This volume provides a cross-disciplinary analysis by leading social scientists of contemporary India of the transformations unleashed by the introduction of egalitarian and liberal principles of government within the context of the colonial legacy, hierarchial social order, group-based identities and plural cultures. Among the transformations discussed are the electoral upsurge of historically marginalized groups creating a 'political democracy of castes', the
autonomous mobilization of lower castes and dalits in competition with each other and in opposition to upper castes to assert social...

 This volume challenges the assumption that Muslims in India constitute a homogeneous community. Focusing specifically on gender issues, the contributors instead locate the Muslim womens community within the social, economic, and political developments that have taken place in the subcontinent, pre- and post-Independence, in order to examine how th