Debating Difference: Group Rights and Liberal Democracy in India - Hardcover

Rochana Bajpai

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 019806750X ISBN 13: 9780198067504

Publisher: OUP India, 2011

Synopsis

How can inequalities between groups be addressed, while at the same time sustaining common citizenship? Debating Difference offers a new approach to this key question for liberal democracies, demonstrating that argument and debate is crucial for reconciling the demands of group equality and civic unity. India offers a unique case of group-differentiated rights. Using landmark constitutional and legislative debates on minority rights and quotas, Rochana Bajpai develops a model for interpreting post-Independence group rights that hinges on the interplay between five principal normative concepts; secularism, democracy, social justice, national unity, and development. Tracing the shifting meanings of these values over time, this book demonstrates that liberal and democratic concepts are more sophisticated and widely shared in the Indian polity than is commonly believed. The author identifies the limits of Western-centric accounts of multiculturalism. She also establishes the signifi cance of political rhetoric for explanations of policy shifts and political change.

About this title

About the Author

Rochana Bajpai is Lecturer, Department of Politics, SOAS, University of London.

Edition details

• Publisher: OUP India
• Publication date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 019806750X
• ISBN 13: 9780198067504
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 312