Book Reviews 97 It would have enriched the work had there been an objective analysis of whether existing autonomy has either adversely affected or benefitted the state in terms of democratic participation and on develop- ment parameters. Moreover, it requires an in-depth analysis of the role of the mainstream political parties and the ruling elites on whether they pandered to and pampered soft extremism in the valley to their advantage and used the same as bargaining tools vis-à-vis the centre in the last six decades. Even though the author’s perspective constrains her from presenting a comprehensive understand- ing of the problem, and locating it also in the larger context of pan-Islamism, the book is a significant contribution to the existing scholarship on Jammu and Kashmir and indispensable for scholars and students studying ethnic conflicts in general and Kashmir in particular. Sangit Kumar Ragi Professor of Political Science University of Delhi, Delhi E-mail: sangit_ragi@yahoo.co.in Tariq Thachil, Elite Parties, Poor Voters: How Social Services Win Votes in India. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (Studies in Comparative Politics Series). 2016. 331 pages. `795. DOI: 10.1177/2321023017698273 Why do poor people support political parties that represent the economic interest of the elites? Tariq Thachil attempts to explain how the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which caters to the interest of the elites, massively gained votes from the Dalit and Adivasi groups without losing votes from the upper castes. By making use of both quantitative and qualitative data, he convincingly argues that BJP man- aged to make inroads in these communities by providing social services such as education and health. These services were provided through party-affiliated, yet private, independent welfare organizations. This allowed the party to continue to represent elite interests and at the same time, also act as representa- tives of the interest of the disadvantaged groups. By using the National Election data from the 2004 post-poll survey done by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, the author strongly argues that the upper caste and lower caste voters voted for the BJP for different reasons. The third chapter ‘Why Rich and Poor Voters Support an Elite party in India’ outlines this difference. Membership of a non-party organization is a significant predictor of the lower caste voters of the BJP. For the upper caste, the support for Hindu nationalist ideology is a significant predictor of BJP support. In Chapter 4, titled ‘Why an Elite Party Turned to Services’, Thachil shows when and why Hindu nationalists turn to welfare as a mobilizing strategy; what was the nature of these services; and whether there is empirical evidence to suggest that there is a broad association between service provisions and the BJP’s performance at the state level. Bharatiya Janata Party has had a long history of social services, but initially most of their efforts were episodic, providing relief effort for natural calamities like earthquake and cyclones. It also provided relief during events like partition and it was only after 1990 that these services expanded substantially. Thachil has thoroughly analyzed the work of these organizations, drawing on extensive conversations with Hindu nationalist service workers. Thachil shows how by providing these services, the workers slowly become the opinion-shapers in the villages they work in. He also makes an important point that the relationship between these service-delivery organizations and the subaltern is not defined by clien- telistic politics: ‘Unlike the vote buying….such services are not distributed under Quid Quo protocols’ (p. 15). Instead, they are based on ties of goodwill, friendship, advice and information sharing (both accurate and rumours). Having first provided services, the BJP activists gain entry into these communities,