Rahul Mukherji

Political Economy of Reforms in India discusses the political economy of the country's growth, globalization, and welfare. It finds that the political economy of growth and globalization are intimately connected. And, the political economy of welfare, though dependent to a much greater extent on state intervention than growth, is critically dependent on the growth process. Governments and markets can both fail to deliver. Understanding the political process of economic change is critical for evolving a view about the importance of governments and markets in economic activity. This book highlights the critical importance of political economy during the course of development. Economic ideas about growth, globalization, and welfare have to traverse a political distance before citizens can benefit from economic institutions and policies. Mukherji reviews the importance of various factors that affect economic change in India and finds that the way the government, especially its technocrats, think is important for producing change.

This book considers the remarkable transformations that have taken place in India since 1980, a period that began with the assassination of the formidable Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Her death, and that of her son Rajiv seven years later, marked the end of the Nehru-Gandhi era. Although the country remains one of the few democracies in the developing world, many of the policies instigated by these earlier regimes have been swept away to make room for dramatic alterations in the political, economic and social landscape. Sumit Ganguly and Rahul Mukherji, two leading political scientists of South Asia, chart these developments with particular reference to social and political mobilization, the rise of the BJP and its challenge to Nehruvian secularism and the changes to foreign policy that, in combination with its meteoric economic development, have ensured India a significant place on the world stage.

This book considers the remarkable transformations that have taken place in India since 1980, a period that began with the assassination of the formidable Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Her death, and that of her son Rajiv seven years later, marked the end of the Nehru-Gandhi era. Although the country remains one of the few democracies in the developing world, many of the policies instigated by these earlier regimes have been swept away to make room for dramatic alterations in the political, economic and social landscape. Sumit Ganguly and Rahul Mukherji, two leading political scientists of South Asia, chart these developments with particular reference to social and political mobilization, the rise of the BJP and its challenge to Nehruvian secularism and the changes to foreign policy that, in combination with its meteoric economic development, have ensured India a significant place on the world stage.