Rajni Kothari, preeminent political theorist and activist, who in the 1960s developed the idea of the ‘Congress system’ to explain the party’s umbrella character that accommodated multiple interests within its fold, is no more. He was in his mid-80s and ailing for several years.
Numerous books and commentaries that combined empirical research and theoretical originality make Mr. Kothari possibly the most influential thinker on the development of the Indian political system.
Being an academic did not restrain him from donning an activist cap, and Mr. Kothari was an active participant in politics, most remarkably through his association with the People’s Union for Civil Liberties.
“Rajni Kothari was one of the country’s most respected public intellectuals. He always spoke up and intervened on important issues and continued to do so even when his opinion went against the powerful, which is quite rare these days. He was an outstanding theorist of democracy and political change in India. He had an enduring influence on the study of Indian politics with his many books, especially, his magnum opus, ‘Politics in India’, and also ‘Caste in Indian Politics, and Rethinking Development: In Search of Humane Alternatives’, among others,” remembered Zoya Hasan, Professor of Political Science, JNU, New Delhi.
Mr. Kothari founded the Centre for the Study of Developing Society in 1963 in Delhi, which grew as a premier institute, where a galaxy of India’s social scientists was based. He was also chairman of the Indian Council of Social Science Research, and in various capacities, mentored several generations of Indian social scientists.
“When the social science disciplines were dominated by the Marxian category of class, he posited an alternative category of caste. In the early 1970s it was seen with scepticism by contemporaries, but it became relevant later when political parties began to mobilise on caste grounds,” said Harbans Mukhia, historian.
