ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the structure and internal dynamics of Punjabi coalitions. In a social system characterized by class divisions and in which, for certain cultural and historical reasons, a one-party system prevails, the factions that exist inside that party take on an ideological complexion and are committed to and pursue different political policies. ‘Faction’ can be seen as persisting at local level in the form of a coalition, by virtue of the fact that its members are bound to one another by different kinds of interdependent ties. The demonstration of effective opposition in the Jat rural areas was the use of violence, and this conflicted with the conditions favourable to the retention of the patronage of the upward link. The actions of local area leaders, therefore, threatened the cm’s upward link when they compromised him by clashing with those responsible for sustaining any one of his means of maintaining power in the state.
