The newest volume in the acclaimed Journal of Democracy series examines the state of India’s democracy. As India marks its sixtieth year of independence, it has become an ever more important object of study for scholars of comparative democracy. It has long stood out as a remarkable exception to theories holding that low levels of economic development and high levels of social diversity pose formidable obstacles to the successful establishment and maintenance of democratic government.

In recent decades, India has proven itself capable not only of preserving democracy, but of deepening and broadening it by moving to a more inclusive brand of politics. Political participation has widened, electoral alternation has intensified, and civil society has pressed more vigorously for institutional reforms and greater government accountability. Yet political scientists still have not devoted to this country, which contains more than one-sixth of the world’s population, the kind of attention that it warrants. The essays in The State of India's Democracy focus on India’s economy, society, and politics, providing illuminating insights into the past accomplishments—and continuing challenges—of Indian democracy.

Contributors: Rajat Ganguly, M. V. Rajeev Gowda, Christophe Jaffrelot, Niraja Gopal Jayal, Rob Jenkins, Sunila S. Kale, Pratap Mehta, Subrata K. Mitra, Aseema Sinha, E. Sridharan, Praveen Swami, Arvind Verma, Steven I. Wilkinson.

Sumit Ganguly is Rabindranath Tagore Professor of Indian Cultures and Civilizations and a professor of political science at Indiana University. He is the author, editor, or coeditor of fourteen books on South Asian politics and is currently at work on a new book, India since 1980. Larry Diamond is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution of War, Revolution, and Peace at Stanford University. Marc F. Plattner is vice president for research and studies at the National Endowment for Democracy. They serve as codirectors of the International Forum for Democratic Studies and coeditors of the Journal of Democracy.