commentary

Rethinking State Politics in have been complaining of reverse discrimi-

nation as in the case of Harit Pradesh.

India: Regions within Regions The above processes have contributed

to the regionalisation of polity with the
states emerging as the prime arenas where
politics and economy actually unfold.4 It is
Ashutosh Kumar now the state level vernacular elites often
belonging to the hitherto dormant identity

R
From a dominant national ecent India has been witness to groups who influence or make the policy
perspective, political analysis in the onset of the democratic pro­ decisions and whose choices actually affect
cesses that have resulted in the economic and political happenings in their
India has gradually shifted its
reconfiguration of its politics and eco­ respective states. A study of the micro-
unit of study to the state level. nomy. Among these processes, most sig- level mechanisms, which are shaping poli­
There remains a dearth of nificant has been the assertion of identity tical actions and processes of mobilisation
literature that employs intra-state politics. There have been struggles around at local level, has therefore now become
the assertiveness and conflicting claims of imperative for an understanding of the
or inter-state regional
the identity groups, and of struggles inter­nal dynamics of Indian politics and
perspectives in a comparative amongst them, often fought out on lines of economy as well as for drawing the theo-
political analysis framework. region, religion, language (even dialect), retical conclusions on a larger canvas.
caste and community. These struggles have There has been a growing realisation that
found expressions in the changed mode of it is at the state level that the “future ana­
electoral representation that has brought lyses of Indian politics must concentrate”
the local/regional into focus with the hith- (Chhibber and Nooruddin 1999).
erto politically dormant groups and regions Greater level of recognition of state as
finding voices. A more genuinely represent- the primary unit of analysis has led to the
ative democracy has led to the sharpening emergence of state politics as an autono-
of the line of distinction between or among mous discipline, whose study is now being
the identity groups and the regions. considered essential for a nuanced under-
The process has received an impetus standing of Indian politics. Ironically, the
with the introduction of the economic re- new found exalted status of the discipline
forms as the marginal groups as well as the is in sharp contrast to its earlier dismal
peripheral regions increasingly feel left out state when it was treated merely as an
with the central state gradually withdraw- appen­dage of the discipline of Indian poli-
ing from the social and econo­mic sector tics (read “national politics”).
and market economy privileging the privi-
leged, be it the social groups or the re- Three Factors
gions.1 Coastal states along with the high The lack of autonomy of the discipline of
income states have benefited more from state politics at the time could be attri­
the flow of foreign direct investment as buted primarily to three factors. First,
compared to the states having peripheral within the grand comparative analytical
locations, disturbed law and order situa- framework developed by the liberal
tions, and poor economic and social infra- schools of political modernisation and
structure (Kurian 2000; Ahluwalia 2000; poli­tical develop­ment to study the devel-
Kohli 2006). Regional inequalities in in- oping societies that dominated “third
come and consumption have been widen- world” political theory, the newly inde-
ing. Interstate as well as intra-state dispari- pendent nation states were considered as
ties in terms of per capita income have the prime movers in terms of economy and
grown faster in the post-reforms period.2 politics and therefore were taken as the
The author acknowledges his debts to the What may be called the “secession of the fundamental units of analysis. In the quest
Lokniti network friends and also his students rich”,3 even the rich states, attracting huge of reaching about a general theory that
at Panjab University for their collective inputs private investments and regis­tering im- would have near universal application
over the last decade that have been of immense pressive growth, have started resen­ting the (­recall stage theory of growth), the con-
help while writing this research note.
continued dependence of relatively under- stituent units within the nation state and
Ashutosh Kumar ([email protected]) developed states on the central revenues their historical specificities were com-
is with the Department of Political transferred to them. Similarly, the relatively pletely i­gnored. Quite a few Indian
Science, Panjab University, Chandigarh.
developed regions within the states also p­olitical theorists under the spell of the
14 may 9, 2009 vol xliv no 19 EPW Economic & Political Weekly
commentary

MANOHAR
American P­olitical Science Association s­tate-specific papers that were basically
followed suit. focused on enumerating the determinants
As for Marxist writings on Indian poli- of the state level political dynamics in
NEW ARRIVALS
tics they have remained under the spell of great empirical details. For the scholars
neo-Marxist critiques in the form of under­ contributing to these volumes, regional AGRICULTURE AND FOOD IN INDIA
development/dependency/world systems states provided more or less a self-­ A Half-century Review from
Independence to Globalization
that again took the “post-colonial state” as contained universe (called “microcosm”
Bruno Dorin and Frederic Landy
the unit of analysis. Second, due to the as well as “macro­cosm” by Weiner 1968: 978-81-7304-812-8, 2009, 280p. Rs. 695
prevalence of what used to be called the 4) within which their politics (mainly elec-
“Congress system”, the politics and eco­ toral) were conducted and analysed. INDIAN HEALTH LANDSCAPES
nomy (refer the development planning Based on state-specific empirical details UNDER GLOBALIZATION
model) at the state level at the time was about the political history, the politico-­ Alain Vaguet (ed)
978-7304-722-0, 2009, 386p. Rs. 950
very much guided by a dominant centre administrative structure, changing pat-
with the “high command” pulling the key terns of political participation, the nature FEEDING INDIA
strings of power. State politics thus ap- of party system and the performance of The Special Parameters of
peared merely as a poor copy of the poli- the political regimes; the volumes’ papers Food Grain Policy
tics unfolding at the national level. Third, presented descriptive analyses of the na- Frederic Landy
in the then euphoria of the Nehruvian era, ture and dynamics of the political pro­ 978-7304-796-1, 2009, 310p. Rs. 775
when the whole emphasis was on institu- cesses in the particular states. Employing
MEDICINE, DISEASE AND ECOLOGY
tion/state/nation building under the lead- a political sociological approach, which IN COLONIAL INDIA
ership of a nationalist and modernising was hugely inspired by the modernisation Laxman D. Satya
state elite that commanded tremendous theory literature, the essays in the vol- 81-7304-314-0, 2009, 310p. Rs 775
degree of confidence and legitimacy, it umes essentially privileged the “political”
was inevitable that politics at the state level while relatively ignoring the “economic”. MAPPING CRIMINAL JUSTICE
would be studied from the national per- The two volumes, edited by Rao and DELIVERY IN INDIA
Towards Development of an Index
spective even if it was at the cost of missing Frankel, however, belonged to a some-
Pramod Kumar and Rainuka Dagar
the esoteric details concerning the regional what different genre, much more in tune 978-81-7304-791-6, 2009, 278p. Rs. 695
states (Yadav and Palshikar 2006). Argua- with the then emergent trend in the study
bly there was an all-pervading feeling of state politics, as the essays focused on LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN INDIA
shared by the intelligentsia of the time that the historical patterns of political trans- Policy and Practice
too much attention to state affairs was a formation taking place in particular states. With Special Reference to a Field
Study of Decentralization in Kerala
mark of parochial attachments.5 The varying relationship between caste
Rashmi Sharma
and class in the states, especially in terms 978-81-7304-805-0, 2009, 278p. Rs. 675
The 1967 Elections of the land question, came up in several
The defining moment for the discipline essays for theoretical inquiries while try- COLONIALISM AND URBANIZATION IN
came in the form of general elections held ing to unravel the problematic of “the de- INDIA
in 1967 which marked the beginning of cline of dominance” of the traditional The Punjab Region
Reeta Grewal
the veering away of different states, at dif- elites in the rural hinterlands.
81-7304-619-0, 2009, 256p. Rs. 645
ferent points of time and through diffe­rent Similar in tenor to the then prevailing
ways, from the Congress system (Kothari trend, all the edited volumes, mentioned WE ARE AS FLEXIBLE AS RUBBER!
1970). The grudging recognition of the above and others contained essays that Livlihood Strategies, Diversity and the
states, once considered the bane of Indian focused on one state. There was hardly Local Institutional Setting of Rubber
unity, as the “mainstay of India’s demo­ any effort on the part of the contributors Small holders in Kerala, South India
cracy and the crucial building block of the to use their state-specific studies for build- Balz Strasser
978-817304-803-6, 2009, 275p. Rs. 695
Indian nation” (Mitra 2006: 46) also facili­ ing up a larger argument about the emer-
tated the emergence of state politics as a gent nature of Indian politics. Almost all PERFORMING ECSTASY
discipline in its own right. Consequently, of them studiously avoided employing a The Poetics and Politics of Religion
the next two decades that followed saw comparative interstate framework or in India
the publication of the volumes on state d­eveloping a theoretical framework for Pallabi Chakravorty and Scott Kugle
politics edited by Myron Weiner (1968), their empirical analyses.6 978-81-7304-814-2, 2009, 256p. Rs. 650
Iqbal Narain (1976), John R Wood (1984) How can one explain the marked reluc- for our complete catalogue please write to us at:
and Francine Frankel and M S A Rao (1990). tance on the part of the political analysts MANOHAR PUBLISHERS & DISTRIBUTORS
Falling into what one may consider now to employ the comparative framework 4753/23, Ansari Road, Daryaganj, New Delhi-2
as belonging to somewhat outmoded while undertaking the study of state poli- Phones: 2328 4848, 2328 9100, 2327 5162
g­enre of writings, the first three edited tics? The segmented nature of polity and Fax: (011) 2326 5162 email: [email protected]
Website: www.manoharbooks.com
volumes, mentioned above, included variegated nature of society besides
Economic & Political Weekly EPW may 9, 2009 vol xliv no 19 15
commentary

e­xtreme fluidity in the nature of state poli- The burgeoning literature that has “are in the form of impressionistic theori-
tics were often cited as the reasons as to come up on the subject since can broadly sations” (Nigam and Yadav 1999). These
why the advantages of comparative stud- be categorised into three categories. academic efforts have been enabling in
ies across the states could not be ade­ The first category would include the the sense that they aim at an understand-
quately explored (Pai 2000: 2).7 Also com- studies that focus in-depth on a single state, ing of the larger forces and long-term
pared to national politics, local politics but use the concrete analysis to underpin changes taking place in the state party
was considered as limited in nature. larger theoretical arguments that can be system and electoral politics during the
Commo­nalities if any, discernable in the applied elsewhere in India, something that “third phase of democratisation in India”
emerging trends in state politics, were was not attempted earlier. Most of these (Palshikar 2004: 1478).
ignored as only the distinctive features studies, however, are not comparative in A reading of the state-specific articles in
received attention. nature. The writings that stand out include this genre, written by the Lokniti network
those of Jagpal Singh (1992), Narendra members for Economic & Political Weekly8
The Comparative Method Subramanian (1999), Zoya Hasan (1989), reveal not only the basic determinants of
Attempts to employ comparative method Sanjib Baruah (1999), Pradeep K­umar electoral politics in the state like the demo­
in the arena of state politics would gain (2000), Navneeta Chadha Behera (2000), graphic composition and nature of ethnic/
some momentum as late as in the late Amit Prakash (2002), Christophe Jaffrelot communal/caste cleavages as well as other
1980s. Atul Kohli (1987), one of the earli- (2003) and Gyanesh Kudasia (2006). socio-political cleavages like the regional,
est comparativists, argued that India Studies on the nature of electoral poli- rural-urban and caste-class linkages but
constituted a “laboratory for comparative tics at the state level based on Centre for also present an analysis of the electoral
political analysis” in the sense that Study of Developing Societies-Lokniti con- outcomes highlighting differen­ces in major
d­espite having many states with quite ducted national election studies (NES) sur- issues raised, emergent trends, alliance
d­iverse politics, the fact remains that vey data would fall into second category. formations, seat adjustments, selection of
these states are within the same “frame- These theoretically sensitive studies are candidates and campaigns and so on. The
work of Indian federalism” and therefore distinguishable from most of the writings survey data helps the authors in explaining
present an ideal type conditions for on state electoral politics, which are either the opinions and attitudes of the elector-
“controlled experiments”. in the genre of “mindless empiricism” or ates having different age, sex, caste,

www.rbi.org.in

RBI’s Free On-line Database on Indian Economy

The Reserve Bank of India has released to the public a number of long time series data pertaining to the financial
sector, real sector, financial market, external sector, public finance and corporate finance in a user friendly manner
through dynamic web based application for the convenience of analysts, researchers and other users. This database
consisting of 216 Static reports, 74 Simple query templates (subject wise), 53 Simple query templates (frequency wise)
can be accessed from the home page of the RBI website (www.rbi.org.in) through the static headline “Database on
Indian Economy (DBIE)” or directly using the website URL http://dbie.rbi.org.in. List of data series available on the
site is being progressively enlarged on a regular interval on the basis of feedback received and availability of relevant
data series in the RBI’s data warehouse.

Features:
 Search option
 All the data series are accompanied with data definitions, i.e., metadata, which allow the users to view
the definitions/concepts of the underlying variables;
 Extract data through standard reports which allows the users to select and view the pre-formatted reports;
 Dynamic ‘Simple Query’, which enables user to define list of data series and allows the user to choose
the time period for data extraction;
 Data marts / Universes are available to the users through ‘Advanced Query’ for creating report
 Data can be downloaded in the form of Excel/CSV/pdf format.

Feedback may please be sent to [email protected] or through the feedback option on the home page of the
website of ‘Database on Indian Economy’.

16 may 9, 2009 vol xliv no 19 EPW Economic & Political Weekly

commentary

c­ommunity, and class and education pro- the issue of governance or ethnicity and se- sharpened ethnic/communal/caste as well
files. Going beyond merely the journali­stic lect purposefully (and not randomly) the as other social-political cleavages like the
task of counting the votes/profiling the states as the sampling units to keep the r­egional and rural-urban ones.15
electoral behaviour/predicting future p­oli­ study focused and also make comparison As a note of caution, for a comparativist,
tical reconfigurations/realignments, these possible. The writings, based on interstate the task of comparing disparate political phe-
essays do refer to the critical questions like: comparative approach that have come up nomena in a complex diverse society like
Did the voters have any real choice? Did since the momentous decade of the 1990 I­ndia is not easy. Adopting a highly localised
the electoral politics have a real impact include that of Atul Kohli (1987),10 Emma approach to bring out regional distinctive-
over public policies in relations to the sub- Mawdsley (1998), John Harriss (1999),11 ness invariably involves the in-depth study of
stantive social and economic issues? Ashutosh Varshney (2002),12 Gurharpal an entire range of factors that make a politi-
The above articles written over a period Singh (2000), Kanchan Chandra (2005), cal situation in the way it exists. To avoid
of one and half decade covering different Aseema Sinha (2005),13 Subrata K Mitra oversimplified generalisation, a comparativ-
state elections confirm extreme fluidity in (2006),14 and Niraja Gopal Jayal (2006). ist working on India would do well to under-
the nature of electoral permutations and The widely acclaimed volume on state take concrete analysis of specific situations in
combinations that come to assume power politics, edited by Rob Jenkins (2004), two or more regions that are highly localised
at the central or state levels. However, falls in the above genre of the studies, as and issue specific (say the regional move-
they also reveal that despite the region the volume includes essays that employ a ments demanding separate statehood in dif-
specific nature of electoral politics and the two-state comparative method to take up ferent parts of India) and then look for the
emergence of distinct identities, newer four sets of thematic areas, namely, eco- differences and not merely adding up the
trends in Indian politics do reveal certain nomic policymaking (Andhra Pradesh and similarities. In a major advantage of employ-
commonalities across the country, i e, pres- Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Guja­rat); ing a region-based approach, it would not
ence of electoral regions either as histori- subaltern politicisation (Bihar and Orissa, only enable the comparativists to reframe
cally constituted or merely administrative Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, the whole debate but also interrogate the
ones; the emergence of electoral bipolari- M­aharashtra and Rajasthan); civic engage- c­ogency of conventional formulations, often
ties; and lastly the politicisation and mobi- ment (Kerala and Uttar Pradesh); and d­erived from an analysis that took the
lisation of the “old, received, but hitherto political leadership studies (Andhra Pradesh r­egional state as the unit of analysis.
dormant identities” (Kumar 2003: 3146). and Karnataka, West Bengal and Tamil As regions within the states are not m­erely
Besides the state-specific commentaries, Nadu). Picking up threads from Kohli’s no- politico-administrative instituted constructs
there are also other important volumes/es- tion of India as a “laboratory of demo­ but are also imagined or constituted, among
says which do attempt to develop a coher- cracy”, Jenkins refers to the robust form of others, in historical, geographic, economic,
ent and a systematic theoretical framework federalism” that enables the political ana- sociological or cultural terms, any meaning-
based on NES data to make sense of the na- lysts to undertake a comparative analysis ful comparative study of the regions would
ture of electoral democracy in India (Yadav of the politics of India’s “29 mini democra- naturally straddle the disciplinary boundar-
1996; Chibber 1999; Mitra and Singh cies” that have “almost identical institu- ies of social sciences. An amalgamation of
1999; Palshikar 2004; Suri 2005; Yadav tional infrastructures” and who operate political sociological and political economy
and Palshikar 2006, 2008, 2009;9 Heath et under similar “economic policy frame- approaches thus would encourage social an-
al 2006; Varshney 2007). In the same work and the legal protections enshrined alysts from different disciplines and not
L­okniti genre of studies falls the volu­mes in the Indian constitution”. merely from political science to unravel the
edited by Hansen and Jaffrelot (2001) and complexity of the emergent nature of
Roy and Wallace (2003 and 2007). Regions within Regions r­egional politics.
Studies that employ interstate compara- Notwithstanding the impressive range of Taking up the regions within the states
tive method to look for the commonalities studies on state politics that have come up in as distinctive analytical category would en-
and differences in the politics of two or the last decade, there has been a dearth of sure that the smaller pictures/narratives
more comparable states, and then armed literature that employs intra-state or inter- are not lost amidst the larger ones. It is our
with their findings, reflect and theorise on state regional perspectives in a comparative argument that such micro-studies though
a broader canvass would fall into the third mode. This is despite the fact that cultural challenging in nature would be further
category. These studies are based on the heterogeneity of the regions within the e­nriching the discipline of state politics.
assumption that the regional states in In- states over the years has been sharpened as
dia provide an ideal environment for the a result of the unevenness of development Notes
purpose of a comparative analysis, pro- and unequal access to political power in a 1 Few peripheral regions, which are the hot spots of
economic reforms, are in the throes of the peo-
vided that the units are autonomous and centralised federal political economy (Sath- ples’ movement, as locals feel being taken for a
homogeneous for the purpose of the study yamurthy 2000: 33). No wonder then that ride by both the government and the multination-
als in the name of development.
and the cases are selected in a manner the recent decades have been witness to well 2 Calling the post-reform period as “a period of
that minimises biases. Most of the litera- defined geographically, culturally and his- growth with inequality”, Nagaraj has observed that
the so-called high growth of Indian economy “has
ture in this category takes up the research torically consti­tuted distinct regions that favoured urban India, organised sector, richer
questions related to one thematic area like have emerged within the states, showing states and property owners, against rural India,

Economic & Political Weekly EPW may 9, 2009 vol xliv no 19 17

commentary
u­norganised sector, poorer states and wage earn- regime controlling political power”, as party Chhibber, Pradeep K and Irfan Nooruddin (1999):
ers… India’s growth process during the last two d­ominated regimes in India “closely reflects the na- “Party Competition and Fragmentation in India” in
decades does not seem to have been a virtuous one ture of the ruling political party. The ideology, or- Ramasray Roy and Paul Wallace (ed.), Indian Poli-
– it has polarised the economy” (Nagaraj 2000: ganisation and class alliances underlying a party tics and the 1998 Elections: Regionalism, H­indutva
2831). dominated regime are then of considerable conse- and State Politics (Delhi: Orient L­ongman).
3 “If the growth prospects of the nation get tied to quence” (Kohli 1987: 10). Church, R (1984): “The Pattern of State Politics in
the degree of success in enticing direct foreign in- 11 Like Kohli, Harriss also employed the comparative I­ndira Gandhi’s India” in J R Wood (ed.), State
vestment, then the richer regions feel that they framework to take up a policy study seeking to Politics in Contemporary India: Crisis or Continui-
would be better placed in this regard if they acted explain differential poverty reducing perfor- ty?, (Boulder: West View Press).
on their own, unencumbered by the burden of be- mance across states. For the purpose, Harriss re- Corbridge, Stuart, Glynn Williams, Rene Veron and
longing to the same country as the poor, violent, visited the state-specific essays in the Frankel and Manoj Srivastava (2008): Seeing the State (New
crime-infested regions” (Patnaik 2000: 153). Rao volume after a gap of a decade to show as to Delhi: Cambridge University Press).
4 In electoral terms, there have been two indicators how the differences in terms of balance of caste/ deSouza, Peter Ronald and E Sridharan, ed. (2006):
that stand out among others, in the context of the class power and also in terms of the party systems India’s Political Parties (New Delhi: Sage.
regionalisation argument. One, the representa- in different states influence the policy process and Frankel, Francine and M S A Rao, ed. (1990): Domi-
tion of the state level parties in the legislative the performance of the states. He argued that the nance and State Power in Modern India: Decline of
bodies has increased to the level that it appears states where the “power of the locally dominant a Social Order (in two volumes) (Delhi: OUP).
that the national polity is little more than the ag- castes/classes has been challenged to a great ex-
tent” or where “stable, relatively well-institution- Harriss, John (1999): “Comparing Political Regimes
gregation of the regional. Two, the national par- across Indian States: A Preliminary Essay, EPW,
ties have increasingly adopted state-specific elec- alised parties compete for their votes” have done
27 November.
toral campaigns and the policies. comparatively better in terms of poverty reduc-
tion (Harriss 1999: 3367-76). Hasan, Zoya (1989): Dominance and Mobilisation:
5 Significantly, Weiner justified the need to undertake Rural Politics in Western Uttar Pradesh 1930-80,
political research on the Indian states by suggesting 12 Varshney (2002) combines an interstate focus
New Delhi.
that it was at the state level that the “conflicts among with an advocacy of taking up city as his unit of
castes, religious groups, tribes, and linguistic groups analysis for the study of communal riots involving Heath, Anthony, Siana Glouharova and Oliver Heath
the Hindus and the Muslims as he argues that the (2006): “India: Two Party Contests within a Mul-
and factions are played out” and which hampers the
“efforts to modernise” (Weiner 1968: 6). communal riots are urban phenomena in India. tiparty System” in Michael Gallagher and Paul
Mitchell (ed.), The Politics of Electoral Systems
6 The state volume edited by John Wood (1984) did 13 In her study of the politics of economic policy in (Oxford: OUP)
have a comparative essay by Roderick Church. the “large and multileveled polity” Sinha focuses
Based on the study of the emergent caste politics Jaffrelot, Christophe (2003): India’s Silent Revolution:
on the dominant puzzle of “failed developmental
of the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, The Rise of the Low Castes in North Indian Politics
state” in India, namely, as to why despite suppos-
Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat, (New York: Columbia University Press).
edly following an uniform developmental trajec-
Church came out with an argument that has rele- tory, marked by uniform central policy interven- Jayal, Niraja Gopal (2006): Federal Anxieties, Demo-
vance even now. He argued that at the time, tions and regulations under the development cratic Desires: The Politics of Governance Reform in
among the different categories of landowning planning model for so long, whose remnants are Two Indian States, www.crisisstates.com.
twice-born upper castes, the farming middle/in- still visible, the regional states in India have come – (2006): Representing India: Ethnic Diversity and
termediate castes, the land less agricultural as to reveal very different developmental outcomes? the Governance of Public Institutions (Houndmills:
well as the service and artisan lower castes and More intriguingly, why there has been an uneven Palgrave Macmillan).
the scheduled castes, it were the lower castes, nu- regional pattern of investment flow in those re- Jenkins, Rob (1999): Democratic Politics and Economic
merically weak and dispersed and also sand- gional states even where historical and economic Reforms in India (Cambridge: Cambridge Univer-
wiched between the middle and the ex-untouch- explanations might suggest convergence (She se- sity Press).
able castes, which were facing resistance and lects Gujarat and West Bengal as case studies)? – (2004): Regional Reflections: Comparing Politics
even attempt at the cooption of their leadership Why West Bengal unlike Gujarat (and Tamil Nadu Across India’s States (New Delhi: OUP).
by the upper and middle dominant castes when- that had none of the initial advantages) has failed Kohli, Atul (1987): The State and Poverty in India
ever they sought a larger share in the political to attract a higher share of investment on the (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
processes. Church (1984: 231) argued with a sense basis of its initial strengths as a private capital- – (1990): Democracy and Discontent: India’s Growing
of prescience that the “lower castes are the last intensive state? The explanation Sinha suggests Crisis of Governability (Cambridge: Cambridge
stratum to be brought into politics”. lies in the form of the differing institutional and University Press).
7 Writing in the late 1970s, Narain referred to the political capacities of the states. See Sinha (2004 – (2006): “Politics of Economic Growth in India,
fact that one had “to deal here not with one pat- and 2005). 1985-2005; Part 1: The 1980s and Part 11: The
tern but with several patterns of state politics 14 Subrata K Mitra (2006: 43). In another instance of 1990s and Beyond”, EPW, 1 and 8 April.
which (were) emerging, if at all, through none too purposive sampling, Mitra for his comparative
steady pull and swing of politics at the central and Kothari, Rajni (1970): Politics in India (New Delhi:
study that aimed at measuring the level of gover- Orient Longman).
state levels” (Narain 1976: xvi). nance in India selected six states from the “four
8 Refer two special issues of EPW. One was on Kudasia, Gyanesh (2006): Region, Nation, “Heart-
corners of India” as the research sites where either land”: Uttar Pradesh in India’s Body Politic (New
N­ational Election Study 2004, Vol 39, No 51, 18-24 the level of governance was perceived as low
December 2004. The other one was on State Par- Delhi: Sage).
(Punjab and Bihar) or high (West Bengal and
ties, National Ambitions, Vol 39, Nos 14 and 15, Kumar, Ashutosh (2003): “State Electoral Politics:
Maha­rashtra) or the ones that fell into the middle
3-9 April 2004). Some of these papers have been Looking for the Larger Picture”, EPW, 26 July.
category (Tamil Nadu and Gujarat).
included in an edited volume, which is in the form Kumar, Pradeep (2000): The Uttarakhand Movement:
15 ������������������������������������������������
Interestingly, there are a few studies that com-
of an anthology on political parties (deSouza and Construction of a Regional Identity (New Delhi:
pare the politics of the specific regions in India
Sridharan 2006). Most recently EPW in a special Kanishka Publishers).
with that of a region of another country mainly
volume on state elections 2007-08 has published focusing on the identity-based politics (Sumantra Kurian, N J (2000): “Widening Regional Disparities
a set of state-specific commentaries on assembly Bose: 1999). in India: Some Indicators”, EPW, 12 February,
elections accompanied by an essay by Yogendra pp 538-50.
Yadav and Suhas Palshikar that sets the context Mawdsley, Emma (1998): “After Chipko: From Envi-
and also provide an overview for comparative ronment to Region in Uttarakhand, Journal of
analysis (Vol XLIV, No 6, 7-13 February 2009). References Peasant Studies, 25(4): 36-54.
9 While emphasising the autonomy of state politics Ahluwalia, Montek Singh (2000): “Economic Perform- Mitra, Subrata K and V B Singh (1999): Democracy and
from national politics, Yadav and Palshikar (2008, ance of States in Post-Reforms Period”, Economic Social Change: A Cross Sectional Analysis of the
14-22) present a “preliminary frame” for inter- & Political Weekly (EPW hereafter), 6 May. National Electorate (Delhi: Sage).
state comparative analysis by presenting the criti- Mitra, Subrata K (2006): The Puzzle of India’s Govern-
Baruah, Sanjib (1999): India Against Itself: Assam and
cal issues for enquiry in the form of what they call ance: Culture, Context and Comparative Theory
the Politics of Nationality (Delhi: Oxford Univer-
the ten theses on state politics in India. (London: Routledge).
sity Press) (OUP hereafter).
10 Atul Kohli undertook an extensive field-based re- Nagaraj, R (2000): “Indian Economy Since 1980: Vir-
Bose, Sumantra (1999): States, Nations, Sovereignty:
search to gauge the effectiveness of different party tuous Growth or Polarisation?”, EPW, 5 August.
Sri Lanka, India and the Tamil Eelam Movement
regimes in undertaking the anti-poverty measures.
(New Delhi: Sage). Narain, Iqbal, ed.(1976): State Politics in India (Jaipur:
Based on the principle of purposive selection, Kohli
Chadha, Behera Navneeta (2000): State, Identity and Meenakshi Prakashan).
selected three case studies where p­overty allevia-
tion policies had achieved the maximum (West Violence; Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh (New Nigam, Aditya and Yogendra Yadav (1999): “Electoral
Bengal governed by the Left Front), or the mini- D­elhi: Manohar). Politics in Indian States, 1989-1999”, EPW, 21-28
mum success (Uttar Pradesh governed by the Jana- Chandra, Kanchan (2005): Why Ethnic Parties Suc- August.
ta coalition), and the third one that fell into the ceed: Patronage and Ethnic Headcounts in India Palshikar, Suhas (2004): “Revisiting State Level Poli-
middle category (Karnataka governed by Congress (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). tics”, Economic & Political Weekly, Nos 14 and 15,
with Devraj Urs as the Chief Minister). The differ- Chhibber, Pradeep K (1999): Democracy Without As- 16 April.
ence of the “regional distributive outcomes” in sociations: Transformation of the Party System and Pai, Sudha (2000): State Politics: New Dimensions
terms of pro-poor measures were a “function of the Social Cleavages in India (New Delhi: Vistaar). (New Delhi: Shipra).

18 may 9, 2009 vol xliv no 19 EPW Economic & Political Weekly

commentary
Patnaik, Prabhat (2000): “The State in India’s Eco- I­nstitutions in Policy Change: A Comparison of – (1999): “India’s Third Electoral System: 1989-99”,
nomic Development” in Zoya Hasan (ed.), Politics West Bengal and Gujarat” in Jenkins Rob. EPW, Vol 34, Nos 34-35.
and the State in India (New Delhi: Sage). – (2005): The Regional Roots of Developmental Pol- Yadav, Yogendra and Suhas Palshikar (2006): “From
Prakash, Amit (2002): Jharkhand: Politics of Develop- itics in India: A Divided Leviathan (Bloomington Hegemony to Convergence: Party System and
ment and Identity (Hyderabad: Orient Longman). and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press). Electoral Politics in the Indian States, 1952-2002”
Roy, Ramashray and Paul Wallace (2007): India’s 2004 Subramanian, Narendra (1999): Ethnicity and Popu- in Peter Ronald deSouza and E Sridharan (ed.),
Elections: Grass Roots and National Perspectives list Mobilisation: Political Parties, Citizens and India’s Political Parties (New Delhi: Sage).
(New Delhi: Sage). Democracy in South India (Delhi: OUP). – (2008): “Ten Theses on State Politics in India”,
– (2003): India’s 1999 Elections and the 20th C­entury Suri, K C (2005): “Parties under Pressure: Political Seminar, 591, November.
Politics (New Delhi: Sage). Parties in India since Independence”, Working – (2009): “Principal State Level Contests and Deriva-
Sathyamurthy, T V, ed. (2000): Region, Religion, P­aper (Delhi: Lokniti). tive National Choices: Electoral Trends in 2004-
Caste and Culture in Contemporary India (New Varshney, Ashutosh (2002): Ethnic Conflict and Civic 09”, EPW, Vol XLIV, No 6, 7-13 February, 55-62.
Delhi: OUP). Life: Hindus and Muslims in India, Yale University Wallace, Paul and Ramashroy Roy, ed. (2003): India’s
Singh, Gurharpal (2000): Ethnic Conflict in India: A Press. 1999 Elections and 20th Century Politics (New
Case Study of Punjab (London: Macmillan). – (2007): “India’s Democratic Challenge”, Foreign Delhi: Sage).
Singh, Jagpal (1992): Capitalism and Dependence; Affairs, 86(2), March-April. Weiner, Myron (1968): State Politics in India (Prince-
Agrarian Politics in Western Uttar Pradesh, Yadav, Yogendra (1996): “Reconfiguration in Indian ton: Princeton University Press).
1951-91 (New Delhi: Manohar). Politics: State Assembly Elections 1993-95, EPW, Wood, John R, ed. (1984): State Politics in Contem­porary
Sinha, Aseema (2004): “Ideas, Interests, and Vol 31, Nos 2 and 3, 13 January. India: Crisis or Continuity (Boulder: West View Press).

Sangam: A Site for hai. (The contest is between the Elephant

and the Hand – the symbols of the BSP and

Election Predictions the Congress.) Ranjan Kumar Nishad, who

remembers me from my last visit in 2004,
echoes the general opinion that the Con-
gress will do much better in UP in 2009
Jawid Laiq than it did in 2004. The Samaj­wadi Party
(SP) will fare badly this time and the BJP

H
The pilgrims from every corner of undreds of pilgrims from all over will be in fourth place in UP with only a
the country who take a dip at the the country converge every day handful of seats. Ranjan’s c­olleagues sug-
for a dip at the Sangam, the holy gest that nationally the Congress may
holy confluence of the Ganga and
confluence of the waters of the Ganga and emerge again as the single largest party
the Yamuna express their political the Yamuna at Allahabad. I have been vis- with significantly more than the 145 seats
views which are distilled by the iting the Sangam, not for spiritual solace it got in 2004. They are not willing to
local boatmen into a reliable brew but as a political pilgrim, since the 1977 guess the precise number of   seats.
Lok Sabha election which turned out to be In 2004, the boatmen had clearly and
of electoral prophecy.
an overwhelming verdict against Indira accurately forecast that the SP would get
Gandhi’s Emergency regime. I am here yet the highest number of Lok Sabha seats
again for the fifth time during a Lok Sabha from UP followed by the BSP. This time the
election to garner the electoral wisdom of SP is being dismissed as a mafia group and
the Nishads, the boatmen, who row yatris the BJP as a party that makes tall promises
from every corner of the motherland to to Hindus, creates tensions and then fails
the Sangam. On the sandy beach by the to carry out its pledges. They are indig-
confluence, after a lot of persuasion, the nant that the BJP repeatedly launches
reticent boatmen reveal what they have a­ggressive campaigns for building the Ram
gathered from the election banter of Mandir and then backs out from doing so.
p­ilgrims from every state, clan and caste. Anirudh Kumar Nishad, organiser of
The boatmen have proved to be more the boatmen’s committee, claims that
accurate in their election predictions than u­nlike in the 2004 election, caste and
the professional pollsters commissioned community are not relevant this time. Last
by TV channels and newspapers. time, the Nishads, as a sub-caste belong-
I greet a group of Nishads sitting on a ing to the Other Backward Classes (OBC)
platform of rough planks embedded in the category had voted for the SP as had many
sand and gently inquire about the possible other OBC groups. This time due to the
outcome of the current election. After Mayawati government’s loan waivers and
some discussion, there is a definite con- benefits for the poor, most Nishads will
This is an extensive version of an article sensus among them that the top two con- vote for the BSP while some will vote for
published earlier in Hindustan Times.
tenders for the vote in Uttar Pradesh (UP) the Congress. According to Anirudh, even
Jawid Laiq ([email protected]) is a are the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Muslims are now going to vote as part of
political reporter and author of The Maverick Congress. As they repeatedly put it in col- the downtrodden majority for the BSP and
Republic.
loquial Hindi, Haathi aur Panjey may takar not as a religious minority.
Economic & Political Weekly EPW may 9, 2009 vol xliv no 19 19