The Indian Ideology

An iconoclastic reappraisal of the history and political culture of modern India in a new, expanded edition featuring the author’s reply to his critics, an interview by writer and activist Praful Bidwai and a postscript on India under the rule of Narendra Modi.

Since 1947 the Indian state has claimed to possess a harmonious territorial unity, to embody the values of a stable political democracy, and to adhere to a steadfast religious impartiality. Even many of those critical of disparities in Indian society still underwrite such claims. But has the idea of India corresponded to the realities of the Union?

In The Indian Ideology, historian Perry Anderson provides an unforgettable reading of the Subcontinent’s passage through Independence and Partition, the vexed legacies of Gandhi and Nehru, and the strikingly close relationship between Indian democracy and caste inequality.