"Caste, faction and party in indian politics"

Here is volume two of the collection of Professor Paul Brass' articles dealing with some of the basic issues in contemporary
Indian politics. As in the case of the preceding volume, the articles here were originally published in international research journals which, by and large, have remained inaccessible to scholars in this part of the world. Three pieces in this volume are published for the first time. Of them, two, namely, the Introduction and Postscript, have been specially written for this volume, while the third, the Aligarh piece, is a thoroughly revised version of an earlier unpublished essay. The book is divided into three parts. Part
One consists of one long review article which sets the perspective for subsequent essays. In Part Two, the key essay is the study of politicization of the peasantry in Uttar Pradesh. This is followed by a very penetrating study of the two momentous parliamentary elections in 1977 and 1980. It focuses on the new forces that brought about dramatic upheavals in Indian politics within its democratic framework. Part Three offers two specific case studies, namely, caste alliance in Aligarh and voting patterns in Kanpur city. Finally, the Postscript provides a most objective political commentary on the 1984 parliamentary elections, perhaps the most crucial in India's recent history. Professor Brass remains preoccupied with the same basic political themes as in the preceding volume; in this book he explores them further as they manifest themselves in and through the election processes in India,
and, once again, he implies that despite the dominance of casteism and factionalism, democracy has come to thrive in India.
With this volume, Professor Brass' study of the predominant themes and issues in contemporary Indian politics come to a
completion.
The two volumes together provide perhaps the most authoritative and perceptive analysis of Indian politics in the last two decades, and are, therefore, indispensable as a reference book.