The Modernity of Tradition: Political Development in India

by Lloyd I. Rudolph, Susanne Hoeber Rudolph

Stressing the variations in meaning of modernity and tradition, this work shows how in India traditional structures and norms have been adapted or transformed to serve the needs of a modernizing society. The persistence of traditional features within modernity, it suggests, answers a need of the human condition.

Three areas of Indian life are social stratification, charismatic leadership, and law. The authors question whether objective historical conditions, such as advanced industrialization, urbanization, or literacy, are requisites for political modernization.

316 pages, Paperback

Published July 15, 1984

About the author

Former University of Chicago political science professor Lloyd Rudolph was an expert on India and South Asia who did much of his work in collaboration with his wife and fellow faculty member, Susanne.