Modern Indian Political Thought: Text and Context is an essential reading for students of social sciences seeking to unravel the formation and text of the thoughts of great Indian political thinkers. It is an unconventional articulation of the political thought in India that evolved during the nationalist struggle against colonialism.
The salient features of the book are:
- In contrast to the existing literature on the subject, it carries a context-driven conceptualisation of the major strands of political thought that emerged in India in the past two centuries. It focuses on India′s peculiar socio-political processes under colonialism that influenced the evolution of such thought.
- Incorporates new ideas and issues that have been articulated, though not as extensively, in contemporary works on Indian nationalist thought and movement.
- Discusses the development and articulation of political thought by leaders like Gandhi, Tagore, Ambedkar, JP, Nehru and Lohia.
- Covers the Indian freedom struggle in detail.
The distinguishing feature of this book is its linking of the text of Indian political thought with the context. In doing so, it challenges the ethno-centric interpretation of nationalism that, despite its roots in Western Enlightenment, evolved differently because of the context in which it was articulated.
Bidyut Chakrabarty is Vice-Chancellor, Visva Bharati, West Bengal. He was Professor in the Department of Political Science in University of Delhi till November 2018. He completed his PhD from London School of Economics and has been associated with teaching and research for more than three decades. He has taught in several prestigious educational institutions, such as the London School of Economics; Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Calcutta; Monash University, Australia; National University of Singapore; Hamburg University, Germany. Professor Chakrabarty has authored several textbooks and academic books. Among his publications are Public Administration: From Government to Governance (2017), Winning the Mandate: The Indian Experience (2016), Communism in India: Events, Processes and Ideologies (2014), Indian Politics and Society since Independence: Events, Processes and Ideology (2008) and The Governance Discourse: A Reader (2008).
Rajendra Kumar Pandey is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science, Chaudhary Charan Singh University, Meerut, Uttar Pradesh. Besides earning his Masters, MPhil and Doctorate degrees from the University of Delhi, he also holds the prestigious Postgraduate Diploma (with summa cum laude: excellent grade) in Federalism, Decentralization and Conflict Resolution from the Institute of Federalism, University of Fribourg, Switzerland. In the past, Dr Pandey taught graduate students at the Delhi College of Arts and Commerce (1998– 2003),Hindu College (2003–09) (both University of Delhi), and the UGC-Centre for Federal Studies, Jamia Hamdard University, New Delhi. Besides publishing research papers in reputed journals, he has co-authored two books―Indian Government and Politics (SAGE, 2008) and Modern Indian Political Thought: Text and Context (SAGE, 2009). He has also made substantial contribution to develop self-learning materials for students of open and distance learning in different areas of political science and public administration. The current focus areas of his academic pursuits are public policy and governance with special reference to the issues of disaster management and human rights.
