Contemporary India: A Sociological View

Globalization, Hindutva and the Mandal agitation have transformed our social landscape over the last two decades and confronted us with new problems and possibilities. This book seeks to critically re-examine what popular common sense tells us about these and contemporary concerns. Why are we so eager to claim modernity in same contexts and so anxious to disown it in others? How does the economy come to rival religion and history as a source of national identity? Where does the moral legitimacy of the middle class come from? What makes caste such a controversial criterion for public policy? Has globalization made regions irrelevant? These are some of the questions explored in this book.