Reprint. Originally published in 2009.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

I. Political change -- Centralization and powerlessness : India's democracy in a comparative perspective -- Can democracies accommodate ethnic nationalism? : rise and decline of self-determination movements in India -- Enduring another election : India defies the odds -- From majority to minority rule : making sense of the "new" Indian politics -- II. Political economy -- India's fragmented-multiclass state and protected industrialization -- Politics of economic growth in India, 1980-2005, Part 1: the 1980s -- Politics of economic growth in India, 1980-2005, Part II: the 1990s and beyond -- Politics of economic liberation in India -- Regime types and poverty reform in India -- III. Politics and developoment in select states -- Breakdown in a "backward" state : Bihar -- Growing turmoil in an "advanced" state : Gujarat -- From elite activism to democratic consolidation : the rise of reform communism in West Bengal -- Parliamentary communism and agrarian reform : the evidence from India's Bengal -- The NTR phenomenon in Andhra Pradesh : political change in a south Indian state -- Karnataka's land reforms : a model for India?

This volume brings together Atul Kohli's essays published over the last twenty-five years. They are organized in three sections, each section representing a distinct theme-political change; political economy; and politics and development in select states. The introductory essay provides an 'umbrella' for these essays, giving the volume a significant and useful coherence. This essay accomplishes two intellectual tasks-outlines the state-society frame of reference that underlies much of the author's published work; and provides an overview of the author's interpretation of broad political and economic changes in India, especially in the post-Nehru period. It also provides references to other relevant works not included in this volume, and then situates the specific essays in the volume within the broader changes. -- Publisher description.