Reviews
Abstract
Political Ideas in Modern India: Thematic Explorations V. R. M ehta & T homas P antham (eds) New Delhi, Sage Publications, 2007 lxi + 481 pp., ISBN: 9780761934202 Political Ideas in Modern India is a major contribution to the massive project on the History of Science, Philosophy and Culture in Indian Civilization which will, when completed, consist of some 96 books arranged into sixteen volumes. It brings together some of the best-known authors currently working on Indian politics, including several currently based in England and the USA, making this a genuinely international effort that can claim to be representative of the field. Perhaps somewhat oddly, it constitutes part seven of the tenth volume entitled 'Towards independence', even though more than half of its 24 essays deal with the period after 1947. Indeed, only the first two of its six thematically organized sections deal primarily with the colonial era. The editorial introduction opens with a list of ideas that have been particularly important in Indian political thought. The list is revealing with respect to the character of Indian political theory and practice at large, for it contains both notions that have outgrown their European origins to become part of