Broker Autonomy and the End of Indian National Congress Party Dominance

This chapter examines how India’s patronage-based system became unstable, connecting the increase in broker autonomy that followed Nehru’s death in 1964 to a shift in partisan control away from the Congress at the subnational level. The increase in broker autonomy following Nehru’s death was subtle but highly significant. With the separation of the dual government and party authority that had allowed Nehru to arbitrate between competing factions at the state level, Congress factions could compete more openly and prosper as distinct parties, resulting in the fragmentation of the patronage network between center and periphery. This left the Congress party in control at the center but in opposition in several of India’s most populous states. The chapter argues that the crisis of the Congress system was driven by the de facto removal of central control over the subnational units of the party that followed Nehru’s death rather than economic decline.