Examining the processes of state formation and consolidation, and the erosion of the post-colonial state, this book highlights three themes: the constraints of modernization; the contradictory logic of modernization vis-a-vis assertive political identities; and the politics of the governed and the battle for equal status at the level of the state. It sees the present crisis of the Indian state as a direct result of the post-colonial state's inability to grapple with the social and multicultural realities of the Indian polity, thus making way for various religious, caste and regional frictions to surface.