Indian Parliamentary Democracy in Coalition Era: Its Changing Paradigms

The book traces the origin and expansion of coalition politics in India and its impact on Indian parliamentary democracy. The research traces the changes and shifts in the basic paradigms of India's parliamentary democracy during the coalition era, which lasted almost 25 years til the BJP's majority victory in 2014. The political landscape of India saw revolutionary changes with the formation of a government, comprising of many small parties, at the union level in 1977. The Janata government was an experiment in Indian politics, which did not succeed, but paved the way for future coalitions. In a multicultural country like India, a multitude of small, regional parties coupled with forces of regionalism, and communalism made coalitions an only alternative for government formation. In this process the basic paradigms of Indian parliamentary democracy were hit and changed.