ON INDIAN POLITICS 63 system. On the contrary, he found the Congress leadership skillfully nurturing the foundations of liberal democracy. This assessment was derived from a firm belief in the autonomy of politics by examining the relations between political resources—mainly specific skills—on the one hand, and political challenges or problems on the other. Morris Jones was anxious to isolate the political from the social and economic aspects of development for understandable reasons. Without that it was not possible to judge India according to the standards of Western society. On any other scale, India's failures could not be ignored. This indicates the limitations of a predominantly political approach in studying an underdeveloped society. The article, "India's Political Miracle" (1966),-is essentially about the achievements of the Congress in the sphere of political stability and institution-building. The article concentrates on the Congress because for Morris Jones it is heart of the miracle. According to the author, federalism, representative institutions, social change and group mobility could not have flourished "except under the ample protection of the capacious Congress umbrella" (p 143). In other words, India owes everything to the resources of the Congress leadership. The resources—ideological flexibility, cultural adaptability and skills of negotiation and bargaining— were 'effectively used by the Congress to create the legitimacy of the government and a democratic citizen body. Morris Jones provides useful insights into the functioning of the Congress party and its internal structure. His analysis of the 1967 and 1971 elections is empirically sound; provides detailed information about the elections. According to Morris Jones, the 1967 election was an important milestone because it marked the end of Congress monopoly and ushered in an era wherein "politics was moving out from the protected shelter of early post-independence years towards the open seas of free-for-all competitive politics" (p 144). This confirmed India's standing in the grand world of free market politics. The 1971 elections, however, belied the optimistic prognostications of the author; the system returned to one party dominance. Morris Jones does not explain the reversal. Instead he finds many reasons to approve of and justify the resurgence of Congress monopoly. Among the reasons, he adduces the "leftward orientation" of Indira Gandhi and her party, and the forced dependence of the opposition on the Centre. The inadequacy of this explanation was proved by subsequent events in India's recent political history.