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{{Short description|Political Science Book}}
{{Infobox book
| italic title =
| name = In the Name of the Nation
| image = File:Book_cover_of_In_the_Name_of_the_Nation_by_Sanjib_Baruah_2020.jpg
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| alt = The book cover for In the Name of the Nation by Sanjib Baruah
| caption =
| author = [[Sanjib Baruah]]
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| subject = Northeast India
| genre = Political Science
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| publisher = [[Stanford University Press]]
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| pub_date = 2020
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| pages = 296
| awards = 2021 ICAS Book Prize
| isbn = 9781503610705
| isbn_note = Hardcover
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'''''In the Name of the Nation: India and its Northeast''''' is a [[non-fiction]] political science book about [[Assam]]. It is written by professor and commentator [[Sanjib Baruah]] and published by [[Stanford University Press]] in 2020.

==Overview==
[[Sanjib Baruah]], a Professor of Political Studies at [[Bard College]] and commentator on [[Northeast India]], examines the political and socioeconomic history of [[Assam]].<ref name="Kalita 2021">{{cite journal |last1=Kalita |first1=Unmilan |title=Book review-India Against Itself: Assam and the Politics of Nationality |journal=South Asia Journal |date=October 13, 2021 |issue=35 |url=http://southasiajournal.net/book-review-india-against-itself-assam-and-the-politics-of-nationality/ |access-date=26 January 2022}}</ref><ref name="Rangarajan 2020">{{cite news |last1=Rangarajan |first1=Mahesh |title=What hopes and impediments punctuate the NE-mainland roadmap |url=https://indianexpress.com/article/books-and-literature/what-hopes-and-impediments-punctuate-the-ne-mainland-roadmap-6512264/ |access-date=26 January 2022 |work=[[The Indian Express]] |date=July 19, 2020}}</ref> Parvin Sultana writes for ''[[The Wire (India)|The Wire]]'', "The chapters deal with issues like how the region experienced partition, migration, insurgency, counter-insurgency."<ref name="Sultana 2020">{{cite news |last1=Sultana |first1=Parvin |title=Book Review: The Politics of Citizenship and Those it Excludes |url=https://thewire.in/books/book-review-sanjib-baruah-assam-nrc-miya-muslims-naga |access-date=26 January 2022 |work=[[The Wire (India)|The Wire]] |date=September 13, 2020}}</ref>

In a review for ''[[H-Net]]'', Berenice Guyot-Rechard describes the chapters as "the dynamics of region-building (chapter 1), the vexed issue of citizenship and belonging (chapter 2), the politics of development (chapter 3), the Naga conflict (chapter 4), and the entrenchment of the "security state" (chapters 5 and 6)."<ref name="Guyot-Rechard 2021">{{cite journal |last1=Guyot-Rechard |first1=Berenice |title=Guyot-Rechard on Baruah, 'In the Name of the Nation: India and Its Northeast' |journal=[[H-Net]] |date=April 2021 |url=https://networks.h-net.org/node/22055/reviews/7511272/guyot-rechard-baruah-name-nation-india-and-its-northeast |access-date=26 January 2022}}</ref> Unmilan Kalita writes in a review for the ''South Asia Journal'' that the final chapter of the book "champions a robust federal policy and asks the questions that are often left unanswered", including questions related to policy and regional control over resources.<ref name="Kalita 2021"/>

==Background and themes==
Samir Sharma writes in ''[[Studies in Indian Politics]]'', "This book, in a way, completes Baruah's trilogy on the region, after ''India Against Itself'' (1999) and ''Durable Disorder'' (2005)."<ref name="Sharma 2021"/> Parvin Sultana writes for ''[[The Wire (India)|The Wire]]'', "Written almost after two decades of the widely read ''India Against Itself'' (1999), this book revisits the over-arching issues that continue to dominate the political discourse of the region."<ref name="Sultana 2020"/> Rashi Bhargava writes for ''[[The Telegraph (India)|The Telegraph]]'', "Baruah has engaged with themes of State, nation, nationalism, sub/ethno-nationalism, nation-building, sovereignty, democracy and citizenship in the context of Northeast India since ''India Against Itself: Assam and the Politics of Nationality'', one of his well-known works."<ref name="Bhargava 2020"/>

==Critical reception==
Parvin Sultana writes in a review for ''[[The Wire (India)|The Wire]]'', "The book deals with how politics of migration have often segregated communities" and "ends on the important note that citizenship policies should stop being exclusionary."<ref name="Sultana 2020"/> In a review for ''[[The Telegraph (India)|The Telegraph]]'', Rashi Bhargava writes, "[Baruah] argues that the politics of ideas, representations and, consequently, exclusion has always been a strong point of contention in the writings on and from the Northeast. This may not seem like a new theme for someone who has been following Baruah’s intellectual and academic trajectory but the book is a reminder that some issues need constant revisiting, more so in the times we live in."<ref name="Bhargava 2020">{{cite news |last1=Bhargava |first1=Rashi |title=India and its Northeast: A relationship between the manager and the managed |url=https://www.telegraphindia.com/culture/books/review-in-the-name-of-the-nation-india-and-its-northeast-by-sanjib-baruah/cid/1787174 |access-date=26 January 2022 |work=[[The Telegraph (India)|The Telegraph]] |date=July 24, 2020}}</ref> [[Mahesh Rangarajan]] writes in a review for ''[[The Indian Express]]'', "This work walks the fine line between being sensitive to group identity and being deeply attentive to issues of individual choice and freedom – rare in practice, but well worth the effort."<ref name="Rangarajan 2020"/>

In a review for ''[[H-Net]]'', Berenice Guyot-Rechard writes, "What gives the book its peculiar power is the presence throughout of four interlocking strands: the rejection of "insurgency" as a frame to understand Northeast Indian politics; the characterization of development as an ideology and practice rooted in unequal power relations; the entwined dynamics of incorporation and othering; and finally, the contested, protean nature of the subaltern in Northeast India."<ref name="Guyot-Rechard 2021"/> Andrew J. Nathan writes in a capsule review for ''[[Foreign Affairs]]'', "Baruah's intimate history and ethnography shows how neglect, corruption, uneven development, and repression - and recently the rise of Hindu nationalism at the federal level - have intensified the Northeast's alienation from the rest of the country."<ref name="Nathan 2020">{{cite news |last1=Nathan |first1=Andrew J. |title=In the Name of the Nation: India and Its Northeast |url=https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/capsule-review/2020-08-11/name-nation-india-and-its-northeast |access-date=26 January 2022 |work=[[Foreign Affairs]] |date=September 2020}}</ref>

[[Ashutosh Varshney]] writes in ''[[Perspectives on Politics]]'', "his principal argument is that, despite regular elections, the region has mostly seen a painful face of Indian democracy - primarily because Delhi has made democracy subservient to national security, generating huge deficits in the realm of civil rights and freedoms".<ref name="Varshney 2021">{{cite journal |last1=Varshney |first1=Ashutosh |title=In the Name of the Nation: India and Its Northeast. By Sanjib Baruah. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2020. 296p. $90.00 cloth, $30.00 paper. |journal=Perspectives on Politics |date=March 2021 |volume=19 |issue=1 |pages=320–321 |doi=10.1017/S1537592720004259 |s2cid=233861708 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-politics/article/abs/in-the-name-of-the-nation-india-and-its-northeast-by-sanjib-baruah-stanford-stanford-university-press-2020-296p-9000-cloth-3000-paper/0DB5D371931151FBE57467A20BB31B76 |access-date=26 January 2022|url-access=subscription }}</ref> In ''[[Studies in Indian Politics]]'', Samir Sharma writes, "An important and timely contribution of this book is the linking of (non)democratic practices in the Northeast region to that of citizenship. Given the contentions over the [[Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019|Citizenship Amendment Act]] and [[National Register of Citizens]] in the region, changing the frame of reference for analysing the Northeast region from ethnicity alone to include citizenship studies and borderland studies is one of the strengths of the book."<ref name="Sharma 2021">{{cite journal |last1=Sharma |first1=Samir |title=Book review: Sanjib Baruah, In the Name of the Nation |journal=[[Studies in Indian Politics]] |date=December 2021 |volume=9 |issue=2 |pages=292–294 |doi=10.1177/23210230211043078 |s2cid=244404332 |url=https://www.academia.edu/61980708 |access-date=26 January 2022}}</ref>

However, reviewers from scholars of the northeastern region were critical of the book. Thongkholal Haokip argues that "While discussing “India’s Northeast Policy” the author seems to ignore the existing literature, despite extensive reference to published works while dealing with other topics". "<ref name="Haokip 2021">{{cite journal |last1=Haokip |first1=Thongkholal |title=Sanjib Baruah, In the Name of the Nation: India and its Northeast, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2020. |journal=[[Journal of North East India Studies]] |date=2021 |volume=11 |issue=2 |pages=108–110 |url=https://www.jneis.com/11-2-6/ |access-date=28 March 2023 }}{{Dead link|date=August 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> Roluahpuia views that "Despite the rich empirical details and theoretical sophistication of this book, it largely comes across as a restatement of Baruah’s earlier work, reiterating arguments that he has made for decades now". "<ref name="Roluahpuia 2022">{{cite journal |title=In the name of the nation: India and its Northeast |first= Sanjib|last= Baruah |publisher=Stanford University Press|isbn= 9781503611283|journal=[[Commonwealth & Comparative Politics]] |date=2022 |volume=60 |issue=2 |pages=213–216 |doi=10.1080/14662043.2022.2059254}}</ref>

==Awards==
* 2021 ICAS Book Prize, Most Accessible and Captivating Work for the Non-Specialist Reader Accolade, from the International Convention of Asia Scholars<ref name="SUP 2020">{{cite book |title=In the Name of the Nation |url=https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=29094&promo=S22XAHA-FM |publisher=Stanford University Press | isbn=9781503610705 |access-date=27 January 2022| last1=Baruah | first1=Sanjib | year=2020 }}</ref>

== References ==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://www.thehindu.com/books/the-anxiety-of-incompleteness-an-extract-from-sanjib-baruahs-in-the-name-of-the-nation-india-and-its-northeast/article30819834.ece The anxiety of incompleteness: An extract from Sanjib Baruah's ''In the Name of the Nation: India and Its Northeast''] (''The Hindu'', February 15, 2020)

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Political science books]]
[[Category:Books about democracy]]
[[Category:Non-fiction books about elections]]
[[Category:Ethnicity in politics]]
[[Category:21st-century Indian books]]
[[Category:Assamese]]
[[Category:Northeast India]]
[[Category:Stanford University Press books]]

In the Name of the Nation - Revision history

JerryTurner844: new a entry.