India ReviewPub Date : 2021-05-27DOI: 10.1080/14736489.2020.1855013
Parikshit Thakur
{"title":"Searching “civility” of the “uncivil”: mapping the theoretical understanding of civil society and its research in India","authors":"Parikshit Thakur","doi":"10.1080/14736489.2020.1855013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14736489.2020.1855013","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT A majority of the existing narratives on studying civil society in India are flooded with empirical findings, without much emphasis on theoretical understanding of the subject. Thus, the article tries to provide a historical overview of the development of notion of civil society and its research in “uncivil” Indian tradition from different dominant theoretical angles in the field. After finding their limitations, the study attempts to provide an alternative understanding of emergence of civil society in colonial India. It also aims to explore, how the lineage of traditional inform civic assocciationalism combined with modern institutionalized associational space gave birth to liberal-minded individuals and the conscious public in colonial India. Moreover, the present research further reveals that how civic awareness inculcated among the marginal’s along with the educated Indian middle class and how interactions between the state, society, and religion helped in development of spirit of civility among individuals, awareness among the public and voice of protest among community in “uncivil” colonial India which was unique from its western counterpart both in the process of formation and the forms of manifestations.","PeriodicalId":56338,"journal":{"name":"India Review","volume":"20 1","pages":"260 - 294"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/14736489.2020.1855013","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47840695","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
India ReviewPub Date : 2021-05-27DOI: 10.1080/14736489.2021.1931750
Vinay Kaura
{"title":"India’s Quadrilateral conundrum","authors":"Vinay Kaura","doi":"10.1080/14736489.2021.1931750","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14736489.2021.1931750","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT India and China are two powers in Asia, having common borders but different sense of entitlements and vulnerabilities. China’s global profile has become much stronger than India’s. How India and China deal with each other will determine peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. The challenge for New Delhi is to factor its national self-interest and security into dealings with a rising China. India is threatened by Chinese assertiveness, given its outstanding boundary disputes with China, Belt and Road Initiative, uncritical Chinese support for Pakistan and China’s increasing penetration into the Indian Ocean region. However, current Indian stance toward China is characterized by hedging, which has severe limitations dues to many structural constraints. The article argues that India should unhesitatingly increase its strategic engagement with America, Japan and Australia to strengthen the Quadrilateral. Despite some obvious differences, all four maritime democracies share a set of common strategic perceptions, which could deepen their security arrangements to manage China’s growing assertiveness.","PeriodicalId":56338,"journal":{"name":"India Review","volume":"20 1","pages":"322 - 347"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/14736489.2021.1931750","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43223847","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
India ReviewPub Date : 2021-05-27DOI: 10.1080/14736489.2021.1931749
Manasi Pritam
{"title":"Examining exceptionalism in national security cultures: a comparative study of the United States and India","authors":"Manasi Pritam","doi":"10.1080/14736489.2021.1931749","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14736489.2021.1931749","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The idea of American exceptionalism in guiding US national security concerns has often come under scrutiny in the past from security analysts and policy makers alike. The US is not alone in projecting its exceptional values in its foreign policy articulations. Indian foreign policy assertions also stress India’s unique civilizational qualities that make it capable of pursuing a “peaceful” modernity as opposed to the “violent” modernity of the West. The aim of this paper is to analyze how the idea of exceptionalism impacts the national security cultures of the two biggest democracies of the world. What are US and Indian exceptionalism in the context of international relations? How do they translate into the national security cultures of a superpower and a rising power? Is their national security culture driven by fear or hope, trust or mistrust, flexible or rigid strategies? These are some of the issues that this paper seeks to address.","PeriodicalId":56338,"journal":{"name":"India Review","volume":"20 1","pages":"295 - 321"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/14736489.2021.1931749","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43835833","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
India ReviewPub Date : 2021-05-27DOI: 10.1080/14736489.2021.1931751
A. Phadnis, Bhaskara P. Manibabu
{"title":"Disruptions in the legislature: an insider’s view from legislators in India","authors":"A. Phadnis, Bhaskara P. Manibabu","doi":"10.1080/14736489.2021.1931751","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14736489.2021.1931751","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Earlier studies have advanced a number of arguments to explain why legislators disrupt legislative business. This study carries out a confirmatory analysis of the arguments by analyzing 93 speeches delivered by Indian legislators on the subject of disruption. Using Applied Thematic Analysis we identified themes that are salient in the legislator speeches. We find highest salience given to the role of the Speaker, with members emphasizing on the need for the Speaker to show impartiality in the performance of duties. Another highly salient theme was the relationship between legislative parties and legislators, which featured concerns over rising dominance of legislative party leaders. Other themes such as adequacy and enforcement of legislative rules, the competitive interplay between ruling and opposition parties, influence of media and paucity of legislative opportunities received moderate attention. Low salience was given to arguments that explain disruption to be a consequence of democratization of the legislature or marginalization of certain social groups. These insights contribute to the extant literature by highlighting perspectives on disruption from the standpoint of “insiders” of the legislature.","PeriodicalId":56338,"journal":{"name":"India Review","volume":"20 1","pages":"348 - 371"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/14736489.2021.1931751","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46652174","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
India ReviewPub Date : 2021-05-27DOI: 10.1080/14736489.2021.1875698
Prateek Joshi
{"title":"Conceptualizing India’s response to the belt and road initiative: from norms to balancing strategies","authors":"Prateek Joshi","doi":"10.1080/14736489.2021.1875698","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14736489.2021.1875698","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Despite deepening economic ties between India and China, the unresolved border dispute, Sino-Pak strategic ties and India’s openness to engage with the US-led regional security structures continue to affect the bilateral relationship. The inception of China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in 2015 generated strong protests from New Delhi citing violation of its territorial sovereignty and culminated in India’s refusal to participate in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The statements emerging from the Indian foreign office and policymakers expressed concerns about the opacity of Chinese projects, debt trap, and the sovereignty risks to smaller nations’ economies in case of their inability to repay Chinese loans. While these factors objectively sum up India’s stance on the BRI, they simultaneously speak of India’s response to the BRI on a strategic level. The article argues that India’s approach to the BRI should be examined from its Moralpolitik-driven ethical deconstruction of the project, through which it attempts to legitimize its response strategy in balance of power terms.","PeriodicalId":56338,"journal":{"name":"India Review","volume":"20 1","pages":"247 - 259"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/14736489.2021.1875698","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46768809","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
India ReviewPub Date : 2021-03-15DOI: 10.1080/14736489.2021.1895566
A. Saxena
{"title":"(Re)visiting the legitimacy of the state: COVID-19 and the migrant labor in India","authors":"A. Saxena","doi":"10.1080/14736489.2021.1895566","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14736489.2021.1895566","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The spread of the novel coronavirus that took over the world by a storm has caused a serious rupture in the social and economic order. As the Indian state is confronted by several challenges, the exodus of migrant labor appears as a gruesome spectacle. The already precarious lives of migrant labor owing to their employment in the informal economy has been amplified manifold with the outbreak of the pandemic. The eclipsed response of the state to acknowledge their misery has further exacerbated the problem. Since the state is entrusted with the responsibility of providing social security to the labor in the informal economy- a component that is also deemed necessary to be fulfilled by those the state seeks to govern, the pandemic has rendered the question of state’s legitimacy to be probed further. Defined as the capacity and the right to rule, the legitimacy of the state is analyzed from the perspective of the effective provision of social security schemes as well as the expedition/suspension of labor rights. While the state may possess the capacity to provide for social security, and it certainly does as is evident from its boisterous declarations of fiscal stimulus’ for labor welfare, it is argued that the state’s blatant lack of willingness to translate its promises into concrete action puts the “right to rule” aspect under scrutiny and its legitimacy under jeopardy.","PeriodicalId":56338,"journal":{"name":"India Review","volume":"20 1","pages":"194 - 212"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-03-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/14736489.2021.1895566","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46975133","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
India ReviewPub Date : 2021-03-15DOI: 10.1080/14736489.2021.1895568
Sohini Sengupta, M. Jha
{"title":"Risks and resilience: COVID-19 response and disaster management policies in India","authors":"Sohini Sengupta, M. Jha","doi":"10.1080/14736489.2021.1895568","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14736489.2021.1895568","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Disasters and crisis are becoming more complex with deadly cascading effects. The current coronavirus pandemic is viewed as the newest form of health and socio-economic crisis that has disrupted the flow of normal life for millions. Viewing the pandemic as a unique or unpredictable occurrence shifts responsibility and accountability from a host of institutional actors to those who were unable to protect themselves from the direct and indirect effects of the pandemic and incurred heavy losses. Situating the pandemic within the well-established policy debates around disasters enables us to understand how the novel coronavirus rapidly transformed into a humanitarian crisis in India. Successful disaster risk reduction involves the creation of a “culture of resilience” but resilience thinking has been criticized as lacking in “moral compass”, showing a poor understanding of power relations and as governance that emphasizes individual responsibility. Chronically poor people can be “resilient” at the expense of their long-term wellbeing. Drawing on the moral, political and philosophical debates about the shift toward “resilience” in global disaster policy, this article examines the rhetoric of “self-reliance” to address COVID-19 dislocation. We find that disaster policies that rely mainly on resilience and compliance increase state power while absolving them of responsibility.","PeriodicalId":56338,"journal":{"name":"India Review","volume":"20 1","pages":"121 - 141"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-03-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/14736489.2021.1895568","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41929523","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
India ReviewPub Date : 2021-03-15DOI: 10.1080/14736489.2021.1904367
A. Prakash
{"title":"Introduction to a special issue of India Review: Reflections on Politics and Policy for a post-Covid-19 Era: Analysing Continuities and Fractures through the First Wave of 2020","authors":"A. Prakash","doi":"10.1080/14736489.2021.1904367","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14736489.2021.1904367","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The challenge that the COVID-19 pandemic has posed to the extant socio-economic and political system had created a degree of disjunct that may be more difficult to reconcile without significant paradigmatic and concomitant policy change. While this question applies to the entire world, the present special issue is focused on rethinking some select facets of these questions in the Indian context. In doing so, the papers presented here locate the crisis that has been exacerbated by the pandemic in the longer contextual experience of their relevant area and reflect on some possibilities for the post-COVID-19 era.","PeriodicalId":56338,"journal":{"name":"India Review","volume":"20 1","pages":"97 - 103"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-03-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/14736489.2021.1904367","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45849729","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
India ReviewPub Date : 2021-03-15DOI: 10.1080/14736489.2021.1895562
Cihnnita Baruah, Pratisha Borborah
{"title":"A re-imagined community: Pandemic, media, and state","authors":"Cihnnita Baruah, Pratisha Borborah","doi":"10.1080/14736489.2021.1895562","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14736489.2021.1895562","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The advancement of technology, the expansion of global networks, and the shift from print media to digital and social media have brought in a drastic change to human lifestyle. With the shrinking of the world because of the advancement of technology, identities get mutated and transformed according to the need. The development of modern societies denotes how the “self” has become a “reflexive project” where individuals construct identities mediated by symbolic materials. It is through the culture of media that people forge their identities by shaping their political views and social behavior. As such, this article is an attempt to analyze how the pandemic has brought a “new normal” to our lives. With months of lockdown, changing work spaces, education, lifestyle- habits, and priorities, each one of us has shifted to a visually imagined community, which not only marks a paradigmatic shift from the print culture to a new era of visual culture, but also reshapes the socio-cultural imagination dominated by media and visual images. Furthermore, delving in the question of surveillance, this article highlighting the Indian context, also aims to evaluate the functioning of a multicultural liberal state, and its constant struggle with the politics of power and identity.","PeriodicalId":56338,"journal":{"name":"India Review","volume":"20 1","pages":"176 - 193"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-03-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/14736489.2021.1895562","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46510385","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
India ReviewPub Date : 2021-03-15DOI: 10.1080/14736489.2021.1895563
Aasim Khan
{"title":"Beyond consent: Surveillance capitalism and politics in the data state","authors":"Aasim Khan","doi":"10.1080/14736489.2021.1895563","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14736489.2021.1895563","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The push for digital technologies during the Covid-19 pandemic has put a question mark on the relationship between the state and society in India. In particular, it has highlighted the gap between the lofty promises of digital welfare by political leaders and businesses, and the widespread discontent with digitalization as evident on the ground. In this paper, I take this gap as a starting point to conceptualize the nature of politics in the data state, drawing on Polanyian themes to understand how the contentions are gradually “embedding” the digital economy in society. Tracing the arc of the interactions between domestic ideas, interests and institutions alongside the development of digital capitalism, I also show that caught in these entanglements, digital economy can no longer remain a one-way street for data “extraction”. More specifically, I argue that at the end of its first decade of since the emergence of surveillance capitalism in 2010s, politics has ensured that it confronts ground level resistance that revolves around themes of inclusion, welfare and pluralism rather than the liberal conceptions of privacy and individual consent.","PeriodicalId":56338,"journal":{"name":"India Review","volume":"20 1","pages":"158 - 175"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-03-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/14736489.2021.1895563","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43521621","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}