Lawrence Saez is Associate Professor in Comparative and International Politics at the School of Oriental and Asian Studies (SOAS), UK. He is also Director of the Centre for South Asian Studies at SOAS and an Associate Fellow in the International Economics programme at Chatham House. Gurharpal Singh is the Nadir Dinshaw Chair in Inter-Religious Relations and the Deputy Director of the Religions and Development Research Programme (DFID). He is based in the School of Philosophy, Theology and Religion at the University of Birmingham, UK.

• 1. Introduction Lawrence Saez and Gurharpal Singh Part 1:Governance 2. Did the central government’s poverty initiatives help to re-elect it? James Manor 3. The UPA and federalism: a paradigm shift? Harihar Bhattacharya 4. Educational exclusion and inclusive development in India Shailaja Fennell Part 2: Secularism 5. UPA and secularism, 2004-2009. Gurharpal Singh 6. The UPA and Muslims Steve Wilkinson 7. Beyond identity? The UPA rhetoric on social justice and reservations Rochana Bajpai Part 3: Security 8. The UPA’s foreign policy, 2004-2009 Kanti Bajpai 9. India’s energy security during the UPA government Lawrence Saez 10. India’s anti-terrorism and security policy in the first UPA government Rahul Roy-Chaudhury 11. Conclusion

"All in all, various chapters of this book offer useful insight to the challenges the Indian state has been confronting in nation building. While coalition politics and regimes have their own ways to deal with these issues, there are ideological differences that often play out in the determination of various policies. This is an important book for students of South Asian politics and public policy." - Shaikh Mujibur Rehman, 'Making sense of political success', The Hindu (December 10, 2012)."Roy-Chaudhury’s work is noteworthy, considering the few studies recognizing in Hindu nationalist groups an internal threat to the country's stability." - Mario González Castañeda, Journal of International and Global Studies Volume 4, Number 1, (November 2012).