The work presents an in-depth understanding of failures in the course of development and identity politics in the state of Uttar Pradesh. It delves into neo-liberal change and political transformation in India’s largest and poorest state of UP, probing the association between transitions in the contemporary economy of India and the nature of political transformations. Concerned with, broadly, issues of the state, the civil society, democracy and social impact of economic reforms, it explores the link between democracy and development, the concern for social justice for Dalits, transformation of rural areas and occupational diversification that are taking place and recognition of caste and community identities in women’s activism in the backdrop of the social and political divisions that exist in the state.