66 SOCIAL SCIENTIST present epoch where the bourgeoisie is confronted with this problem^ The very path of development chosen by the rulers of India make them nurture and encourage divisive and chauvinistic forces that raise slogans such as ^sons of the soil9. Such has been the policy pursued by the Congress Party which ruled until recently at the Centre. What is of grave concern is that some powerful sections ofthejanata Party also propagate revivalist, chauvinistic and obscuiantist slogans. Such policies create opportunities for fissiparous forces, which stand in opposition to the democratic movement, and must be opposed. 5 It must be unambiguously recognised that India is a multinational country and that Centre-State relations constitute an arena where this question is directly and sharply expressed. The historical circumstances in which capitalism arose and has developed in India brought in their wake a complex uneven development of nationalities and regions. This uneven development is inseparably tied to the entrenched existence of backward relations of production in Indian society and the most retrograde survivals of the feudal past. Parasitical monopoly capital and landlordism are the two big obstacles in the way of achieving the real equality of nationalities. And it would be fatal if we fail to recognise that imperialism preys upon and fully exploits this situation in India. Centralisation of Power 6 In pursuit of their path of development, the rulers of India have resorted to growing centralisation of power. This has brought in its wake a multiplication and diversification of the coercive apparatus of the State, and the emergence of an overweening executive to meet the deepening discontent of the people. The rulers have invaded the domain of the States and ruthlessly taken away State rights. They have reduced the States to the position of clients as far as resource mobilisation and allocation are concerned. They have shown a dictatorial intolerance of opposition parties in office in the States, especially the left and democratic parties. They have also centralised key administrative services for fashioning a bureaucracy to be utilised at their behest. The Emergency intensified this process tremendously, and the 42nd Amendment of the Constitution was its most comprehensive institutionalisation. Thus, the issue of Centre-State relations has got integrally tied up with the growing attack on democratic rights and civil liberties of the people. 7 A notable feature of the present situation is that the hegemony of the Congress Party which ruled at the Centre for three decades has been overthrown and different political parties are in office in the different States. The ruling party at the Centre is different from the parties in office in several States. It has to be effectively recognised that with the disappearance of one-party rule, the distinctive political development of various States and the separate political preferences of parties are a