Introduction In democratic developing countries such as India, policies and programmes for the development of a region and/or social group should address two related issues. First, they must endeavour to raise the living standard of the population of the target region and/or social group; second, try to generate a popular feeling of betterment of living standards. Achievements in the implementation of development policy will not serve the purposes of containing socio-political conflicts or generating increased legitimacy for the state unless society views these as such. Challenges to the legitimacy of political regimes born out of socio-political conflicts increase what Kohli calls the ‘crisis of governability’ (Kohli 1990). In light of this crisis, this chapter analyses the linkage between (a) the changing development profile of the 18 districts that once formed the Jharkhand region of Bihar (since 2000, the State of Jharkhand), and (b) the articulation of a new Jharkhandi identity, as expressed through the electoral support for Jharkhandi political parties since the 1990s. I will argue that while there may not be a direct correlation between the performance of development policy and identityarticulation in Jharkhand (or, for that matter, any given region, state or nation), the patterns of the political process underline the existence of a complex entanglement between these two factors, in terms of the relationship between state and society.