The “transformation of India” featured in Bose's latest book is the “bottom-up federalization of India's politics in the post-Congress era—an evolution rooted in the nation's diversity and driven by the will of its people” (p. 109). Bose offers a political history of modern India, weaving in pithy biographical sketches of major regional leaders and a scathing critique of the top-down approach of the Congress Party, whose “condescending paternalism is outdated and ineffective in the early twenty-first century” (p. 95).
Bose's emphasis is on party politics, specifically the decline of the Congress Party and the growing importance of regional parties and coalition governments. Ironically, the ideologically centralist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), according to Bose, is adapting better than Congress to centrifugal politics (p. 76). A chapter on West Bengal furthers the regionalization thesis by linking the rise of the Communist Party (CPM) there to regionally specific circumstances, such as the influx of Hindu refugees from East Pakistan. Regime change in West Bengal, where a new regional party led by Mamata Banerjee toppled the hegemonic CPM, illustrates how “struggles from below” contributed to India's “robust” democracy (p. 114).
Although Bose finds India's devolutionary transformation largely positive for both democracy and development, he argues that some of India's major challenges are rooted in regionalism. He features two in chapters on “The Maoist Challenge” and “The Kashmir Question.” Despite its transnational ideology and nationwide aspirations, the first-wave Naxalite movement was based on a “regional subculture of radicalism particular to West Bengal,” rooted in middle-class “revolutionary fantasies” (p. 170; italics in original). Explicating three generations and several regional variants of Maoism, Bose critiques the Maoists' “ruthlessness,” a term he also applies to the counterinsurgency campaigns against them (p. 194), in a balanced chapter that will be of interest to human rights scholars. The regional lens also reveals facets of the Kashmir question obscured by an overemphasis on religion. Arguing against the “reification of religion,” Bose states that the “insurgency against Indian authority was rooted instead in the gradual radicalization … of a distinct regional identity” (p. 228; italics in original). Previous heavy-handed, manipulative politics at the center created conflicts within India's diverse “sociopolitical landscape” (p. 52), but India's devolutionary trend provides a “glimmer of possibility” for Kashmir (p. 286).
Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh receive some attention in the discussion of Maoists, but more analysis of the newest states in India would be a useful focus in Bose's future work. Until then, scholars can turn to Sudha Pai's Handbook of Politics in Indian States (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2013), an edited volume of twenty-two chapters covering not only party politics but also state-level social movements and political economies, and the emergence of several new states. Another book on transformation, Christophe Jaffrelot's India's Silent Revolution (New York: Columbia University Press, 2003) featured the rise of lower-caste politics in north India, including the Bahujan Samaj Party, and concluded that this caste-based transformation deepened Indian democracy. Regional parties are rooted in India's diversity, argues Bose, who recognizes that regional leaders at times draw on caste and religious voter bases, but caste and religion are not his major themes. Successful regional leaders, he argues, recognize that their political success depends on their “ability to deliver decent governance and socioeconomic development to the people” (p. 108).
Transforming India includes topics overshadowed or ignored in Congress-centric political histories. An overview of the many political dynasties (not just the Nehru-Gandhi one) found in various Indian states (pp. 95–96) and discussions of women in politics (not just Indira), especially Mamata Banerjee, Mayawati, and Naxalite women, are particularly fascinating. Shifting between levels of analysis, Bose personalizes events with these profiles and others, including Narendra Modi, Sheik Abdullah, and victims of political violence such as Tapasi Malik in West Bengal and Rajouri Kadal in Kashmir.
The fates of those two teens will capture the attention of students, who will find unfamiliar terms, such as Bajrang Dal, succinctly defined and their significance (political, mythical) explained (p. 68). An introductory passage debunks common student preconceptions about India, by noting, for instance, that India was a donor to the Eurozone's bailout fund (p. 2). The vivid writing, photographs, and glossary contribute to this book's utility as a text for undergraduate or graduate students, research scholars, and even political strategists, who would do well to heed the practical implications of Bose's study: “parachute missions from New Delhi are no substitute for strong organizations and leaders rooted in the soil of states” (p. 95).
Bose draws on academic and journalistic accounts as well as infrequent but powerful examples from his own fieldwork in West Bengal, including violence and threats against Trinamool Congress supporters (p. 162). Electoral outcomes of various parties over time and in different states, described in detailed narratives, would be easier to follow if presented in tables or graphs accompanied by narrative analysis. But, elsewhere, accessible prose makes sense of the alphabet soup of Naxalite organizations, such as the CPI(ML)-PW.
Bose draws theoretical parallels between India's transformation and Tocqueville's notions of “democratic revolutions” (pp. 75–76) and Gramsci's descriptions of upheaval in post-World War I Italy (pp. 57, 85). These theoretical touchstones are classic, but Bose's book contextualizes immediate issues, including the political fate of Telangana, the outlook for the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, and the adaptation of the BJP to the regionalized polity. As I write, votes are being cast in India, and the U.S. media is fixating on the Congress vs. BJP competition. Transforming India suggests we should be focusing on the state-specific parties and alliances that are transforming India's democracy.
