Every nation arrives at a crossroads when the existing regime becomes oppressive and people start looking for an alternative. At this juncture, they abandon the uneasy security of a longstanding governing dispensation and opt for the risky experiment of a new political combination. This, the Indian people did in 1977 and again in1989. These two political experiments were eventful periods in the history of Indian democracy. In 1989 as in 1977, the people voted for a broad-based alliance of political interests with contradictory socio-economic ambitions. However, the disintegration of the Janata experiment in 1979, the collapse of the National Front Government in 1990 and the decline of the Left show that the Indian democratic political process is still in the realm of basic experimenting and learning. In this respect, elections in India can now be seen not merely as useful indicators but as the events through which the party system and hence in a measure the political system achieve their evolution.

A pioneering comparative study of the two major attempts to build secular states - where the state's constitutional identity and fundamental character are not based on or derived from any religious faith - in the non-Western world. This book explains the origins, evolution and latterly the decline of secularism as a core principle of the state in India and Turkey. The anti-secular political transformations of the twenty-first century are the rise of a Sunni-Islamist definition of Turkish national identity to hegemonic power, and Hindu nationalism as India's pre-eminent political force. Both secular-state models adopted a similar operational doctrine of state intervention in and regulation of the religious sphere, rather than a Western-style separation of church and state. But, Turkish state-secularism took a culturally deracinated and harshly authoritarian form that led to its failure, whereas India's secular state - though flawed in practice - followed a culturally rooted and democratic path that makes secularism indispensable to India's future.

Designed for undergraduate and graduate courses on Indian civilization and history, this text provides a sweeping look at the long and varied history of India and how this complex legacy has shaped, and is shaping, the nation's modern polity. It offers unique political-historical coverage of India from pre-history into the 21st century.

A consideration of the evolution of the countries of the Commonwealth after the fall of the British Empire. The book focuses on the political development of the countries, as well as discussing their economic and social policies and international relations.

Because of its natural wealth, India has long been a tempting prize for invaders, yet foreign forces such as the Mughal Empire and the British did not destroy India’s vibrant spirit. Rather, external influences often became absorbed into the mix of different peoples, languages, religions, and regional traditions, creating a lasting culture of great depth. This book recounts the history of India and much of present-day Pakistan and Bangladesh as well as the factors that have contributed to India’s epic economic successes in recent times. Memorable images texture the narrative and vividly animate the story of this unique nation.

In The State and Poverty in India the author argues cogently that well-organised, left-of-centre parties in government are the most effective in implementing reform.

Noted historian Ian Talbot has written a new history of modern South Asia that considers the Indian Subcontinent in regional rather than in solely national terms. A leading expert on the Partition of 1947, Talbot focuses here on the combined history of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh since 1757 and specifically on the impact of external influences on the local peoples and cultures. This text explores the region’s colonial and postcolonial past, and the cultural and economic Indian reaction to the years of British authority, thus viewing the transformation of modern South Asia through the lens of a wider world.