Democratic transformation and the vernacular public arena in India / / edited by Taberez Ahmed Neyazi, Akio Tanabe, and Shinya Ishizaka.

• TeilnehmendeR: Neyazi, Taberez Ahmed, 1977-
• Place / Publishing House: Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon ;, New York, N.Y. : : Routledge,, 2014.
• Year of Publication: 2014
• Language: English
• Series: Routledge New Horizons in South Asian Studies
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (239 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

"Since the structural change in Indian society that began in the 1990s - the result of the liberalization of the economy, devolution of power, and decentralization of the government - an unprecedented, democratic transformation has been taking place. This has caused the emergence of unexpected coalitions and alliances across diverse castes, classes, and religious groups according to the issues involved. In this volume, we intend to understand this deepening of democracy by employing a new analytical framework of the "vernacular public arena" where negotiations, dialogues, debates and contestations occur among "vernacular publics." This reflects the profound changes in Indian democracy as diverse social groups, including dalits, adivasis and Other Backward Classes; minorities, women; individuals from rural areas, towns, and cities; the poor and the new middle classes - the "vernacular publics" - participate in new ways in India's public life. This participation is not confined to electoral politics, but has extended to the public arenas in which these groups have begun to raise their voice publicly and to negotiate and engage in dialogue with each other and the wider world. Contributors demonstrate that the participation of vernacular publics has resulted in the broadening of Indian democracy itself which focuses on the ways of governance, improving people's lives, life chances, and living environments. An original, comprehensive study that furthers our understanding of the unfolding political dynamism and the complex reshuffling and reassembling taking place in Indian society and politics, this book will be relevant to academics with an interest in South Asian Studies from a variety of disciplines, including Political Science, Sociology, Anthropology and Media Studies"-- Provided by publisher.

Table of Contents

Cover; Half Title; Title Page; Copyright Page; Table of Contents; List of figures; List of tables; Notes on contributors; Preface; List of abbreviations; 1 Introduction: democratic transformation and the vernacular public arena in India; 2 Politics of relations and the emergence of the vernacular public arena: glocal networks of development and livelihood in Odisha; 3 Social politics: youth vernacular action in the Indian Himalayas; 4 Empowering the vernacular publics: civil society and democratic participation in Rajasthan

5 News media and political participation: re- evaluating democratic deepening in India6 The Jan Lokpal Andolan and alternate politics: symbiotic interactions, vernacular publics, and news media in the Jan Lokpal Andolan; 7 Ways of democracy: making politics work for the urban poor; 8 Re-evaluating the Chipko (forest protection) movement: the emergence of the vernacular public arena in the Uttarakhand; 9 Grassroots and vernacular articulations: politics and popular democracy in Uttar Pradesh villages; 10 Caste and vernacular politics in Tamil Nadu, South India

11 Against the public sphere: the morals of disclosure and the 'vernacular public sphere' in rural Rajasthan12 Communal riots and states: a comparative study of Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh; Glossary; Index