ABSTRACT
Myron Weiner has suggested that that election, in which Indira Gandhi rose from her 1977 defeat to trounce the remnants of the Janata Party coalition, brought India back to political normality. In many parts of India the struggle for scarce resources has so eroded political values and institutions that government has lost most of its integrity and authority. The combatants, who win, meanwhile, control political resources — organization, money, votes — that are of vital importance to the central rulers. Throughout her Prime Ministership, Mrs. Gandhi has felt continually challenged to intervene in state politics and her tendency to do so has increased in the 1980s. Many of the developments in Indian state politics which are associated with Indira Gandhi's political performance since 1980 were already underway in the first period of her rule. During Mrs. Gandhi's Prime Ministership, President's Rule was increasingly invoked, or threatened, to bring states into line.
