Is a ‘Modi doctrine’ emerging in Indian foreign policy?

Narendra Modi's election as India's prime minister in May 2014 has generated speculation that a new ‘Modi doctrine’ is emerging in Indian foreign policy. This article assesses the evidence for that claim. It argues that a ‘doctrine’ should embody a set of clearly stated principles for foreign policy making. It analyses the main achievements of Modi's policy in the months after his election. It finds that while Modi has brought new energy to the conduct of foreign policy, his approach is essentially pragmatic, and his objectives are similar to those pursued by his two immediate predecessors—Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh.     

From ‘Relief’ to ‘Justice and Protection’: The Maintenance of Deserted Wives,British Masculinity and Imperial Citizenship, 1870–1920

In the early twentieth century, local British poor law guardians’ concerns with the maintenance of deserted and neglected families were transformed into imperial, and later transnational, policy promoting justice for abandoned wives and children. Both local court cases concerning maintenance and policy debates at the national and imperial levels reveal the ways in which a breadwinner model of masculinity shaped maintenance policy and practice. Although the maintenance problem was framed differently by local welfare providers and imperial heads of state, concerns about welfare costs and human rights intersected in the figure of the irresponsible male citizen, who challenged the dominant model of British/imperial masculinity by refusing to maintain his wife.     

Staging Battles: Representations of War in the Theatre and Festivals of the French Revolution

Prefiguring twentieth-century experiments, the French revolutionaries represented the war in which they were engaged after 1792 by staging military spectacles in the theatre and in civic festivals. Both plays and festivals were highly allegorical in nature, representing the war as a conflict between rival ideologies and providing stereotypical caricatures of enemy villains. Military plays won little acclaim from theatre critics, who objected to their implausibility and lack of originality. Audiences limited their enthusiasm to plays that brought romance and patriotism together. Allegorical representations spoke neither to the realities of war nor to the psychological needs of spectators. The involvement of soldiers in staging and witnessing military spectacles, however, underlines their significance in representing and helping to produce the nation-in-arms.

résumé:?Tout comme le font certains mouvements au vingtième siècle, les révolutionnaires français représentent la guerre dans laquelle ils se trouvent engagés au moyen de pièces de théâtre et de fêtes civiques. Dans ces spectacles allégoriques, avec leurs symboles et leurs personnages stéréotypés, la guerre prend l'aspect d'un conflit idéologique. Ces spectacles ne plaisent guère aux critiques dramatiques qui y désapprouvent le manque de vraisemblance et d'originalité. Quant aux spectateurs, eux, ils applaudissent seules les pièces où se trouvent à la fois la sentimentalité et le patriotisme. Les représentations allégoriques, divorcées des réalités de la guerre et sans rapport avec les conflits personnels occasionnés par le patriotisme, ne répondent pas à leurs besoins psychologiques. C'est surtout le fait que les soldats ont participé aux spectacles militaires qui fait que ces derniers doivent être reconnus comme ayant non seulement représenté mais aussi inspiré la nation en armes.     

Book reviews—Comptes Rendus

Themes in medieval history—Aspects de l'histoire du moyen âge

Dianne WATT ed., Medieval Women in their Communities University of Wales Press, Cardiff, 1997 ISBN 0–7083–1369–8(Hardback) £30.00 ISBN 0–7083–1361–2(paperback) £14.95.

Chris GIVEN‐WILSON ed., An Illustrated History of Late Medieval England, Manchester University Press, Manchester 1996 xi + 292 pp. ISBN 0–7190–4152‐X £35.00

Themes in Eighteenth‐Century History—Aspects de l'histoire du dix‐huitième siècle

Jeremy BLACK ed., An Illustrated History of Eighteenth‐Century Britain 1688–1793 Manchester University Press, Manchester, 1996, xv + 244 pp. ISBN 0–7190–4267–4. £25.00.

Jeremy BLACK ed., Culture and Society in Britain 1660–1800 Manchester University Press, Manchester, 1997, viii + 199 pp. ISBN 0–7190–4947–4. £35.00.

Themes in Russian History—Aspects de l'histoire Russe

Lionel KOCHAN and John KEEP, The Making of Modern Russia: From Kiev Rus’ to the Collapse of the Soviet Union, Third Edn., Penguin, London, 1997, xii + 603 p., ISBN 0–14–015715–8. £9.99.

Wendy R. SALMOND, Arts and Crafts in Imperial Russia: Reviving the Kustar Art Industries, 1870–1917, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1996, xv + 270p., ill., ISBN 0–521–41576–4 £50.00.

Morgan Philips PRICE, Dispatches from the Revolution: Russia 1916–1918, Pluto Press, London, 1997, xii + 181 p., ISBN 0–7453–1210–1 £30.00.

John Lewis GADDIS, We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1997, x + 425p., ISBN 0–19–878070–2 £25.00.     

Short notices—notes de lecture

Richard BRITNELL, The Commercialisation of English Society, 1000–1500 2nd edn, Manchester Medieval Studies, Manchester University Press, Manchester & New York, 1996, xvi + 281 pp., ISBN 0–7190–5042–1.

Desmond SEWARD, Richard III: England's black legend Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 1997, ISBN 014–026634–8 £8.99 (paperback).

David GATES, The Napoleonic Wars 1803–1815, ’Modern wars’ series, Arnold, London, 1997, xx+304 p., ISBN 0–340–61447–1 (paperback, £16.99); 0–340–69184–0 (hardback, £45–00).

Sheila PERRY, ed., Aspects of Contemporary France, Routledge, London, 1997, xviii + 258 p., ISBN 0–415–13180–4 (paperback, £13.99); 0–415–13179–0 (hardback, £45.00).