About this ebook
Religious influence in contemporary politics offers a fertile ground for political-sociological analysis, especially in societies where religion is a very important source of collective identity. In South Asian societies religion can, and often has, provided legitimacy to both governments and those who oppose them. This book examines the emergence of the BJP and the ways in which its Hindu nationalist agenda has been affected by the constraints of being a dominant member of a coalition government. The collected authors take stock of the party's first full term in power, presiding over the diverse forces of the governing NDA coalition, and the 2004 elections. They assess the BJP's performance in relation to its stated goals, and more specifically how it has fared in a range of policy fields - centre-state relations, foreign policy, defence policies, the 'second generation' of economic reforms, initiatives to curb corruption and the fate of minorities.
Explicitly linking the volume to literature on coalition politics, this book will be of great importance to students and researchers in the fields of South Asian studies and politics.
About the author
Katharine Adeney is a lecturer in politics at the University of Sheffield. Dr. Adeney is a specialist on the comparative study of federalism in India and Pakistan. She has authored work in Political Studies and the Journal of Commonwealth and Comparative Politics. She is the Chair of the Politics of South Asia specialist group of the Political Studies Association in addition to being Secretary of the British Association of South Asian Studies.
Lawrence Sáez is a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for International Studies at the London School of Economics. Dr. Sáez's areas of academic interest include the political economy of developing countries, with a focus on India and China. Sáez has published two books: Federalism Without a Centre (Sage 2001) and Banking Reform in India and China (Palgrave 2003). He used to be associate editor for South Asia at Asian Survey.
