The Themes in Politics series brings together the most significant articles and debates on important issues in Indian politics. In this volume of Essays on party politics in India, the Editor analyses a range of issues that impinge on party politics and the challenges confronting the party system. The volume presents a comprehensive Picture of the origin, evolution, and Transformation of Political Parties in India since Independence. Further, it outlines the main phases in the development of the party system and the role of social cleavages, Political mobilization, and electoral change in understanding party politics. The essays cover arguments on the interplay of caste, class and ethnicity, the Relationship between state, Society and democracy, the rise of coalition politics, and the new predicaments ahead of the multi-party system This volume will be invaluable for graduate and undergraduate students in Indian politics and also for general readers. CONTENTS: List of Tables List of Contributors Introduction : Conflict Pluralism and the Competitive Party System in India/Zoya Hasan Part I : THE DOMINANCE AND DECLINE OF THE Congress : 1. The Congress 'System' in India/Rajni Kothari 2. Social Cleavages, Elections, and the Indian Party System/Pradeep K. Chhibber and John R. Petrocik 3. Mrs Gandhi's Pyramid : The New Congress/Stanley A. Kochanek 4. The United Colours of Congress : Social Profile of Congress Voters, 1996 and 1998/Anthony Heath and Yogendra Yadav Part II : THE Rise AND GROWTH OF Hindu NATIONALIST Politics : 5. The Leadership and Organization of the Jana Sangh, 1951 to 1967/B. D. Graham 6. A Specific Party - building Strategy: The Jana Sangha and The RSS Network/Christophe Jaffrelot 7. Anatomy of BJP's Rise to Power : Social, Regional, and Political Expansion in 1990s/Oliver Heath 8. The Rebirth of the Shiv Sena : The Symbiosis of Discursive and Organizational Power/Mary Fainsod Katzenstein, Uday Singh Mehta, and Usha Thakkar Part III : RADICAL POLITICS AND LEFT PARTIES : 9. Communist Politics in Search of Hegemony/laveed Alam 10. Parliamentary Communism as a Historical Phenomenon : The CPI(M) in West Bengal/Amrita Basu Part IV : SOCIAL DIVERSITY AND PARTY POLITICS : 11. The Janata Phase : Reorganization and Redirection in Indian Politics/Jyotirindra Das Gupta 12. Representation and Redistribution : The New Lower Caste Politics of North India/Zoya Hasan 13. Bringing Society Back In: Ethnicity, Populism, and Pluralism in South India/Narendra Subramaniam Part V : POLITICAL Competition AND Transformation OF THE PARTY SYSTEM : 14. Parties and the Party System/James Manor 15. The Fragmentation of the Indian Party System, 1952 - 1999/E. Sridharan 16. The Political Parties and the Party System : The Emergence of New Coalitions/Balveer Arora