Jacobsen - Routledge Handbook of Contemporary India

ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK
OF CONTEMPORARY INDIA

India is the second largest country in the world with regard to population, the worlds largest democracy and by far the largest country in South Asia, and one of the most diverse and pluralistic nations in the world in terms of official languages, cultures, religions and social identities. Indians have for centuries exchanged ideas with other cultures globally and some traditions have been transformed in those transnational and transcultural encounters and become successful innovations with an extraordinary global popularity. India is an emerging global power in terms of economy, but in spite of Indias impressive economic growth over the last decades, some of the most serious problems of Indian society such as poverty, repression of women, inequality both in terms of living conditions and of opportunities such as access to education, employment and the economic resources of the state persist and do not seem to go away.

This Handbook contains chapters by the fields foremost scholars dealing with fundamental issues in Indias current cultural and social transformation and concentrates on India as it emerged after the economic reforms and the new economic policy of the 1980s and 1990s and as it develops in the twenty-first century.

Following an introduction by the editor, the book is divided into five parts:

Exploring the cultural changes and innovations relating a number of contexts in contemporary India, this Handbook is essential reading for students and scholars interested in Indian and South Asian culture, politics and society.

Knut A. Jacobsen is Professor of the History of Religions at the University of Bergen, Norway.

ROUTLEDGE
HANDBOOK OF
CONTEMPORARY
INDIA

Edited by Knut A. Jacobsen

First published 2016
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2016 selection and editorial material, Knut A. Jacobsen;
individual chapters, the contributor

The right of Knut A. Jacobsen to be identified as author of the editorial material, and of the individual authors as authors of their contributions, has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Jacobsen, Knut A., 1956
Routledge handbook of contemporary India / Knut A. Jacobsen.
pages cm
1. India Social conditions. 2. India Economic conditions.
3. India History Partition, 1947. I. Title.
HN683.5.J33 2015
306.0954 dc23 2015005886

ISBN: 978-0-415-73865-1 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-68257-0 (ebk)

Typeset in Bembo
by HWA Text and Data Management, London

Knut A. Jacobsen

PART I
Foundation

Pippa Virdee

Subrata Kumar Mitra

Ananth Padmanabhan

Kunal Sen

Vimala Ramachandran

Rajeswari S. Raina

PART II
India and the world

Rajat Ganguly

Manjeet S. Pardesi

Emma Mawdsley

Brij V. Lal and Knut A. Jacobsen

Mark Singleton

Maya Warrier

PART III
Society, class, caste and gender

Diego Maiorano

Nandini Gooptu

Leela Fernandes

Surinder S. Jodhka

William Gould

Harald Tambs-Lyche and Nikita Sud

Mallarika Sinha Roy

Uday Chandra

PART IV
Religion and diversity

Gerald James Larson

Vasudha Narayanan

Knut A. Jacobsen

Eleanor Zelliot

Ronki Ram

R. Santhosh

Marika Vicziany

John C. B. Webster

PART V
Cultural change and innovations

Nandita Ghosh

Michiel Baas

Michal Bruckert

Brigitte Sbastia

Knut A. Jacobsen is Professor in the History of Religions at the University of Bergen, Norway and author and editor of many books and numerous articles in journals and edited volumes on various aspects on religions of South Asia and in the South Asian diasporas. He is the author of Prakrti in Smkhya-Yoga: Material Principle, Religious Experience, Ethical Implications (Peter Lang, 1999), Kapila: Founder of Smkhya and Avatra of Visnu (Munshiram Manoharlal 2008) and Pilgrimage in the Hindu Tradition: Salvific Space (Routledge, 2013). Jacobsen is the Editor-in-Chief of the six volume Brills Encyclopedia of Hinduism (20092015) and the Brills Encyclopedia of Hinduism Online.

Barbara Harriss-White, Oxford University, UK

Surinder S. Jodhka, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India

Gerald James Larson, University of California at Santa Barbara and Indiana University, USA

Vasudha Narayanan, Florida University, USA

Rowena Robinson, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India

Michiel Baas is currently a Research Fellow with the Asia Research Institute (NUS). Previously he was a Fellow with the new Nalanda University (Delhi and Rajgir, India); Coordinator with the International Institute for Asian Studies (Amsterdam and Leiden, the Netherlands); Lecturer with the Anthropology Department of the University of Amsterdam; Coordinator with the Eutopia Institute; and Coordinator with the Amsterdam Institute for Social Sciences Research. He holds a PhD from the University of Amsterdam and has published extensively on the topic of migration and transnationalism. His book Imagined Mobility. Migration and Transnationalism among Indian Students in Australia was published in 2010 (Anthem Press).

Michiel Baas is currently a Research Fellow with the Asia Research Institute (NUS). Previously he was a Fellow with the new Nalanda University (Delhi and Rajgir, India); Coordinator with the International Institute for Asian Studies (Amsterdam and Leiden, the Netherlands); Lecturer with the Anthropology Department of the University of Amsterdam; Coordinator with the Eutopia Institute; and Coordinator with the Amsterdam Institute for Social Sciences Research. He holds a PhD from the University of Amsterdam and has published extensively on the topic of migration and transnationalism. His book Imagined Mobility. Migration and Transnationalism among Indian Students in Australia was published in 2010 (Anthem Press).

Michal Bruckert is a PhD candidate and Lecturer in human geography, University Paris Sorbonne. His research interests are the economic, cultural and environmental aspects of food change and meat consumption. Bruckerts publications include La transition alimentaire de lInde: une hypothse errone?,