Narendra Subramanian's book Nation and Family is a comprehensive survey of personal law reforms across several countries and postcolonial contexts, and includes an account of the evolution of personal law reform in India, Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Lebanon, Morocco, the Philippines, Turkey, and Tunisia. While the number of countries surveyed is vast, the book focuses on analyzing the Indian state's policy towards personal law reform and the ways in which considerations of nation formation, democratic inclusion, and minority rights were implicated in the formulation of public policy.

The strength of the book lies in its comprehensive account of the details of personal law reform in India. Subramanian describes the relationship between national ideology, nation-state formation, and the reform of family law in postcolonial India. He attempts to contextualize within a comparative framework the way in which the evolution of personal law reform in India has reflected competing ideologies of nationalism, multiculturalism, and citizenship, while also paying attention to the particular historical, political, and cultural specificity of India.

Over the course of six chapters, first setting out the comparative theoretical framework, Nation and Family considers the justifications for retaining personal law in India in the context of secularism, nationalism, and minority rights. Next, the book closely examines the process of the reform of Hindu personal law, considering the political motivations underlying these contested reform initiatives from the 1950s onwards. It goes on to consider the trajectory of legislative reform of Christian and Muslim personal law in India in the light of questions of minority rights, family autonomy, secularism, and cultural pluralism. Throughout, Subramanian considers the formation of personal law in postcolonial India and specific legal reforms and legislative initiatives in the context of the larger theoretical framework of nationalism, cultural politics, secularism, and the question of minority rights. Finally, in chapter 6, “Nationalism, Multiculturalism and Personal Law,” Subramanian concludes by setting out the future of personal law reform in India, once again within a comparative framework, assessing the possibility for positive change by rooting change in cultural traditions. He ends on an optimistic note while reiterating the importance of strengthening cross-cultural ties and a pluralistic understanding of nation and community.

Indeed, India provides a fascinating lens through which to view issues of secularism, religious freedom, nation building, legal pluralism, and gendered citizenship. The full potential of such an ambitious and far-reaching project would have been realized had Subramanian more fully engaged with a rigorous analysis of the terms on which he relies, namely those of culture, gendered citizenship, secularism, and pluralism. A deeper examination of the centrality of postcolonial constitutionalism to nation building in India would have allowed for a more rigorous theorizing of the nature of secularism, religious freedom, and minority rights, and ultimately of the accommodation of minority difference. Without a more persuasive discussion of the politics of recognition, the justice of minority claims, the judicial response, and the legislative response to such claims, Subramanian's epistemological standpoint remains somewhat unclear. A fuller examination of the impact of personal law reform on women's equality rights would have been welcome, together with an expanded discussion of gendered citizenship as a specific location by virtue of which women are excluded from democratic participation and equality on grounds of religious freedom and state secularism. In examining the relationship between formal state law and informal non-state law, although Subramanian references the Vishwa Lochan Madan case (2014), the book would have benefited from a more robust discussion of community courts, khap panchayats, and the Dar ul Ulum and Dar ul Qaza, whose deeply misogynistic rulings and fatwas have had a profound impact on women's status within their communities.

Despite these limitations, Subramanian has made a valiant effort to detail the links between nationalism, culture, public policy, and personal law reform. Nation and Family is a useful reminder of the dangers of majoritarian politics. It offers a timely critique of Indian politics that resonates with the rise of a populist Hindu neo-fascist government that is committed to the erasure of minority difference.