Economic reform in India has largely taken place at a time of assertive cultural nationalism and growing pressures for advancement and assertion from within India's subaltern communities. This book explores the mainsprings, contours and consequences of democratization, decentralization and development in India and offers new insights into its contemporary political economy. It considers how and why unequal patterns of economic growth have taken shape within the context of a democratic and decentralizing political system, and how and why that system has impacted upon processes of economic development. The different articles address how competing claims have been negotiated; in what measure has a bias in favour of political decentralization helped the government push ahead with an economic reform agenda; and who is being left behind in the race for income growth. The book makes some important theoretical contributions to the continuing debates on democracy and development in Indian context and balances the arguments with a good variety of empirical material.