At the annual meeting of the British South Asian Studies Association (2014) at Royal Holloway College, London, there were several papers and panels on the AAP party but none on the Congress. While it is widely recognised that the life of the Congress party and modern India converges, there is very little research interest in it among scholars from India and abroad. The key reason for such intellectual indifference, particularly among progressive liberals, is that they continue to see the shadow of Indira Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi over the party. Any effort to study it implies empathising with the single biggest historic threat to India’s democratic cause. As historian Shruti Kapila recently wrote, it was Ram Manohar Lohia who gave the clarion call for a Congress-Mukta India long before Narendra Modi made it almost his campaign theme in the 2014 elections. “Indira is India” — and “Congress Mukta India” are two extreme slogans and both have the tendency to cloud the analysis of the Congress party, its contributions and future, whatever is left of it.
The author of this volume is one of the few scholars who has been following the party from the beginning of her research career.Therefore, this book is the result of several decades of thinking. Though it is specifically devoted to the study of the decade from 2009 to 2019, a close reading reveals knowledge and analysis that stretches far beyond the stated period.
Before 2014, the Congress party had been out of national power on a few occasions such as in 1977,1989, and 1998. Remarkably, during those defeats, it maintained a healthy vote share. There was also an increase in both vote share and seats in Parliament in 2009 compared to 2004 when the party wrested power rather surprisingly from the Vajpayee-led NDA coalition. Given this electoral and political context, the decline of the party that is not just confined to electoral defeats but also its failure to fight against the machinations of its key rival, the BJP, that led to the collapse of its governments in states such as Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, and the defections of many of its leaders prevously known for their loyalty to the family, raise compelling questions.This book seeks to answer the big question of why this is so by interrogating critical narratives on the Gujarat model, majoritarianism, and the decline of secular politics.
Part of a series by Hasan on Indian politics, this volume is built on the narrative of her earlier work, Congress After Indira, that covered the period from 1984 to 2009. Readers interested in the historical dimensions of the decline of the Congress would find it informative and enlightening to read both volumes in tandem.
Among the points the author seems to be stressing is the changed context of India’s political economy, mainly its shift from state-led development to market-based strategy under Manmohan Singh as India’s finance minister in the early 1990s. The author seems to suggest that the rise of the Hindu Right in India is part of the global rise of the religious right. But if we disentangle the nation’s politics from global politics and reflect on the last one hundred years of Indian politics, it becomes clear that the ideological struggle was indigenous and that the Hindu Right succeeded in outmanoeuvring careless and complacent secular forces. Perhaps the linkages with global forces or even with globalisation are not the most decisive factor.
The narrative here is based on myriad primary and secondary sources and the author has conducted interviews with several key players to include their insights. She concludes: “Even in its shrunken state, the party has political footprints all over the country. It is difficult to imagine liberal consolidation without it.” Clearly, the author is suggesting that the Congress is somehow indispensable. However, its decimation has been so consistent and systematic that it is hard to believe that the party could ever survive its existential crisis. A Congress revival demands more well-designed strategies than just padayatras and Twitter activism.
Yes, there is a social and ideological base outside the appeal of the Gandhi-controlled Congress representing a Congress outside the Congress by parties such as Mamta Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress(TMC), Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party(NCP), and the YSR Congress in Andra Pradesh. It is true that there is a need for liberal consolidation but stiff internal differences and individual ambitions make the prospect of that happening very dim. The reason for this goes beyond the rise of the BJP, which has replaced the Congress as the fulcrum of Indian politics. Bluntly put, the Congress leadership is the root cause for the party’s decline.
This is a valuable contribution to the scholarship on Indian politics. Those who care for Indian democracy, its plural character, secular ethos and minority rights can glean a great deal from this book.
Shaikh Mujibur Rehman teaches at Jamia Central University, New Delhi. He is the author of a forthcoming book, Shikwa e Hind: the Political future of Indian Muslims.
At the annual meeting of the British South Asian Studies Association (2014) at Royal Holloway College, London, there were several papers and panels on the AAP party but none on the Congress. While it is widely recognised that the life of the Congress party and modern India converges, there is very little research interest in it among scholars from India and abroad. The key reason for such intellectual indifference, particularly among progressive liberals, is that they continue to see the shadow of Indira Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi over the party. Any effort to study it implies empathising with the single biggest historic threat to India’s democratic cause. As historian Shruti Kapila recently wrote, it was Ram Manohar Lohia who gave the clarion call for a Congress-Mukta India long before Narendra Modi made it almost his campaign theme in the 2014 elections. “Indira is India” — and “Congress Mukta India” are two extreme slogans and both have the tendency to cloud the analysis of the Congress party, its contributions and future, whatever is left of it.
The author of this volume is one of the few scholars who has been following the party from the beginning of her research career.Therefore, this book is the result of several decades of thinking. Though it is specifically devoted to the study of the decade from 2009 to 2019, a close reading reveals knowledge and analysis that stretches far beyond the stated period.
Before 2014, the Congress party had been out of national power on a few occasions such as in 1977,1989, and 1998. Remarkably, during those defeats, it maintained a healthy vote share. There was also an increase in both vote share and seats in Parliament in 2009 compared to 2004 when the party wrested power rather surprisingly from the Vajpayee-led NDA coalition. Given this electoral and political context, the decline of the party that is not just confined to electoral defeats but also its failure to fight against the machinations of its key rival, the BJP, that led to the collapse of its governments in states such as Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, and the defections of many of its leaders prevously known for their loyalty to the family, raise compelling questions.This book seeks to answer the big question of why this is so by interrogating critical narratives on the Gujarat model, majoritarianism, and the decline of secular politics.
Part of a series by Hasan on Indian politics, this volume is built on the narrative of her earlier work, Congress After Indira, that covered the period from 1984 to 2009. Readers interested in the historical dimensions of the decline of the Congress would find it informative and enlightening to read both volumes in tandem.
Among the points the author seems to be stressing is the changed context of India’s political economy, mainly its shift from state-led development to market-based strategy under Manmohan Singh as India’s finance minister in the early 1990s. The author seems to suggest that the rise of the Hindu Right in India is part of the global rise of the religious right. But if we disentangle the nation’s politics from global politics and reflect on the last one hundred years of Indian politics, it becomes clear that the ideological struggle was indigenous and that the Hindu Right succeeded in outmanoeuvring careless and complacent secular forces. Perhaps the linkages with global forces or even with globalisation are not the most decisive factor.
The narrative here is based on myriad primary and secondary sources and the author has conducted interviews with several key players to include their insights. She concludes: “Even in its shrunken state, the party has political footprints all over the country. It is difficult to imagine liberal consolidation without it.” Clearly, the author is suggesting that the Congress is somehow indispensable. However, its decimation has been so consistent and systematic that it is hard to believe that the party could ever survive its existential crisis. A Congress revival demands more well-designed strategies than just padayatras and Twitter activism.
Yes, there is a social and ideological base outside the appeal of the Gandhi-controlled Congress representing a Congress outside the Congress by parties such as Mamta Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress(TMC), Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party(NCP), and the YSR Congress in Andra Pradesh. It is true that there is a need for liberal consolidation but stiff internal differences and individual ambitions make the prospect of that happening very dim. The reason for this goes beyond the rise of the BJP, which has replaced the Congress as the fulcrum of Indian politics. Bluntly put, the Congress leadership is the root cause for the party’s decline.
This is a valuable contribution to the scholarship on Indian politics. Those who care for Indian democracy, its plural character, secular ethos and minority rights can glean a great deal from this book.
Shaikh Mujibur Rehman teaches at Jamia Central University, New Delhi. He is the author of a forthcoming book, Shikwa e Hind: the Political future of Indian Muslims.