No Parties—Or Too Many Parties?

Ramakrishna Hedge, the former chief minister of Karnataka from the ranks of the Janata Dal, entitled his contribution to the volume India at 50 “Egos, Not Parties.” Hedge recounts India’s successes in the first fifty years of independence: agriculture, industry, education, and many other sectors. But in one area, he wrote, India has failed: “half a century since India became free, there is yet no stable party system” (Hedge 1997: 49).