1]This is a textbook for the paper "Understanding Political Theory†as per the latest CBCS syllabus operational in all Universities in India. This paper is offered in Semester 1 in Political Science courses of CBCS. The book is written in Hindi original and is aimed for the Hindi medium students of the Hindi speaking belt in India.
2]This book attempts to understand various possibilities related to “theory formation†and “Theory of Politicsâ€. It is aimed to introduce main concepts and traditions of the political theory to the undergraduate students. Where many important projects and researches going on in the field of politics, as the same way the scope of study of political science has also been widespread. It is essential for the students to know about challenges like democracy, independence, justice, gender, equality etc. All these topics have been discussed in detail in the book.
3]This book has 12 chapters which discuss What is politics: theorizing the ‘‘Political’’; approaches to Political Theory: historical, normative and empirical. Traditions like liberal Marxist, anarchist, conservative, feminist, postmodern etc. The book has chapters on the history of the concept of democracy; procedural democracy; participation and representation, and deliberative democracy.
4]There are notes and references given at the end of each chapter. There is also a list of important questions given at the end of each lesson.
5]Apart from the preface by the author, the book has a FOREWORD too by Professor Ashok Acharya, Department of Political Science, University of Delhi.
6]The second cover carries reviews of the book written by eminent political scientists like Mahendra Prasad Singh, Formerly a Professor of Political Science at the University of Delhi; Prakash C Sarangi, Professor of Political Science, University of Hyderabad; Hilal Ahmed, Associate Professor, CSDS, New Delhi; Kaushiki, Jamia Miliya Islamia, New Delhi; Asima Sahu, Professor and Head, Department of Political Science, School Of Social Sciences, Ravenshaw University, Cuttack.
Dr Sanjeev Kumar has been teaching political theory and thought to undergraduate students for the last 15 years. His areas of interests are teaching and research in political theory and thought, disaster and peace studies. He published a number of articles in national and international journals and publications. He is working on an edited volume “Gandhi and the Contemporary Worldâ€. He has been a Research fellow with the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi (CSDS). He was also a Fellow at the Developing Countries Research Centre (DCRC), University of Delhi. Currently, Dr Sanjeev kumar is Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Zakir Husain Delhi College, University of Delhi. He is the volume editor of this book.
The contributors are teaching faculty in Political Science departments of various colleges affiliated to University of Delhi : Ankit Tomar [Kamla Nehru College]; Amreen, Shabana Azmi and Shubhra Pant Kothari [Zakir Hussain Delhi College, Evening]; Amit Kumar [Motilal Nehru College [Evening]; Kundan Kumar [Shaheed Bhagat Singh College, Evening]; Kamal Kumar [Shivaji College]; Bhavna Sharma [Guru Nanakdev Khalsa College]; Gyanranjan Sven [Ravenshaw University, Cuttack].
