Development Failure and Identity Politics in Uttar Pradesh provides a qualitative, in-depth understanding of development failures and identity politics in Uttar Pradesh (UP). It investigates neoliberal change and political transformation in India through the lens of UP, India's largest and, by some measures, poorest state. It examines the connection between transitions in the contemporary economy of India and transformations in politics from the standpoint of UP. The book demonstrates how an understanding of dynamics in UP might provide new perspective on issues such as the state, the civil society, caste, democracy and social impact of economic reforms-issues that are the subject of vigorous debate in India as a whole.