In this study, Atul Kohli analyzes political change in India from the late 1960s to the late 1980s.

List of tables and figures; Preface and acknowledgements; Part I. Introduction: 1. An overview of the study; 2. Some conceptual and theoretical considerations; Part II. The Growing Problems of Governing the Periphery: Politics in the Districts: Introduction: the districts; 3. Kheda, Gujarat; 4. Guntur, Andhra Pradesh; 5. Belgaun, Karnataka; 6. Calcutta, West Bengal; 7. Madurai, Tamil Nadu; Conclusion: the districts; Part III. Order and Breakdown in the States: Introduction: the states; 8. Breakdown in a 'backward' state: Bihar; 9. Growing turmoil in an 'advanced' state: Gujarat; 10. From breakdown to order: West Bengal; Conclusion: the states; Part IV. Centralization and Powerlessness at the Center: Introduction: the center; 11. Managing the economy: halfhearted liberalization; 12. Managing the troubled political institutions: the Congress party and relations with Punjab; Conclusion: the center; Part V. Final Inferences: 13. Political change in a democratic developing country; Bibliography; Index.

Atul Kohli is an Associate Professor at the Woodrow Wilson School of International Affairs, Princeton University. He is the author of The State and Poverty in India: The Politics of Reform (CUP, 1987).