ABSTRACT
Theoretically, the dominant accounts of the state and the political in India (that can be broadly categorised under the framework of 'the passive revolution thesis') have come from political theory and political science. In the immediate aftermath of decolonisation the latter discipline was preoccupied with questions surrounding tradition, modernity, and development. In India, one of the most widely cited and used descriptions of passive revolution to study the dynamics of postcolonial politics is given by political theorist Sudipta Kaviraj. He uses a class-coalition model to make sense of state and politics in India after decolonisation. The body of scholarship on the state in India that applies this extension of the passive revolution thesis to the Indian case has been influential. It reflects, and has consolidated, three broad kinds of worrying theoretical orientations in social sciences in India concerning the state.
