Has India's political system aided its successful economic growth over the past fifteen years, or has India's rise occurred in spite of the political forces militating against economic growth? On the face of it, the picture of India's success being “In Spite of the Gods,” to use Edward Luce's phrase, appears quite compelling (Luce 2008). Over the sixty years since it gained independence from British rule, the Indian political system has changed almost as dramatically as its more-heralded economic system.

The principal political change has not been to India's democratic framework. That has remained intact. Rather, if one were to use a single word to describe the modern Indian political system it would have to be “fragmentation.” After continuous rule at the Center and in most states by the Congress Party, today's political system finds a multitude of regional- and state-level political parties in power or in the position of kingmaker as tenuous coalition governments are assembled.

The effects of this are easy to see in the political arena: virulent anti-incumbency tendencies and high electoral volatility, which in turn affects the quality of governance and types of public policies enjoyed by citizens. At the national level (or Centre), the rise of regional parties and the increasing inability of the “national” parties such as the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to compete all over the country have made coalition governments a fact of modern Indian political life.