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This book has its origins in an earlier book that two of us wrote, with Stuart Corbridge, called India Today: Economy, Politics and Society (Polity Press, 2013). We began writing that book a decade ago, in 2010, and the writing was mostly completed in mid-2011. In the years that have elapsed since then, there has been a great deal of change in India. Some of it has been associated with the achievement of an absolute majority in the Indian parliament for the first time by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the political party that is a part of the wider movement of Hindu nationalism, in 2014; but there have been changes too, that are the outcomes of much longer running trends in India’s economy and in Indian society. At the same time there are sometimes surprising indications of continuity from the past – in social relationships, for instance, and in the ways in which formally democratic politics works. India has, in many ways, defied the expectations of theorists of ‘modernization’. So it has come about, after we responded positively to the suggestion from Polity Press that we should ‘update’ India Today, that we have found ourselves writing a largely new book. Indeed, it has been difficult to draw a line and to stop writing in the late summer of 2019, because of the flurry of policy innovation that has followed from the re-election in April–May of this year, with an increased majority, of the BJP government led by Narendra Modi.

A further reason for this becoming a new book, rather than a second edition of India Today, is that our friend Stuart Corbridge found it very difficult to contribute to writing, following his appointment as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Durham in 2015. It is a matter of great regret for us that we have lost the knowledge and insight that Stuart would have brought to this book. At the same time, we want to acknowledge that India: Continuity and Change in the 21st Century bears clear marks of the ways in which Stuart designed India Today, including its organization around a series of questions about India’s economy, politics and society. This book displays its own particular historical path dependency.

We – John Harriss and Craig Jeffrey – were happy that Trent Brown, Craig’s colleague in the Australia India Institute at the University of Melbourne, agreed to join us in the writing of this new book, bringing his experience of research on civil society organizations and rural development. None of us is an Indian citizen, so we are writing as sympathetic outsiders, with the disadvantages as well as possible advantages that this status brings. We bring to the book as well the experience of having lived, worked and carried out research in different parts of India for, collectively, very many years – mainly in the south and in West Bengal (Harriss), in western Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand (Jeffrey), and in the north-west and Himalayas (Brown), though we have all travelled widely throughout the country. We are able to draw extensively on the excellent research of large numbers of Indian scholars, and in regard to current and recent events, on the work of the many outstanding independent journalists and commentators in the country.

A further reason for our decision to write a new book rather than ‘updating’ India Today is that there is such a large volume of new research and analysis that has been published over the last ten years, both dealing specifically with India, and with the wider questions that are addressed in our book, such as the patterns and determinants of economic growth or trends in democratic politics. We cannot claim to have read everything of note that has been published, but as our bibliography shows, we have drawn extensively on new writing. As in our earlier book, however, we have necessarily referred a good deal to research that has been published in the Economic and Political Weekly (EPW). This is a journal that, so far as we are aware, is without parallel elsewhere in the world, publishing each week considered commentary on current events in India, and elsewhere in the world, together with scholarly articles based on high-quality research, across a wide field. The ‘EPW’ has always encouraged diversity of opinion, and its pages contain vigorous debate. We draw, as well, on the work of the many fine journalists and commentators who write for India’s English-language press – the newspapers, The Hindu, The Indian Express and the Times of India; news magazines, including especially Frontline, published from Chennai by The Hindu group; and independent web-based journalism. We draw in particular on The Wire (https://thewire.in), but we have also consulted Scroll.in (https://scroll.in) and The Print (https://theprint.in). In regard to developments in the Indian economy, the website Ideas for India (https://www.ideasforindia.in) lives up to its name, carrying short reports of current research, mainly by economists, and commentary. It, too, encourages diversity of opinion, and debate on policy matters. We have referred, as well, to the Western press, and especially to the Financial Times for its coverage of economic affairs, as well as to the New York Times, the Washington Post and The Guardian. All carry thoughtful reporting and commentary.

This book, like India Today, is organized around a series of questions, about the Indian economy, politics and society. Each of the chapters can be read independently, and they can be read in any order. This means that there is, necessarily, some overlap in their contents – though we have aimed to reduce this to a minimum. At the same time, the book as a whole does offer what is, we believe, a coherent argument about the changes that have come about in India over the last decade in particular. Careful readers will note that there is some tension in these pages, reflecting the fact that the three authors are not entirely of one mind in their views of the extent and significance of the changes that are associated especially with the dominance that the Bharatiya Janata Party has established in Indian politics. We are confident that this is a strength of our text, because it is of course far too soon to reach a final judgement on contemporary events, and we believe that we have set out evidence and arguments on the basis of which readers can form their own assessments. It is, unashamedly, an academic book, yet one that, we hope – like India Today – will be read and referred to by general readers as well as by our colleagues and by students.

In writing the book we have incurred many debts. For gifts variously of inspiration and of critical support and help we would like to thank: Ashwin Subramanian, Neera Chandhoke, Jeff Checkel, Febe De Geest, Chris Gibson, Alf Gunvald Nilsen, Robin Jeffrey, Rob Jenkins, Surinder Jodhka, Jens Lerche, Atul Kohli, Harsh Mander, James Manor, Rahul Mukerji, Johnny Parry, Suhas Palshikar, Amy Piedalue, V. K. Ramachandran, R. Ramakumar, Haripriya Rangan, Nate Roberts, S. Parasuraman, Aruna Roy, Srila Roy, Alpa Shah, Sharada Srinivasan, Olle Tornquist, Gilles Verniers, M. Vijayabaskar and Rupa Viswanath. Special thanks to those who have given us critical comments on one or other of the chapters of the book: Leslie Armijo, Jane Dyson, Chris Fuller, Amanda Gilbertson, K. P. Kannan, Sanjay Ruparelia, N. C. Saxena, Jeff Redding, Kunal Sen and Marcus Taylor. None of these friends is at all responsible for what follows, and most of them disagree with some parts of our text.

Finally, for so much that has nothing to do with writing books, we thank our families, for forbearance, distraction and love.

JH, CJ and TB, Kingston, Ontario; and Melbourne, November 2019