ABSTRACT
India at the beginning of the twenty-first century continues the transitions under way at the end of the twentieth. India's efforts to reshape itself internally and redefine itself abroad are proceeding, taking into account India's internal conditions and external realities. The country's recent politics are characterized by the rise of the conservative, nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the weakening of the once dominant Congress Party (INC), and coalition governments. India's economy is edging toward faster rates of growth and fewer restrictions on trade and investment. India's identity struggle between secularism and Hinduism is today stronger than in earlier years when major domestic conflicts revolved around regional and caste identities. And its relations with the world exhibit a combination of diplomatic outreach and self-assertion. In all of these ways India's once vaunted Nehruvian Consensus 1 (named after the country's first and longest-serving prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru) on socialism, secularism, and nonalignment has eroded but has not been eradicated.
