The book looks at the course travelled by the Indian polity in the post-independence period, by analysing the dominance of a single party. emergence of coalition governments at the State- level and later at the all-India level, relations between tiers of governments, accommodative and conflicting stances in the relations of the governments and the party system, instances of judicial intervention, movements in the public sphere, issues in the fiscal and economic arenas and the political actions of constitutional authorities, especially the Governors. The shifts in the support bases of the political parties and the emerging interests of the dominant social classes are also discussed. Based on these analyses. certain questions about our polity are attempted to be answered.