This is the third edition of a painstakingly researched and remarkably comprehensive book on the Indian experiment with constitutionally sanctioned policies of preferential treatment/ compensatory discrimination/ affirmative action on behalf of the historically oppressed and excluded castes and classes of the country. The policies were meant originally to be transitional arrangements, the nation's ultimate goal being the establishment of a casteless and classless society. The way things turned out however, both caste and class have remained deeply entrenched as legal, administrative, political, and social realities. The book traces the pre - independence history of the developing concern for the 'depressed classes' in the first part of the twentieth century, the debates in the Constituent Assembly, and goes on to a critical analysis of the first thirty years of the constitutional regime of preferential treatment for identified beneficiaries - Scheduled Castes/ Scheduled Tribes/ other Backward Classes - in the fields of legislative representation, employment, education, and government service. The book's special emphasis is on the role of the higher judiciary and its interventions in the course of cases arising from the policy of reservation, as well as the constitutional context of fundamental rights. This edition includes a preface written by the author for the second (paperback) edition published in 1991, following the controversy over the proposal to implement the Mandal Commission Report. It also includes a new introduction summing up the current situation.

Studies transformations in law and gender in modern India, proposing drivers of change are emerging from beyond traditional institutions.

Democracy and democratization are now high on the political agenda, but there is growing indifference to the gap between rich and poor. Political equalities matter more than ever, while economic inequality is accepted almost as a fact of life. It is the separation between economic and political that lies at the heart of this book.

The capabilities approach to equality, developed by Amartyr Sen and Martha Nussbaum, seeks to answer the question: what is a proper measure of a person's condition for the purposes of determining what we owe each other, as a matter of justice? While the capabilities theory has avoided many of the conceptual difficulties that have undermined competing accounts of egalitarian justice, recent criticisms have raised questions regarding the focus, structure and justification of the theory. In this volume, leading scholars present new and original essays that address these controversies.

The last two decades have seen concerns for equality, diversity, social justice and human rights move from the margins of museum thinking and practice, to the core. The arguments – both moral and pragmatic – for engaging diverse audiences, creating the conditions for more equitable access to museum resources, and opening up opportunities for participation, now enjoy considerable consensus in many parts of the world. A growing number of institutions are concerned to construct new narratives that represent a plurality of lived experiences, histories and identities which aim to nurture support for more progressive, ethically-informed ways of seeing and to actively inform contemporary public debates on often contested rights-related issues. At the same time it would be misleading to suggest an even and uncontested transition from the museum as an organisation that has been widely understood to marginalise, exclude and oppress to one which is wholly inclusive. Moreover, there are signs that momentum towards making museums more inclusive and equitable is slowing down or, in some contexts, reversing. Museums, Equality and Social Justice aims to reflect on and, crucially, to inform debates in museum research, policy and practice at this critical time. It brings together new research from academics and practitioners and insights from artists, activists, and commentators to explore the ways in which museums, galleries and heritage organisations are engaging with the fast-changing equalities terrain and the shifting politics of identity at global, national and local levels and to investigate their potential to contribute to more equitable, fair and just societies.

Explains how actors control access to international resources, creating a stratified international system of political equals and unequals.

The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government (2004–14) led by the Congress came to power with a radical agenda for religious minorities. This included legislation and policies against discrimination and disadvantages suffered by religious minorities, especially Muslims, and a new framework for delivering substantive equality of opportunity. This work offers a new interpretation of the UPA's record. In critically re-evaluating the UPA's performance, it uses an institutional policy analysis approach which combines historical institutionalism (and path dependence) with policy analysis. It draws on official sources and extensive interviews with elite administrators and policy makers who were at the core of decision making during the UPA's tenure in office. Detailed case studies are provided of Muslims in public sector employment, the provision of service delivery for Muslim communities in India, and the efforts to create a new legislative framework against communal violence.

This Short Introduction analyses the nuts-and-bolts of affirmative action in India, while sketching out the larger context of and debates around this issue. It covers the 'why' and 'how' of affirmative action, and provides a perspective on where India stands today in terms of group disparities and the proposed remedies.

This monograph explores some of the conceptual questions which underpin the legal disputes which arise in relation to equality and discrimination. Among these are questions about the meaning of 'equality' as a legal concept and its relationship to the principle of non-discrimination; symmetrical and asymmetrical approaches to equality/non-discrimination; the role of comparators in discrimination/equality analysis; the selection of protected characteristics and the proper sphere of statutory and constitutional protections, and the scope for and regulation of potential conflicts between protected grounds. The author engages with domestic, EU and ECtHR case law as well as with wider international approaches.