India Briefing: Quickening the Pace of Change by Alyssa Ayres; Philip OldenburgReview by: Lucian W. PyeForeign Affairs, Vol. 81, No. 3 (May - Jun., 2002), p. 177Published by: Council on Foreign RelationsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20033219 .

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Recent Books

of cheap labor. His key caveat, however, is that low-grade manufacturing is not the road to riches it once was-hence

China will remain a poor country. The girls who slave in the Chinese shoe factories do not make enough to create a great China market, and those people who make the profits from the shoes operate in the world economy outside of China.

Castes ofMind. Colonialism and the Making ofModern India. BY NICHOLAS B. DIRKS. Princeton:

Princeton University Press, 2001, 372 pp. $55.00 (paper, $19.95).

India's caste system is often seen as an institution deeply rooted in traditional Indian culture. This carefully researched study, however, argues that the caste system was at least partly shaped by British colonial practices. Before the British arrived, Dirks writes, Indian society was highly fragmented into communal groupings that served as centers for social identity. In trying to

make sense of these groupings, the Portuguese first suggested caste identities. The British expanded on that idea to promote order in Indian society. Thanks to them, the discipline required for census counts helped establish a clear hierarchy of caste categories. Although the Indians themselves have been ambivalent about caste categories for years, caste has now become a factor in India's competitive politics. Upper castes, for example, riot over the "affirmative action" policies that they believe give unfair advantages to the "untouchables." By playing up the importance of British colonial policies,

Dirks criticizes the Western experts who have associated caste with traditional India. He may be correct, but the durability

of caste identities in post-independence India suggests that the institution has something that gives it lasting value for

most Indians.

India Briefing: Quickening the Pace of Change. EDITED BY ALYSSA AYRES

AND PHILIP OLDENBURG. Armonk:

M. E. Sharpe, 2002, 283 pp. $66.95

(paper, $25.95). From independence to the 1990s, India was under the rule of the Congress Party, forged by the tradition of the Nehru dynasty. Then, as decentralization led to fragmentation, India went through nine governments in ten years. Today Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee presides over the National Democratic Alliance, a 25-party coalition. This lucid volume explores the diverse complexities of this new and dynamic India. Specialists review India's politics, economic trans formation, social organization, health care, and literature. One common theme is that, just as the Congress Party was never as homogeneous as it appeared, the NDA is not as fissionable as its di verse parts would suggest. All the same, Vajpayee has to tread carefully as he expands India's economic reforms, reduces state intervention, and opens the country to foreign investment. Au thors also point out the key role played by the overseas Indians, who provide skills and contacts for advancing the information technology revolution in

Bangalore. In turn, the emergence of an Indian middle class has profoundly affected social relations as well as economic development. An easy to use, up-to-date reference volume on most aspects of Indian life.

FOREIGN AFFAIRS May/June2oo2 [177]

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