ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the progress made by this governing elite, its contours, and its reconstitution since the passing of the old generation. It focuses on the post-Nehru or Indira period of Indian politics, stretching eighteen years across three decades. The Indian national governing elite during the Indira era included representatives from significant social and religious minorities, was highly educated, recruited from well-to-do, though not the most well-endowed, economic groups, and was composed of persons who either made politics a career or who possessed professional expertise that could be utilized by the state. Cabinets during the Indira era have demonstrated uneven patterns of continuity, reflecting efforts on the part of the prime minister to maintain control of people in power and the political scaffolding essential for the cabinet's maintenance. On balance approximately 70 percent of the members of any Council of Ministers during the Indira era had been a member of a previous council.
