Modernity of Tradition: Political Development in India

by Lloyd I. Rudolph and Susanne Hoeber Rudolph

Book 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...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0226731359
• ISBN13: 9780226731353
• Release Date: March 1968
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Length: 316 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Excellent introduction to the political continuty of caste

One of the first political science books I have ever read on India, and a benchmark for everything that follows. This book addresses the stability of old notions of politics, the changes in ideas of caste that these "traditional" groupings politically conscious and empowered on local and national levels, and how Gandhi was able to use his Indian background as a fertile field for the liberal politics of the West. A great read.