Over the past seven decades and more political parties have become an essential feature of the political landscape of the South Asian subcontinent, serving both as a conduit and product of the tumultuous change the region has experienced. Yet they have not been the focus of sustained scholarly attention. This collection focuses on different aspects of how major parties have been agents of - and subject to - change in three South Asian states (India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka), examining some of the apparent paradoxes of politics in the subcontinent and covering issues such as gender, religion, patronage, clientelism, political recruitment and democratic regression. Recurring themes are the importance of personalities (and the corresponding neglect of institutionalisation) and the lack of pluralism in intraparty affairs, factors that render parties and political systems vulnerable to degeneration.

1. Parties and political change in South Asia 2. Losing the connection: party-voter linkages in Pakistan 3. Elite formation within a political party: the case of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagham 4. Class, nation and religion: changing nature of Akali Dal politics in Punjab, India 5. Incumbency, internal processes and renomination in Indian parties 6. Women candidates and party nomination trends in India - evidence from the 2009 general election 7. Parties, political decay, and democratic regression in Sri Lanka 8. Elite patronage over party democracy - high politics in Sri Lanka following independence