Contemporary India

Soon after independence, Indian political leadership decided to pursue the attainment of four self-stipulated goals: to attain an improved standard of living through higher rates of growth, to establish a functioning political democracy, to achieve social equality through social re-engineering, and to make a quick transition in making government a servant of the public than being its master as was the case during the previous colonial regime. This book describes the journey from the past to the present in the articulation of these goals and evaluates the extent to which they have been achieved.

This book is based on the belief that there is at work a principle of reciprocal causation between society and government. What society wants becomes a mandate for the government. That government is not a disinterested party and its actions, and failures to act, have an immense impact on the working of society. Premchand asserts that there is no aspect of civic life in India that is immune from governmental action. This relationship between government and society during the last six decades since independence is intensively examined.