In an earlier avatar, before getting increasingly involved with democracy promotion, I focused the greater part of my academic work on the Indian state of Bihar, concentrating mostly on the intersection of caste and politics. Much has changed there since the late 1960s and 1970s when I worked most intensively on Bihar, but the connections between caste and politics have, if anything, strengthened during succeeding decades. Accordingly, scholars interested in contemporary Bihar may find these essays of interest. Many of the state’s present political pathologies can be traced back to that earlier era.

“Identity dignity and development as trajectory Bihar as a model for democratic progress in Nepal? Part I Bihar s experience,” Commonwealth and Comparative Politics 56 (1), 2018, 103-123.

“Citizens, politicians and accountability for public service delivery in India,” paper for Symposium on Promoting Social Inclusion in South Asia: Politics, Pitfalls and Analysis of Welfare/Insecurity Regimes, Centre for Development Studies, University of Bath, 12-14 September 2010.

“Success and failure in rural development: A comparison of Maharashtra, Bihar and Bangladesh,” in William R. Pinch, ed., Speaking of Peasants: Essays on Indian History and Politics in Honor of Walter Hauser (Manohar: New Delhi, 2008), 421-452.

“Electoral support and party institutionalization in Bihar: Congress and the opposition, 1977-1985,” in Richard Sission and Ramashray Roy, eds., Diversity and Dominance in Indian Politics: Changing Bases of Congress Suppport, Vol. I (New Delhi & Beverly Hills: Sage, 1990), 123-167.

“Caste and the British Census in Bihar: Using Old Data to Study Contemporary Political Behavior,” in N. Gerald Barrier, ed., The Census in British India: New Perspectives (Delhi: Manohar, 1981), 149-175.

“Rising Kulaks and Backward Classes in Bihar: Social Change in the Late 1970s,” Economic and Political Weekly 15, 2 (January 12, 1980), 64-74.

“Dominant Caste and Socio-Economic Structure in the Villages of Central Bihar, 1967,” in Harry Blair, Voting, Caste, Community, Society: Explorations in Aggregate Data Analysis in India and Bangladesh (New Delhi and Stockholm: Young Asia Publications, 1979), 139-176.

“Minority Politics in a North Indian State: Aggregate Data Analysis and the Muslim Community in Bihar, 1952-1972,” American Political Science Review 67, 4 (December 1973), 1275-1287.

“Ethnicity and Democratic Politics in India: Caste as a Differential Mobilizer in Bihar,” Comparative Politics 5, 1 (October 1972), 107-127.