This book by eminent journalist Aaku Srivastava, delves deep into the history of the politics of independent India with an aim to study the ups and downs of the regional parties arising with the contradictions and conflicts between the states against the ‘Centre’.

These ‘contradictions’ first appeared in the early 1970s when local political forces in 7 to 8 states formed their own ‘united governments’ and offered localist alternatives to the ‘Centrist’ Congress policies. Linguistic and local cultural identities made this change possible. In the Centre too, two non-Congress parties and local parties formed governments. In the era of globalisation, this tendency of decentralisation became even more forceful and compelling.

Perhaps that is why even now that Congress ‘centralism’ has been replaced by BJP, many localist identities keep clashing with BJP’s centralism as well. Aaku Srivastava critically examines the various dimensions of this fundamental contradiction of Indian politics. And they tell that this contradiction is due to ‘internal contradiction’ of our contemporary politics, which apparently appears to be a ‘curse for democracy’ but indirectly it seems to keep democracy alive. In my view, this book is a perfect read to understand the pulse of contemporary and future politics. —Sudhiesh Pachouri