Political Behaviour Of Indian State Governors

About the Book

The institution of the Indian state governorship has attracted the scholarly attention of Indian and International scholars. Political behaviour of Indian State Governors : A study of the Role of Governor in Orissa contains subtle but telling  differences from other books about the Indian stet Governorship. It is the first major analytical work on the political behaviour of the Indian state Governors. This study provides a unique exploration and behavioral analysis of the Indian  Governor through a case study of the role played by fourteen governors who served post independent Orissa, 1947-1980.

The analysis concentrates on gubernatorial behaviour during the six state emergencies in Orissa when democratic Governance of the state was replace by the presidential rule under Article 356 of the Indian Constitution. Using data based on the behavioral patterns of the Governors who sought President’s Rule and ran the state administration  on behalf of the Central Government, Dr. Mishra argues that the role  assigned to the state Governor by the Indian constitution is not in fact the role actually played by the governor. While his constitutional role is that of a neutral head of state, his actual  role seems to be one with considerably more political overtones. With his engaging logical style, he raises important questions about a strictly legal–constitutional  approach to the role of a state governor in a political turbulent state. He concludes that a carefully framed constitution may prove to be inadequate for political contingencies.
Researchers in the fields of Comparative Politics and Indian state Politics should find this work insightful relative to the analysis of executive political behaviour in an Indian state.

About  the Author

Digamber Mishra is Professor of Political Science and Chair, Division of  Social and Behavioural Sciences at Miles College,  Birmingham, Alabama, USA. Digamber graduated from Ravenshaw College and received his Master’s Degree from Utkal University. He came to the United  States in 1947 and received  a Rotary Scholarship at the University of Alabama  at Tuscaloosa and University of  Alabama at Huntsville, Digamber joined the faculty of Miles College in 1981.

Digamber was a Bicentennial Fellow at Stanford University in 1983 and at Brookings in 1984. He is member of the American Political Science  Association and the Alabama Political Science Association, where he served as president, and the Birmingham Chapter of the UNA –USA, of which he currently vice president. He is former president of the Orissa Society of the Americas. In  summer 1999, Digamber was a Fulbright Professor to Malaysia and Singapore. His scholarly articles have appeared in several professional journals.