Why India Matters

by Maya Chadda

Overview

Why is India’s rise on the world stage so controversial? How can a state that is losing authority to its regions at the same time grow in international importance? Exploring an apparent paradox, Maya Chadda shows how culture, politics, wealth, and policy have combined to forge a distinctive Indian path to power, both nationally and in the international arena.


CONTENTS:

• The Puzzle of India Rising.
• From Empire State to Multinational State.
• Managing Political Change.
• Economic Growth and India's Rise.
• India in World Politics.
• The Extended Strategic Perimeter.
• Soft Power.
• Why India Matters.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781626370388
Publisher:	Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	01/31/2014
Pages:	289
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Maya Chadda is professor of political science at William Patterson University of New Jersey. Her numerous publications include Building Democracy in South Asia: India, Nepal, and Pakistan and Ethnicity, Security, and Separatism in South Asia.

Editorial Reviews

In this readable and original book, Chadda makes a lucid and compelling case of why India matters.

Shalendra Sharma

Provocative.... Scholars who engage Chadda’s ambitious, far-reaching arguments will develop more sophisticated views through their efforts.

Political Science Quarterly - John Echeverri-Gent

02/24/2014
After the fall of the Soviet Union, India was on the ropes, desperately poor, beset by frequent rioting, assassinations, ethnic violence, domestic insurgencies, and seen by the world as “an irredentist, potentially unfriendly country,” unable to project power abroad. Few would have predicted the state’s transformation into one of the world’s fastest growing economies, a nuclear-armed multiparty democracy with a vibrant free press, and a dominant regional hegemon with aspirations of a permanent seat on the Security Council. William Patterson University political scientist Chadda (Building Democracy in South Asia) assesses India’s recent success by studying data from industry, elections, the military, and other areas. Countering the notion that the country was ill-suited to democracy, she writes: “India owes much of the political stability in the 2000s, and the resulting explosion of the country’s economic growth, to the restoration of political flexibility that accompanied the advent of multiparty rule.” Throughout, she relates the data to political scientist Eric Ringmar’s theories of national empowerment as a means of measuring India’s strength. Much of the book is a dry, precise recitation of political and economic developments, but chapters on India’s international relations hold greater appeal, with Chadda arguing that India’s growing soft power is “especially appealing to India’s foreign policy community.” Ultimately, as Chadda notes, the example of India may offer the world “an alternative road to nation-building.” (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

Provides a deft discussion of the myriad political forces that can thwart the most commonsensical policy prescriptions.

Sumit Ganguly

A deeply informative, analytically rigorous, and highly readable account of recent Indian political and economic development, as well as New Delhi’s emergence onto the global stage. India does indeed ‘matter,’ and now we have a much better understanding of why that is.

Devin Hagerty