Claiming India from Below

Going beyond electoral politics and government, this volume broadens the scope of the functioning of democracy in India, and explores citizens’ role in the implementation of public policy. It looks at the ways in which extra-parliamentary power monitoring devices such as public institutions, citizens’ associations or assemblies, and the mainstream and emerging forms of the media, permeate through the political order. The volume:

• brings participation and communication in governance and policy making to the centrestage;

• examines case studies of state and citizen engagement from across India; and

• presents perspectives of practitioners, activists and scholars to provide a comprehensive view of the debates surrounding the idea of Indian democracy.

This book will be useful to scholars and researchers in politics, political science, media studies, public administration, sociology and social anthropology, as well as the interested general reader.

Vipul Mudgal works on the intersections of media, democracy and political violence. He has a doctorate in Media Studies from Leicester University and is a recipient of the Nehru Centenary British Fellowship and Jefferson Fellowship at the East-West Center, Hawaii. He heads Inclusive Media for Change, a clearing house of ideas on development alternatives at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), Delhi, where he concluded his Visiting Senior Fellowship in October 2014. In March 2015, he joined Common Cause, known for its high-impact interventions in policy and governance, as director and chief executive.