Class, Ethnic Group, and Party in Indian Politics

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Several recent books on India have focused on issues of nationalism and ethnic conflict, policy and ideological differences, parties and elections, and the stability of Indian democracy. The most useful contributions to the understanding of Indian politics and to social science theory have come from works that use analytical categories that have proven themselves cross-culturally (namely, those of class, status group, and power), and that lay bare through case studies the sources of the conflicts and cleavages in Indian society that both threaten and sustain democracy. Less useful are works that impose on Indian political behavior explanatory frameworks, political ideals, and methodologies derived from Western political history and culture-bound social science, such as political divisions between Left and non-Left, the two-party system, citizenship, and survey research.

This publication has 7 references indexed in Scilit: