In the 2014 General Election post-mortem, much has been made of the fact that the BJP won 282 seats, 52 percent of the contestable seats, on just 31 percent of the vote share. By contrast, in 2009, the Congress got just 206 seats, 38 percent of the contestable seats, on 29 percent of the vote share. What explains this great disparity in the number of seats won given similar vote shares?
The astounding mandate secured by Narendra Modi has led scholars and commentators alike to focus on what more the U.S. can do to win India’s favor. Whilst some argue that the Obama administration ought to “modi-fy” its advance, others recommend changing the playing field and developing “a new relationship with India.” In most instances, punditry appears focused on the immediate future, and perhaps for good reasons.
In February 2014, India managed a rare diplomatic coup de force when it hosted, in the same week, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Abdulaziz Al Saud and the Foreign Minister of Iran, Javad Zarif. The timing of these visits is hardly fortuitous; over the past two decades, India has adroitly managed to develop relations with diverse Middle Eastern countries such as Israel, Palestine, Iran, and Saudi Arabia. Some see this balancing act as indicative of a broader new approach to the region, defined as India’s “Look Middle East” Policy.
In 1988, India became the first country to ban the novel, The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie, following pressure from the leaders of the Muslim community. Today, India continues its banning spree, reflecting the deep and growing unease with the freedom to express, an unease which goes back to the time when the Constitution was seventeen months old and measures were put in place to check its steps forward.
Milan Vaishnav is a Senior Fellow and Director of the South Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. A CASI Non-Resident Scholar, his primary research focus is the political economy of India, and he examines issues such as corruption and governance, state capacity, electoral behavior, and relations with the diaspora.
Since 1991, when the Maharashtra Chief Minister launched a plan to transform Bombay into a “world class city” modeled on Singapore, the face of the city of Bombay (now Mumbai) has witnessed dramatic changes.
Professor Partha Chatterjee is working on a series of historical-anthropological studies entitled "Empire Against Terror." His book, A Princely Impostor? The Strange and Universal History of the Kumar of Bhawal, was published in 2003. It is a book on a court proceeding in Bengal in 1934-36 on establishing the identity of a person. The case offers several interesting problems regarding colonial assumptions on Indian identity, popular beliefs on political authority and personal morality and finally the techniques of the modern state to establish identity.
Raghuram Rajan is the Eric J. Gleacher Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business.
Prior to resuming teaching, Dr. Rajan was the Chief Economist at the International Monetary Fund between 2003 and 2006.
Justice Ruma Pal is a former judge of the Supreme Court of India who served on the bench from January 2000 to June 2006. The Honorable Mrs. Pal received her B.C.L. degree at Oxford University and started her practice in 1968 in Civil, Revenue, Labour and Constitutional matters in the Kolkata High Court.
His Excellency Ronen Sen is India’s Ambassador to the United States. A career diplomat, Ambassador Sen joined the Indian Foreign Service in July 1966. From 1968 to 1984, he served in Indian Missions/Posts in Moscow, San Francisco, Dhaka, and the Ministry of External Affairs. From 1984 to 1985, Ambassador Sen was Joint Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs. He was subsequently Joint Secretary to the Prime Minister of India from January 1986 to July 1991, responsible for Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Science and Technology.