ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the evolution of India's political system. It looks at the conflicting values of the elite; then at the problems of maintaining political order and political power and the resources available to the regime for doing so from 1947 to the mid-sixties; then at the breakdown of the political process and the parallel development of bureaucratic authority. It also deals with a brief account of the major institutional changes that have taken place since the declaration of an emergency in mid-1975 and since the elections of early 1977. The exodus of anti-Hindu Muslim political elites to Pakistan also proved to be an asset, for it left in India a moderate, nationalist Muslim leadership that could effectively cooperate with the Hindu nationalist leadership in a coalition committed to the restoration of communal harmony within the framework of a secular state.
