In the first volume of this sweeping analysis of contemporary India, Raju Das offers a much needed class-based perspective on the economic situation in what has become one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Offering invaluable insights along the way, Das examines the specificities of Indian capitalism and neoliberalism, the country’s geographically uneven development, the impact of technological change, and the consequences of its export-oriented, nature-dependent production.

Critical Reflections on Economy and Politics in India applies abstract theoretical ideas to the concrete situation in India, which, in turn, inspires a rethinking of theory. Das unabashedly shows the relevance of a class theory that takes seriously matters of oppression/domination of religious minorities and lower castes. A must read for anyone looking to not only interpret the world, but to change it.

Raju J. Das' profile page

Raju J. Das holds a Ph.D. from The Ohio State University, Columbus, and is currently a Professor at York University, Toronto. He is the author of Marxist Class Theory for a Sceptical World.

"This book is a magisterial examination by Raju J Das of the current political and economic dynamics in India, and confirms his place as one of the leading social scientists contributing to our understanding of what is really happening on the subcontinent. After the hiatus of the cultural turn, this volume returns the focus once more to where it should be: a materialist approach based on political economy and class analysis. As such, it is situated firmly within the intellectual tradition of the best scholarship about India, as exemplified in the earlier mode of production debate. It will surely define how the Indian development path is studied and argued over for the foreseeable future."
—Tom Brass, formerly of SPS, Cambridge University, and Editor of The Journal of Peasant Studies.