After decades on the sidelines, women are now central to India's political and development agenda. Representation from Below traces this transformation away from the halls of power toward women's inclusion in local politics and their reordering of party organization. Drawing on fieldwork, survey data, and natural experiments, the book shows how women in local politics built grassroots chapters of women's party wings and recruited other women into them, expanding parties' organizational capacity to mobilize women voters. As women became electorally consequential, party elites adapted, reshaping policies and opening pathways to higher office. Challenging views that clientelist parties or patriarchal norms block women's agency, the book demonstrates how gendered constraints became sources of leverage over parties. The book expands how we understand women's political inclusion-not only as a matter of legitimacy or representation-but as a source of organizational capacity that reshapes who parties mobilize and who they ultimately serve.

‘This accessible and thought-provoking book is a triumph of multi-method investigation. Leveraging qualitative fieldwork, surveys of campaigns and citizens, and natural experiments, the author shows how gender norms in India created opportunities for female party activists to excel at woman-to-woman political mobilization, making them pivotal contributors to party victories, which in turn elevated the importance of women’s issues in the eyes of party leaders and policymakers. It is essential reading for those interested in party activism, gender, and the strategic incentives that can precipitate profound changes in social policy.’

Donald P. Green - Burgess Professor of Political Science, Columbia University

‘Representation from Below offers a compelling account of how women’s political inclusion reshapes party organization from the ground up. Marshalling an impressive body of evidence, Goyal shows that women in local office build inclusive networks, mobilize new participants, and generate organizational capacity. In doing so, she demonstrates that gendered constraints can be a source of political leverage. A major contribution to our understanding of parties, representation, and political development.’

Diana Z. O'Brien - Bela Kornitzer Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Chair, Department of Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies, Washington University in Saint Louis

‘Why are parties in India suddenly attentive to women voters they long ignored? Goyal’s answer lies not in elite machinations, but the everyday efforts of female candidates, activists, and voters to transform political party organizations from within. A timely and compelling contribution to the study of gender, parties, and contemporary India.’

Tariq Thachil - Professor, Madan Lal Sobti Chair for the Study of Contemporary India, University of Pennsylvania

‘In this marvelous book, Tanushree Goyal shows how women’s collective action and grassroots organizing - in India, Brazil, and beyond - reshape parties, campaigns, and ultimately the shape of democracy itself.’

Steven Wilkinson - Nilekani Professor of India and South Asian Studies, Yale University