Introduction: Globalizing India: perspectives from below

This book is one of the first to present a collection of writing on the effects of globalization on India and Indian and social practices.The concept of globalization itself needs critical examination, and one productive approach is to focus specifically on the local impacts of globalization in its various guises through comparative ethnographic investigations. Such research also permits examination of the relative significance of globalization, as opposed to national, regional or local factors of change that may actually be more salient.Assayag and Fuller have assembled a team of eminent academics, discussing the pertinent issues of nationalism, economy, exploitation of labor, religion, and education in India. This challenging collection questions the ethics and impact on global brands such as IKEA on community and religious practice in South Asia. It also opens with a major study of the relationship between India and the global economy, c. 1500 to 1950 that provides an important historical dimension to the book by contextualizing current trends."Globalizing India" will make a major contribution to South Asian Studies, interrogating a topic whose contemporary importance -- both regional and international - is beyond dispute.