Chapter 7 analyzes changes in India’s important foreign relations, focusing on the post-Cold War period. The chapter argues that India’s approach to the world changed significantly in the post-1990 period, but has since then been marked mainly by incremental changes.

This chapter provides an introduction to the book. It sets the stage by highlighting contrasts in India’s economy, democracy, and society. It then discusses the main topics covered in the book – democracy and governance, growth and distribution, caste, labor, gender, civil society, regional diversity, and foreign policy. The chapter also outlines the three themes that comprise the main arguments of the book. First, India’s democracy has been under considerable strain over the last decade. Second, growing economic inequalities that accompanied India’s high-growth phase over the last three and a half decades are associated with the country’s democratic decline. Third, society has reacted to changes from below but there are limits to societal activism in contemporary India.

Anglican missionaries took advantage of the spread of the empire to prosleytise to Native Americans and African Americans. Motivated by a desire to bring the gospel to so-called heathens and halt the spread of Catholicism, Cambridge men travelled to North America, the Caribbean, West Africa, and India to spread Protestantism. If they chose not to head abroad, they instead provided donations to missionary organisations, such as the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, or assisted in the administration of plantations owned by these organisations. As Cambridge missionaries and dergymen encountered enslavement, prominent University figures became increasingly interested in debates concerning and morality the efficacy of Indigenous and African slavery. Some fellows were actively sceptical of the moral grounds for slavery, whilst others believed that enslavement was grounded in Christian belief. Rather than emerging in the era of abolition, scepticism and debate about the moral foundations of enslavement were consistent features of British intellectual life for over a century.

The chapter explores contrasting approaches to population policy and family planning in Yugoslavia, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and India, focusing on the period from the 1950s to the 1980s. It discusses how Yugoslavia shifted toward supporting global population control policies in stark contrast to other Communist countries, while Ireland, a predominantly Catholic country, maintained strict anti-contraception laws. The United States evolved from reluctance to active involvement in global birth control programs to widespread financial support, and India transitioned to coercive sterilization policies during the state of emergency that was declared by Indira Gandhi in the mid-1970s. The chapter argues that UN resolutions around family planning and human rights played a key role for these policies despite the fact that these resolutions were not binding. How the resolutions were interpreted depended strongly on regional and local power configurations. The relationship among human rights frameworks, political decisions, and societal attitudes shaped the divergent paths taken by these countries in addressing demographic and family planning issues.

In 1237, having conquered much of the Central Asian steppes, a massive force of Mongols led by the third generation of Chinggis Khan’s descendants launched a campaign into eastern Europe, taking Kiev (1240) and sweeping westward into Poland and Hungary. News of this invasion quickly reached as far west as England. After more than 130 years of crusading, Latin Christians were passably familiar with the political and cultural complexities of the eastern Mediterranean; knowledge of the lands farther east, however, remained a hazy blend of ancient authors, Biblical lore, the Alexander Romance, and the legend of Prester John. Within short order, however, western European leaders took the initiative in their own hands, dispatching exploratory missions to the Mongols, like those of the Franciscans John of Plano Carpini in the mid-1240s and William of Rubruck in the early 1250s. Thanks to the detailed accounts of their travels they wrote on their return, the Mongols emerged from the fog of apocalyptic terror that had first surrounded them and, like a gradually-developing Polaroid, took on the contours of people with their own history, customs, and institutions

This chapter assesses the critique of Indian anticolonial nationalism by A. R. Desai, a Marxist sociologist during the post-independence period (1950s to 1990s). By initiating a debate on the class orientation of Indian nationalism and analyzing the exploitative capitalist processes by the nation-state in post-independence India, Desai overturned the complex and convoluted relationship between anticolonial thought, nationalism, coloniality, and social science scholarship in India. He confronted the existing social anthropological and structural functionalist school of thought dominating sociology in the early years after independence while his project of Marxist historical sociology contributed to the creation of new areas of research for sociology in India. The chapter also highlights some of the limitations in Desai’s scholarship and suggests that his sociology was about opening up new areas of research rather than doing a rigorous Marxist analysis of class relations.

Juristocratic reckoning is observable not only “from below.” Collective struggles that employed law animated by the idea that the state should be a vehicle of social justice have provoked a reckoning “from above.” This chapter suggests three dynamics: namely, authoritarian legalism, the dispersion of law, and the tribunalization of law. They reflect differently on the reaction by states and powerful economic actors to what the editors of this volume call “legal apotheosis” but which we would rather refer to as “organic constitutionalism” (Schwöbel 2010). Within these three pathways the chapter observes an active diminishment of the already limited possibilities of law to be mobilized for social justice. In the first modality – the incremental implementation of authoritarian legalism in India – legal measures have been systematically introduced in recent years to “legalize” a dual-law situation long in the making. In a second step, the chapter outlines the dispersion of law in relation to the borders of Europe, where the access to the laws that would nominally regulate these borders (e.g., asylum law) is thwarted by the creation of new legal zones and jurisdictional responsibilities. Third, the chapter observes the tribunalization of law with relation to the regulation of global capitalism, where seemingly egalitarian procedures increase asymmetries and “singularize” injuries. Taken together, the three cases point toward the emergence of a constitutional order that is averse to political conflict being carried out through law. The pathways described in this chapter have hegemonic tendencies; they ensure that political orders are authoritatively institutionalized through law but cannot be contested through it anymore.

Land and forests are integral to India’s Adivasi (Indigenous) Peoples. Lands provide sustenance and livelihoods, are a symbol of social status and dignity, and are central to the Adivasi “philosophy of life.” This chapter analyzes the various nuances of Adivasi land rights in India. It discusses the Adivasi land tenure systems, legal measures for protecting and allocating land, land holding patterns, the nature and scale of Adivasi land dispossession, and the strategies that the Adivasis have adopted to advance and safeguard their land rights. It is argued that, despite constitutional and statutory provisions and various policy measures to protect, promote, and secure Adivasi land rights, they increasingly experience land dispossession in different forms – reflecting an “implementation gap” in practice. This chapter concludes with recommendations for safeguarding Adivasi land rights, such as collaboration between Adivasi movements and civil society organizations, consistent governance measures for different land rights regimes (such as Sixth Schedule in Fifth Schedule Areas), and independent monitoring agencies to maintain accountability on land rights duties.

1. Reflect on the intersectionality of poverty and child labour as highlighted in the story. How do social and economic factors contribute to the perpetuation of child labour globally? 2. Considering the complexities of defining child labour, particularly concerning domestic chores and family-based work, how might this ambiguity impact efforts to address and eradicate child labour effectively? 3. Reflect on social constructs around children and childhood to develop actions that can give voices to children who are usually unheard and unseen. What are these constructs? 4. Think about actions that social workers can undertake to maintain a balance between promoting social protection of the most vulnerable groups of children while ensuring the agency of children and families. What would be priority actions for you? 5. Considering the diversity of experiences among working children, how can policies and interventions be tailored to meet the specific needs of individual children and their families? 6. Keeping in mind the attitude of society where a large number of people prefer to turn a blind eye to child labour, what can social workers do to evolve a society where the duty of care for children is the responsibility of every adult, regardless of whether the child is part of his/her family? 7. Reflect on the challenges faced in the reintegration and rehabilitation of rescued child workers, as discussed in the story. What strategies and initiatives could be implemented to support these children and prevent them from returning to work?

The Introduction starts by considering stand-up in Mort Sahl’s terms, as ‘a primitive form of theatre’. Using a quote by Tony Allen to pin down its key feature, it argues that stand-up is defined by centring on the performer themself, a direct relationship between performer and an active audience, and the appearance and possibility of spontaneity. After briefly considering the history of stand-up in the USA and UK, it goes on to recount the less familiar story of how it developed in Australia, from the emergence of Rod Quantock to the rise of the modern comedy club in the 1980s. It then considers its rapid expansion around the world in the last 30 years – paying particular attention to India, Estonia, and Belgium – and its continuing relationship with the English language even in non-anglophone countries. It finishes with an explanation of the scope and structure of the rest of the book.