Sudha Pai is Professor, Centre for Political Studies, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

List of Tables List of Abbreviations Preface and Acknowledgements Introduction: Developmental State, Dalit Question and Political Response Part I. The Congress Party: Dominance, Inclusion and the New Dalit Agenda 1. The Congress Party in MP: Origins and Early Patterns of Dominance 2. The Congress Party and the Politics of Social Inclusion: the 1980s and 1990s 3. Formulating a New Dalit Agenda: The Bhopal Document Part II. Land Reform for the Disadvantaged: An Experiment in Public Private Partnership 4. Formulating the Land Reform Agenda: A Background 5. Public Private Partnership in Land Reform: the Ekta Parishad and the Joint Task Force 6. Mapping Ground Reality: Implementation of the Land Distribution Programme in Selected Districts Part III. Moving Beyond Reservations: the Supplier Diversity Experiment 7. Moving Beyond Reservations: the Debate on Affirmative Action 8. New Initiatives in Affirmative Action: the Madhya Pradesh Experiment 9. Creating a Dalit Entrepreneurial Class: Selected Studies on Supplier Diversity Part IV. Political Fallout: Dalit Agenda and the 2003 Assembly Elections 10. Dalit Agenda, Land Distribution Policy and the 2003 Assembly Elections Appendix Glossary Index

This book examines the Madhya Pradesh government's attempt to win Dalit and tribal support by introducing change from above in a period of intense identity assertion, and suggests that limited success achieved through land distribution and supplier diversification was a fallout of the absence of an upsurge from below.