Louise Tillin is Professor of Politics at King's College London.

'Tillin's rich scholarly curiosity explores India's dismal social policies as the outcome of a long history of tensions between social forces and economic and political threats on the one hand and the individual bearers of ideas about social justice and rights on the other, between centralising policy processes and institutions and fissiparous ones - layered and contorted like geological sediments. A great achievement and essential reading.' Barbara Harriss-White, Wolfson College, Oxford

• 1. Introduction: the shaping of a welfare regime; 2. Origins, expansion and reform: India's welfare regime in historical perspective; Part I. Building a National Economy: Regulating Internal Competition: 3. In the shadow of sickness: Bombay and the origins of social insurance; 4. World war two, Tripartism and a National welfare State for industrial workers; Part II. Putting India to Work: 5. A girding of loins: planning and the duty to work in the postcolonial State; 6. Electoral competition and the expansion of social policy to rural areas: rural employment guarantee as social security; Part III. Liberalisation and Welfare in a Multi-level Democracy: 7. Liberalisation and the 'social safety net'; 8. Welfare, rights and the market in the post-congress polity, 1998-2014; 9. Conclusion: the past and future of the welfare State in India; Bibliography; Index.

Louise Tillin is Professor of Politics at King's College London.

'Tillin's rich scholarly curiosity explores India's dismal social policies as the outcome of a long history of tensions between social forces and economic and political threats on the one hand and the individual bearers of ideas about social justice and rights on the other, between centralising policy processes and institutions and fissiparous ones - layered and contorted like geological sediments. A great achievement and essential reading.' Barbara Harriss-White, Wolfson College, Oxford

• 1. Introduction: the shaping of a welfare regime; 2. Origins, expansion and reform: India's welfare regime in historical perspective; Part I. Building a National Economy: Regulating Internal Competition: 3. In the shadow of sickness: Bombay and the origins of social insurance; 4. World war two, Tripartism and a National welfare State for industrial workers; Part II. Putting India to Work: 5. A girding of loins: planning and the duty to work in the postcolonial State; 6. Electoral competition and the expansion of social policy to rural areas: rural employment guarantee as social security; Part III. Liberalisation and Welfare in a Multi-level Democracy: 7. Liberalisation and the 'social safety net'; 8. Welfare, rights and the market in the post-congress polity, 1998-2014; 9. Conclusion: the past and future of the welfare State in India; Bibliography; Index.

Louise Tillin is Professor of Politics at King's College London.

'Tillin's rich scholarly curiosity explores India's dismal social policies as the outcome of a long history of tensions between social forces and economic and political threats on the one hand and the individual bearers of ideas about social justice and rights on the other, between centralising policy processes and institutions and fissiparous ones - layered and contorted like geological sediments. A great achievement and essential reading.' Barbara Harriss-White, Wolfson College, Oxford

• 1. Introduction: the shaping of a welfare regime; 2. Origins, expansion and reform: India's welfare regime in historical perspective; Part I. Building a National Economy: Regulating Internal Competition: 3. In the shadow of sickness: Bombay and the origins of social insurance; 4. World war two, Tripartism and a National welfare State for industrial workers; Part II. Putting India to Work: 5. A girding of loins: planning and the duty to work in the postcolonial State; 6. Electoral competition and the expansion of social policy to rural areas: rural employment guarantee as social security; Part III. Liberalisation and Welfare in a Multi-level Democracy: 7. Liberalisation and the 'social safety net'; 8. Welfare, rights and the market in the post-congress polity, 1998-2014; 9. Conclusion: the past and future of the welfare State in India; Bibliography; Index.