India today :

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Chapter 1: Making Sense of India Today ---- PART I. Economy. Chapter 2: When and Why did India Take Off? --- Chapter 3: How Have the Poor Fared (and Others Too)? --- Chapter 4: Why Hasn't Economic Growth Delivered More for Indian Workers? --- Chapter 5: Is the Indian State Delivering on Promises of 'Inclusive Growth' and Social Justice? ---- PART II. Politics. Chapter 6: How did a 'Weak' State Promote Audacious Reforms? --- Chapter 7: Has India's Democracy Been a Success? --- Chapter 8: Is Government in India Becoming More Responsive? --- Chapter 9: Has the Rise of Hindu Nationalism Halted? --- Chapter 10: Why has Maoism Become Such a Force in Rural India? ---- PART III. Society. Chapter 11: Does India Have a Civil Society? --- Chapter 12: Does Caste Still Matter in India? --- Chapter 13: How Much Have Things Changed for Indian Women? --- Chapter 14: Can India Benefit From Its Demographic Dividend? --- Chapter 15: Afterword: India Today, and India in the World.

Twenty years ago India was still generally thought of as an archetypal developing country, home to the largest number of poor people of any country in the world, and beset by problems of low economic growth, casteism and violent religious conflict. Now India is being feted as an economic power-house which might well become the second largest economy in the world before the middle of this century. Its democratic traditions, moreover, remain broadly intact. How and why has this historic transformation come about? And what are its implications for the people of India, for Indian society and politics? These are the big questions addressed in this book by three scholars who have lived and researched in different parts of India during the period of this great transformation. -- Back cover.