AGRICULTURAL INNOVATION AND POLITICAL-CHANGE IN NORTH-INDIA - THE LOK-DAL IN UTTAR-PRADESH

This article examines the basis of the success of the Lok Dal in elect oral politics in Uttar Pradesh in relation to a wide range of indicato rs of agricultural innovation and change, It argues that the Lok Dal, through its political practice and electoral strategy, was able to cre ate and sustain an electoral following across the state which subsumed many potentially divisive identities and interests and that the party is better understood as one which created and articulated new aspirat ions and interests rather than one simply mobilising traditional ident ities, It goes on to examine how events after the mid-1980s produced c ircumstances which inhibited the further consolidation of the Lok Dal and led to major changes in the party political system in Uttar Prades h.