ABSTRACT
Urs, Chief Minister of Karnataka from 1972 to 1980, did more than any predecessor, and as much as any counterpart elsewhere in India, before or since, to make the democratic process more genuine for the disadvantaged groups who form a substantial majority of the state’s population. By doing this, he initiated a process of broadening and deepening democracy that would be completed by a successor government led by Hegde from 1983 to 1988.
