ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the various phases of economic policy reform starting in the 1980s. Literature on the politics of reforms is mobilised to explain the decision to adopt and pursue reforms, as well as to understand how reforms have been managed. I will argue here and in subsequent chapters that economic reforms are inextricably linked to political strategies that have emerged as a result of the wider political changes taking place in the last thirty to forty years. These are characterised by the gradual decline of Congress party dominance, the rise of Hindu nationalism and the regionalisation of politics.
