Book Review: Top Dressing or Deep Roots?

Sudheesh, R.C. (2023) Book Review: Top Dressing or Deep Roots? Economic and Political Weekly, 58 (11). pp. 30-32. ISSN 2349-8846

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Abstract

Several recent works have taken on the challenging task of understanding the Indian democracy from the grassroots. Works like India’s Silent Revolution: The Rise of the Lower Castes in North India by Christophe Jaffrelot (2003), The Vernacularisation of Democracy: Politics, Caste and Religion in India by Lucia Michelutti (2008), The - Enchantment of Democracy and India by Sudipta Kaviraj (2011), Government as Practice: Democratic Left in a Transforming India by Dwaipayan Bhattacharyya (2016) and Making Sense of Indian Democracy: Theory as Practice by Yogendra Yadav (2020), among others, have helped us understand how the dynamism of the largest democracy in the world is shaped, sustained and reinvigorated at all levels from the bottom to the top. Most importantly, they provide a granular picture of why ordinary people participate in democratic processes at all. Cultivating Democracy: Politics and Citizenship in Agrarian India by Mukulika Banerjee takes this scholarship further ahead.

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Sudheesh, R.C.

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