India's society, economy, and polity have been transformed at a gathering pace since the early 1990s, and India's growing role on the world stage makes it imperative to understand the roots and consequences of these changes. The 11 papers in this interdisciplinary volume review the growing body of data that help to make sense of these changes and to understand their likely significance. The volume provides systematic, macro-level studies of economic, demographic, social, and political change in India but also micro-level analyses of the detailed mechanisms 'on the ground' of how Indian society is being re-shaped. This rare combination of micro- and macro-level analyses thus gives a rounded picture not only of national trends but also of the underlying processes of change. Each of the papers, by leading authorities in each field, showcases the fruits of new, previously unpublished scholarship across the social sciences. For example, Oliver Heath and Yogendra Yadav's paper draws on the remarkable series of election studies from 1967 to 2004 to offer an original picture and analysis of electoral change as India moved from its post-independence to understanding the processes of change and diversity in modern India's period of Congress dominance to its contemporary much more diverse structure. By contrast, the paper by Patricia and Roger Jeffery draws upon intensive village-level fieldwork conducted across 25 years when social welfare services have been transformed under globalizing and liberalizing pressures. By bringing together such contrasting kinds of social science studies, the volume will be a major new contribution to understanding the processes of change and diversity in modern India.

Diversity and Change in Modern India: Economic, Social and Political Approaches (Proceedings of the British Academy: Themed volumes of essays in the humanities and social sciences, 159)

Business & Money

Heath, Anthony F.

Jeffery, Roger

Economics

The British Academy

In his landmark 1942 report on social insurance Sir William Beveridge talked about the 'five giants on the road to reconstruction' - the giants of Want, Disease, Ignorance, Squalor, and Idleness. Social Progress in Britain investigates how much progress Britain has made in tackling the challenges of material deprivation, ill-health, educational standards, lack of housing, and unemployment in the decades since Beveridge wrote. It also asks how progress in Britain compares with that of peer countries -- Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Sweden and the USA. Has Britain been slipping behind? What has been the impact of the increased economic inequality which Britain experienced in the 1980s -- has rising economic inequality been mirrored by increasing inequalities in other areas of life too? Have there been increasing inequalities of opportunity between social classes, men and women, and different ethnic groups? And what have been the implications for Britain's sense of social cohesion?

Social Progress in Britain

Oxford University Press

Britain has become increasingly diverse over the last fifty years and she has been fortunate to attract relatively highly educated immigrants with democratic values and positive perceptions of the British political system. But Britain's ethnic minorities have suffered prejudice, harassment and discrimination, while politicians increasingly argue that they have failed to integrate adequately into British society and accuse them of leading separate lives. In this book we set out to explore the extent and nature of the political rather than the economic integration of Britain's growing ethnic minority population. We consider what ethnic minorities in Britain think about and how they engage in British politics. This includes political knowledge and interest, political values and policy preferences, perceptions of parties, preferences for parties, what parties offer ethnic minorities, electoral registration, turnout and vote choice, other forms of political participation (such as signing petitions and demonstrations) and trust in political institutions and satisfaction with the democratic system. The book considers the ways in which ethnic minorities resemble or differ from the white British population, and differences between different minority groups. The analysis is based on the largest and broadest academic survey ever of the political attitudes and behaviour of Britain's main ethnic minority groups, the 2010 Ethnic Minority British Election Study, in conjunction with the nationally representative British Election Study and other surveys. The findings are based on complex statistical regression models but they are presented and interpreted for more general readers. To what extent does discrimination at work and social exclusion alienate ethnic minorities from the political process? Are those minorities who associate more with those from their own ethnic group less engaged politically? Are those who were born in Britain better integrated than immigrants? This study addresses these and related questions. Despite there being many reasons for minorities to disassociate themselves from British politics they engage in positive and constructive ways. But there are important differences between the nature of white British and ethnic minority political engagement and between different minority groups, and especially between immigrants and their descendants. As a result politicians and political parties should not take the political support of ethnic minorities for granted.

The Political Integration of Ethnic Minorities in Britain

Politics & Social Sciences

Sanders, David

Fisher, Stephen D.

Sobolewska, Maria

Rosenblatt, Gemma

Social Sciences

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