It is a sad fact that, even today, political theory continues to be defined by the Western canon. In this groundbreaking work, Gurpreet Mahajan tackles this predisposition head on, by bringing into focus the distinct meanings that concepts central to the modern democratic political imaginary have received in India. Drawing upon critical debates and political practices, the book questions how the concepts of freedom, equality and difference are layered with new meanings and how questions of religion and state, critical reason and embedded self are understood in the Indian context. Part of Zed's World Political Theories series, this remarkable work that offers a glimpse of the social and political life of contemporary India, and how it differs from the dominant liberal paradigm.