ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to elucidate the relationship between the state and information technology in India within the broad parameters of a discourse that is rooted in the political economy tradition. The state of India needs to be analysed on two levels, as a complex whole and as an instance in organic relationship to other instances. The post-colonial state in India, in its constitution, its institutions and practices, reflects an affinity with the colonial state in India. The state was given the task of planning and implementing growth and also controlling crisis. Power was to a large extent decentralized and there were powerful local leaders who sustained the Congress through periods of crisis. Under the rubric of monopoly capitalist rule, the state has consistently tried to reinforce its image as a caring institution through presenting a set of collective goals based on a common world-view.
