ABSTRACT
The Indian National Congress dominated the political scene of pre-independence India, even though some parties and political factions were present in colonial India. The first generation of Indian leaders originated in the politically conscious stratum of Indian society and shared the experience of the freedom movement. India's party system has evolved with the Congress Party at the center of the system and a changing balance of power between centralism versus regionalism and nationalism versus communalism and caste-ism. The leaders of non-Congress centrist parties are people with dramatically different social and cultural backgrounds. Although the parties have built organizational structures, they rely heavily on charismatic and powerful personalities or community and religious leaders. Since the disintegration of the consensus-based Congress system in 1967, the Indian parties have comprised a multiparty system. During the period of Nehru-Gandhi family domination of the Congress, the party was committed to democratic socialism and planned economic development.
