Political society, as formulated by Partha Chatterjee, has undoubtedly been a very influential concept which scholars across continents have found useful for framing issues of power and politics, in post-colonial contexts. My initial thoughts on reading the subtitle of Chatterjee's ‘Reflections on Popular Politics in Most of the World’ was to regard its claims to represent ‘most of the world’ as rather exaggerated. I must confess, however, that I have hence revised my opinion after having discovered that scholars in Africa and Latin America were finding it extremely instructive and were carrying out intense fieldwork based on the insights and formulations by Chatterjee. Given that the nature of debate in India too has been both engaging and critical of the idea of political society, I decided to put together a selection of articles by scholars who have been part of this debate. These articles, as the reader will realize, cover theoretical aspects, both implicit and explicit, and test the concept empirically with their bases in intensive fieldwork. The articles also cover a diverse range of regions, bringing into relief the diversity and complexity of the political processes in India. This complexity, I hope, will enable the readers to better comprehend the process of democratization in post-colonial contexts, in general, and in India, in particular.

This volume would not have been possible without the support of my colleagues, who willingly contributed to the volume.