COHESION, CONFLICTS AND CONTRADICTIONS 35 India remain integrated if social disorder spreads on account of new path of economic development? Further, the Indian state is not fully 'formed state*. The process of state formation in India has to grapple with many issues of ideology, civil society, democratic legitimacy and the relationship of the state with many strata of society. Many factors are at work which intervene in the formation of social consciousness in India and caste, communal and regional feelings are a significant factor in Indian society. Hence the political economy of the state and the anatomy of civil society is in serious 'disequilibrium* because of transition 'in the mode of production of material life conditions' in India. In such a transitional stage when the processes of class formation and state formation at work, the global pressure over India has increased to determine the path of our development. There is absolutely no reason to believe that the Indian state will be able to manage deep social crisis through 'authoritarian' interventions. A weak and deformed state in its inability to manage serious crisis can lead to social anarchy or even disintegration of the country. Hence Patnaik identifies one possibility, while many other equally disturbing possibilities generated by a 'retreating state' should not be ignored. Balkanisation of India or aimless social bloodshed are equally plausible because the Indian state does not have a strong guiding ideology which is accepted by all its functionaries. The colonial state in India had ideologically hegemoniscd its functionaries who defended colonial interests with ruthlessncss. Even a police state needs its 'executive agencies' which are ready to stand by its ideology. The Indian state is weak and internally fragmented by its own functionaries which are not committed to enthusiastically defend its goals. NOTED AND REFERENCES 1. (Society: July/August 1991, p. 35). 2. Gabriel A. Almond: ^Capitalism and Democracy': ^Political Science and Politics: September 1991: p. 473. 3. 'Prospects for Industrial Growth9: The Economic Times, Delhi, January 30, 1992, p. 12. 4. Giovanni Sartori:'Rethinking democracy: bad polity and bad polities' International Social Science Journal: August 1991, No. 129, p. 447. Also see: Giovanni Sartori: The Theory of Democracy Revisited: Chatham, N.J. Chatham House, 1987. 5. Arend Lijphart: Democracy in Plumi Societies: A Comparative Exploration, Bombay: Popular Prakashan, 1989: p. 1.