The Modernity of Tradition: Political Development in India / Edition 1

by Lloyd I. Rudolph, Susanne Hoeber Rudolph

Overview

Stressing the variations in meaning of modernity and tradition, this work shows how in India traditional structures and norms have been adapted or transformed to serve the needs of a modernizing society. The persistence of traditional features within modernity, it suggests, answers a need of the human condition.

Three areas of Indian life are analyzed: social stratification, charismatic leadership, and law. The authors question whether objective historical conditions, such as advanced industrialization, urbanization, or literacy, are requisites for political modernization.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780226731377
Publisher:	University of Chicago Press
Publication date:	07/15/1984
Series:	Midway Reprint Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	316
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Lloyd I. Rudolph is professor emeritus of political science at the University of Chicago and coauthor with Susanne Hoeber Rudolph of several books, including, most recently, In Pursuit of Lakshmi, also published by the University of Chicago Press.

Susanne Hoeber Rudolph is the William Benton Distinguished Service Professor Emerita at the University of Chicago and coauthor with Lloyd I. Rudolph of several books, including, most recently, In Pursuit of Lakshmi, also published by the University of Chicago Press.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Part One - Traditional Structures and Modern Politics: Caste
Marx, Modernity, and Mobilization
Paracommunities: The Sociology of Caste Associations
Horizontal Mobilization: The Nadars; the Vanniyars
The Politics of Caste
Differential Mobilization: Fission, Fusion, Decompression
The Future of Equality: The Social Condition of Political Integration
Untouchability: The Test of Fellow Feeling
Part Two - The Traditional Roots of Charisma: Gandhi
The Fear of Cowardice
Gandhi and the New Courage
Self-Control and Political Potency
This-Worldly Asceticism and Political Modernization
The Private Origins of Public Obligation
The New Meaning of Old Paths
Part Three - Legal Cultures and Social Change: Panchayats, Pandits, and Professionals
Traditional and Modern Justice
The Modernity of Brahmanic Law
The Anglicization of Indian Law
Appendix
Index