Description
About the Author
Walter Andersen is Professor of South Asia Studies at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He previously served as chief of the US State Department's South Asia Division in the Office of Analysis for the Near East and South Asia. Shridhar D. Damle is a scholar of Indian politics based in the USA.
Reviews
'Readers get a valuable guide to the recent success of the RSS in permeating virtually every field of Indian life ... Probably the most revealing and prescient insight [is] how far Hindutva feels threatened by seccessionist movements in Muslim-majority Kashmir and the Christian-majority Northeast.' -- Times Literary Supplement
'This is an important and quite detailed account of how the intellectual super-structure of Modi's government works, and where one can expect tensions in the future ... it will be hard to find a better telling of this story.' -- Survival: Global Politics and Strategy
'This book is a welcome addition to the growing literature on Hindutva politics.' -- Commonwealth & Comparative Politics
'A manual on the functioning of the RSS over the last three decades ... It allows the critical reader to understand what the RSS wants the people to think of it. And it, though perhaps not unwittingly, brings to the fore the contradictions between what the organisation professes it is or what it wants to be, and what it actually is.' -- Financial Express
'Walter Andersen is, perhaps, the only scholar to have observed, or studied, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) for nearly five decades.' -- The Indian Express
'While not saying so explicitly, the book captures a fundamental aspect of the RSS: the focus on the long-term goal of Hindu consolidation while maintaining tactical flexibility.' -- The Hindu
'Possibly the most interesting chapter is on the debate within the Sangh Parivar on "Economic Self-Sufficiency". The conflict between the BJP's ideas of global capitalism and the more socialist and India-centric notions of the RSS and its trade unions and affiliates is laid out for the reader, with examples of back and forth negotiations and compromises.' -- The Hindustan Times
Book Information
ISBN 9781787380257
Author Walter Andersen
Format Hardback
Page Count 320
Imprint C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd
Publisher C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd