The Oxford Handbook of Indian Politics

The study of Indian politics has witnessed a dramatic revival worldwide in the last few decades. There have been significant developments in national politics since 2014 with the advent of the single-party majority government of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the first such majority since 1984. Moreover, the results of the 17th Lok Sabha (Lower House) election in India in 2019 have had major implications for the party system in India. In the light of these developments, The Oxford Handbook of Indian Politics provides the most comprehensive, up-to-date coverage of the state of contemporary Indian politics. To that end, it examines the evolution of core institutions, processes, policies, and associated issues that are being debated in India's politics. It also provides historical contexts, discusses the state of the extant literature in each issue area, and suggests avenues for future research. The contributors to this volume are all noted scholars and researchers in their respective fields of specialization located both in India and around the world. The major topics covered include the Constitution, citizenship, the houses of Parliament, the Cabinet, the judiciary, federalism and local governments, elections, parties and coalitions, secularism and minorities, caste, gender and migration, political violence, political finance, political economy, and foreign and defence policies. In effect, The Oxford Handbook of Indian Politics offers scholars, analysts, and students a sweeping overview of the current landscape of Indian politics, with particular attention to issues that have emerged over the past decade.

Sumit Ganguly, Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Tagore Chair in Indian Cultures and Civilizations, Indiana University, Bloomington,Eswaran Sridharan, Academic Director and Chief Executive, University of Pennsylvania Institute for the Advanced Study of India (UPIASI), New Delhi

Sumit Ganguly is a Distinguished Professor of Political Science and the Tagore Chair in Indian Cultures and Civilizations at Indiana University, Bloomington. He is also a Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University for the academic year 2023-2024. A specialist on the international and comparative politics of South Asia, he is the author, co-author, editor, or co-editor of over twenty books on the region. Ganguly is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Editor-in-Chief of the International Studies Review, and the founding editor of The India Review. His most recent book, co-authored with Manjeet S. Pardesi and William R. Thompson, is The Sino-Indian Rivalry: Implications for Global Order, published by Cambridge University Press.


Eswaran Sridharan is the Academic Director and Chief Executive, University of Pennsylvania Institute for the Advanced Study of India (UPIASI), Delhi. He is a political scientist whose published work includes that on political parties, party system change, coalition politics, political finance, the political economy of liberalization, the Indian middle classes, and international relations theory and India as an emerging power. He has held visiting appointments at the London School of Economics, the Institute of Developing Economies (Tokyo), University of California, Berkeley, and the Institute of South Asian Studies, Singapore. He is the author, editor, or co-editor of ten books, with four forthcoming titles, and has published 96 academic articles in scholarly journals and edited volumes. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the refereed pan-social science India-dedicated journal, India Review, published by Taylor & Francis, UK.

Editors' Introduction and Acknowledgements, Sumit Ganguly and E. SridharanSection I: Core Institutions1. Rights and Citizenship, Niraja Gopal Jayal2. Lok Sabha, M. R. Madhavan3. The Rajya Sabha: A 'Federal Chamber' Or A Mere Upper House in the Indian Parliament?, Sandeep Shastri4. The Indian Cabinet, Ajay K. Mehra5. The Supreme Court, Ronojoy SenSection II: Federalism and Local Politics6. The Changing Nature of Federalism in India, Rekha Saxena7. Political Leadership in India, Ashutosh Kumar8. Politics in the Third Tier: Municipalities and Panchayats, George MathewSection III: Elections9. The Election Commission of India and Its Evolution, Banasmita Bora10. Elections in India: A Journey over the Last Seven Decades, Sanjay Kumar11. Media Exposure and Vote Choice in Indian Elections: 1996-2019, Rahul VermaSection IV: The Major Parties12. BJP's Ideology, Structures, Sociology, and Strategies, Christophe Jaffrelot13. Congress Party in Decline, Zoya Hasan14. Regional Parties, Adam ZiegfeldSection V: Parties and Coalitions15. Political Parties: Centralised Electoral Machines, K. K. Kailash16. The Party System, Rekha Diwakar17. Coalition Politics in India, E. SridharanSection VI: Caste, Gender, Migration18. Caste and Politics: Limits of Democratization, Suhas Palshikar19. Women in Indian Politics, Carole Spary20. The Politics of Interstate Migration in India, Ashwani Kumar and Shashwat DharSection VII: Money and Politics21. Political Finance in India, Milan Vaishnav22. State-Business Relations in India, Kanta MuraliSection VIII: Secularism and Minorities23. Indian Secularism at Crossroads: An Interpretation, Rajeev Bhargava24. Communalism, Ashutosh Varshney25. Muslim Representation, Adnan FarooquiSection IX: Political Economy26. The Political Economy of Macroeconomic Policy in India, Surupa Gupta27. The Evolution of India's Economic Regulation: From Dirigisme to the New Regulatory State, John Echeverri-Gent28. The Politics of Public Service Delivery in India, Diego MaioranoSection X: Political Violence29. Insurgencies and Political Violence in India, Paul Staniland30. Coercive Instruments of the State, Arvind VermaSection XI: Foreign Policy and Security31. The Evolution of India's Foreign Policy, Sumit Ganguly32. Indian Defence Policy, Arzan Tarapore33. Drivers of India's South Asia Policy, Happymon Jacob34. India's Civil-Military Relations, Anit Mukherjee35. The New Normal: India's Quest for the 'Credible' in Nuclear Deterrence, Gaurav Kampani