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9780190264918

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An outstanding study of coalition politics in India, a major development in the post-Congress phase that the recent rise of the BJP has not made redundant. Ruparelia not only offers a very detailed narrative, he also shows how coalition governments have paradoxically played a key role in the recent history of the world's largest democracy by restoring the rule of law after the Emergency, changing the social content of the regime under V.P. Singh or making overtures to estranged neighbours (including Pakistan and Bangladesh) during the Third Front of the 1990s. While we tend to put the emphasis on national parties at the expense of state parties which are the main actors of coalition politics, these smaller entities which have won as many seats in 2014 as in 2009 cannot be ignored any more, as evident from their representation in the Modi government. -Christophe Jaffrelot, Research Director at CNRS Divided We Govern finally lays to rest the notion that India was comprehensively mis-ruled in the last quarter of the twentieth century by weak and hopelessly divided Third Front coalitions. Sanjay Ruparelia's rich, rigorous and nuanced study reveals the achievements as well as the failures of the Janata, National Front and United Front governments. In so doing, Ruparelia contributes more generally to our understanding of the possibilities of coalition politics in a parliamentary democracy. This is a first-rate and important book. --Stuart Corbridge, Professor of International Development and Provost, London School of Economics and Political Science

"""This book is an outstanding study of coalition politics in India, a major development in the post-Congress phase that the recent rise of the BJP has not made redundant. Ruparelia not only offers a very detailed narrative, he also shows how coalition governments have paradoxically played a key role in the recent history of the 'world's largest democracy' by restoring the rule of law after the Emergency, changing the social content of the regime under V.P. Singh or making overtures to estranged neighbors (including Pakistan and Bangladesh) during the Third Front of the 1990s."" -- Christophe Jaffrelot, Research Director at CNRS ""Divided We Govern finally lays to rest the notion that India was comprehensively mis-ruled in the last quarter of the twentieth century by weak and hopelessly divided Third Front coalitions. Sanjay Ruparelia's rich, rigorous and nuanced study reveals the achievements as well as the failures of the Janata, National Front and United Front governments. In so doing, Ruparelia contributes more generally to our understanding of the possibilities of coalition politics in a parliamentary democracy. This is a first-rate and important book."" -- Stuart Corbridge, Professor of International Development and Provost, London School of Economics and Political Science"

"""This book is an outstanding study of coalition politics in India, a major development in the post-Congress phase that the recent rise of the BJP has not made redundant. Ruparelia not only offers a very detailed narrative, he also shows how coalition governments have paradoxically played a key role in the recent history of the 'world's largest democracy' by restoring the rule of law after the Emergency, changing the social content of the regime under V.P. Singh or making overtures to estranged neighbors (including Pakistan and Bangladesh) during the Third Front of the 1990s."" -- Christophe Jaffrelot, Research Director at CNRS""Divided We Govern finally lays to rest the notion that India was comprehensively mis-ruled in the last quarter of the twentieth century by weak and hopelessly divided Third Front coalitions. Sanjay Ruparelia's rich, rigorous and nuanced study reveals the achievements as well as the failures of the Janata, National Front and United Front governments. In so doing, Ruparelia contributes more generally to our understanding of the possibilities of coalition politics in a parliamentary democracy. This is a first-rate and important book."" -- Stuart Corbridge, Professor of International Development and Provost, London School of Economics and Political Science"

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Sanjay Ruparelia is Assistant Professor of Political Science, The New School for Social Research, New York.

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