ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the larger theme of development and conflict through the specific issues of the relationship between economic change and social conflict; the radicalisation of the local political arena; the social correlates of radicalism; and conflict and cohesion in the local arena. It examines the effect that the radicalisation in individual political norms has on the social and moral life of the individual, seen as a member of the local political arena. The chapter suggests that rather than the actual occurrence of conflict, attitudes of elites towards conflict are of great importance to the stability and viability of representative political institutions in India. Social change, brought about by changes in the macro-political structure which has induced new notions of citizenship, entitlement and enfranchisement, has led to conflict over material resources and the rules of allocation of status, power and wealth.
