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Synopsis Interrogating the conceptual matrix of a prevailing discourse can be a daunting task. To do so in the realm of political thought would evidently be more. Yet, that is the challenge before social scientists today when momentous changes in the global order are disrupting long established paradigms in political criticism. The following work sets out to make a contribution in this arena by examining recent shifts in left writings on Indian politics and also suggesting a method for analysing discourses more generally. The arduous tracking, in these pages, of deployment of categories such as culture, state and class through hundreds of scholarly essays on Indian politics, over more than a decade, is likely to interest students of political thought, discourse analysis and contemporary history.