Papers presented at a seminar, held in 1996, organized by North East India Council for Social Science Research, Shillong.

This volume offers interdisciplinary perspectives on the historical, cultural, and traditional inferences, inner-logic, and intricacies of democratic politics and elections in Nagaland. It goes beyond 'institutional analyses' of democratic structures and governance by looking at the troubled historical context in which modern democracy was introduced, how Nagas themselves view democracy, the reasoning they adopt as they engage in campaigns and perform elections, the remapping of traditional practices and values unto the new democrat­ ic playing field, and at the gender and 'clean elections' debates such practices evoke.

An exciting account of how government statistics in developing countries are social artefacts dynamically shaped by political and economic contexts.