This engaging book clearly details the dilemmas that contemporary India faces and the controversies that accompany the many policies advocated to address them. By rising above partisanship, Pramod Kumar deftly demonstrates the fault lines in post Independence India's political and economic systems. The author pursuasively argues that more democracy, and not less, can shine a light on the route India should take for a more prosperous future. - Dipankar Gupta, Sociologist. An insightful and analytical treatise of the forces during Indian politics. A provocative write up on the difference between the Nehruvian nation-building and Modi's New India project. A persuasive analysis of the electoral machine and its implications for the shaping of a democratic, justice-oriented and inclusive polity and society. An innovatice contribution to the emerging governance paradigm in response to continuous dialogue between the stae, the civil society and the post-colonial mindest. The scope of governance has been redefined in the context of shift from a mixed economy to a market economy; from secular nationalism to cultural nationalism and, from non-aligned to more integrated globalized system. It is an exquisitely reasoned essays on issues relevant to everyday life. - S.Y. Quraishi, Former Chief-Election Commissioner of India