Reinventing India

When India was invented as a «modern» country in the years after Independence in 1947 it styled itself as a secular, federal, democratic Republic committed to an ideology of development. Nehru's India never quite fulfilled this promise, but more recently his vision of India has been challenged by two «revolts of the elites»: those of economic liberalization and Hindu nationalism. These revolts have been challenged, in turn, by various movements, including those of India's «Backward Classes». These movements have exploited the democratic spaces of India both to challenge for power and to contest prevailing accounts of politics, the state and modernity. Reinventing India of…