Secular sectarianism has gradually polarized communities and advanced a woefully limited political imagination, leading to the proliferation of conflicts between various marginalized groups—Dalits, tribals, OBCs, Muslims, women and the Left. Secular Sectarianism: Limits of Subaltern Politics includes several accounts of such conflicts, opening up a new area of study for further conceptualization. This book emphasizes that citizenship in practice is expressed through the right to speak for others and not just for oneself. Progress can be made only by opening up dialogues within and across political communities. This is essential for India’s survival as a secular and democratic nation. Progressive politics needs to move towards affinity and an idea of shared spaces.

Civil Society has emerged as one of the most celebrated concept of the twentieth and the twenty-first centuries. It offers practices that are the means and certain normative ideals that are the ends to be achieved for the preservation of democracy and expansion of the process of democratization. When available practices fail, reasons have been sought in the ideals being too lofty, and when the ideals looked minimalist, the blame has been shifted to the nature of practices being free-floating and bereft of definitive borders. Politics of Post-Civil Society is an attempt to map the discourse and politics of contemporary political movements in India that have been negotiating with the hegemonic effects born out of the insidious co-habitation of political principles and practices in the domain referred to as the civil society. In course of constructing the political landscape of these movements, the book foregrounds the various strategies through which they are pushing and nudging towards a new politics of post-civil society.

Maoism, democracy and globalization are three distinct but inseparable currents marking Indian politics today. They are distinct in terms of their goals, direction, and modalities of forging social, political, economic and even cultural change, while mutually influencing each other in the emergent political process. This book is an attempt to precisely map processes that are internal to each of these currents while exploring and identifying the moments of mutual influence, areas of conflict and mutually exclusive pulls they bring to the contemporary politics in India.

Secularism is a tenet that is fundamental to Indian democracy and enshrined in the Constitution. However, its practice has been severely hampered in recent times largely due to the secular sectarianism pursued by secular, democratic and progressive political formations. This implies the tendency of specific secular political movements to act as if their agenda are exclusively important. Secular sectarianism has gradually polarized communities and advanced a woefully limited political imagination, leading to the proliferation of conflicts between various marginalized groups—Dalits, tribals, OBCs, Muslims, women and the Left. Secular Sectarianism: Limits of Subaltern Politics includes several accounts of such conflicts, opening up a new area of study for further conceptualization. This book emphasizes that citizenship in practice is expressed through the right to speak for others and not just for oneself. Progress can be made only by opening up dialogues within and across political communities. This is essential for India’s survival as a secular and democratic nation. Progressive politics needs to move towards affinity and an idea of shared spaces.

This book focuses on the interFace between democracy and violence, with specific reference to revolutionary strategies and mobilisations. Revolutionary Violence Versus Democracy: Narratives from India explores the armed conflict in India’s ‘Red Corridor’, where Maoists have been employing militant-revolutionary strategies to implement an alternative model of development. It studies this model, the purpose of which is to ensure the inclusion of impoverished tribals considered dispensable by mainstream political parties.Maoists feel that capture of State power is essential for revolution. State-sanctioned extra-judicial violence is common in the tribal belt—Maoists use strategies that challenge the State’s monopoly over the use of violence. This first-of-a-kind book reflects on revolutionary strategies, such as kidnaping, in terms of their validity in democratic mobilisation. Based on extensive field data, the chapters in this compilation discuss the everyday politics of Maoists and contemporary tribal society. Revolutionary violence is debated in the context of the limits of democracy and ineffective modes of governance.