Welcome Addition to Studies on Punjab Politics

Abstract

The study of State politics merits the attention of the Indian scholars in the discipline of political science for many reasons. In the first instance, some of the States of the Indian Union are bigger in the size of their area and population than many nation-states of the Europe. Secondly, the general belief about the weakness of the States notwithstanding, the States have been given an important role in the Indian political system because the Union Government is all staff but no line. So much so that, as Paul Appleby aptly remarked, the federal government is nowhere as dependent on the States for implementing its policies and programmes as it is in India. Thirdly, almost all the central leaders, with exceptions like Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi, had started their political careers in State politics. Fourthly, the study of State politics, as has rightly been observed by Myron Weiner, provides an excellent field for the comparative studies of the processes of modernisation, political development and economic development. It can be helpful in identifying the functional and dysfunctional factors in this context. Lastly, it also enables us to make a comparative study of the process of democratic decentralisation and for finding out why the system of Panchayati Raj has become strong in some of the States but has remained weak in others.

Keywords: Punjab, Politics