ABSTRACT
This final concluding chapter probes some of the unexplored implications of the book’s main arguments. It briefly revisits the questions set out in the Prologue – not to recount the arguments presented in Chapters 4 to 6 – but to highlight the thematic notions that emerge from the story, and in turn relates some of these notions to the larger literature on economic transition discussed in Chapter 1. The chapter further emphasises that in developing the narrative of the politics of transition in West Bengal, the book has tried to draw attention to the sub-national, regional and local political trends and conditions that play a crucial role in determining reform outcomes, particularly in a diverse, democratic and federal polity such as India. And in doing so, the book also hopes to add to the wider literature on the politics of reformism in the Global South.
