Comparison of China and India was a burgeoning enterprise in the mid-2000s, when both Asian giants rose as major globalizing economies. Comparative works have examined how political regimes—democracies versus authoritarianism—interact with domestic interest groups and global forces operating in the two nations and what new discoveries can be gained from investigating them together.1 Lately, however, comparative-historical studies of China and India have started to wane, while research on either country individually has grown rapidly. The reasons are twofold: first, China and India have complex internal politics, making it difficult to investigate either country, let alone covering both; second, from the readership's point of view, those who are drawn to China may find the Indian story overwhelming, and those who are proficient in India may have difficulty grasping the details in China.
As a China-India comparative scholar, this reviewer admires Mark Frazier's audacious undertaking in The Power of Place—comparing...
