“Reasons of State”, based on Shashi Tharoor's doctoral thesis at the Flecther School of Law and Diplomacy, written in 1977-78, is a seminal study of Political Development and the making of India’s Foreign Policy Under Indira Gandhi during her first period of rule, 19966-77. Tharoor takes classic political development theory and applies it to the making of foreign policy, analyzing the functioning of the Prime Minister's Secretariat, political parties, parliament, interest groups and the media in the formulation of policy by Mrs Gandhi. The result is the first major study of India's foreign policy-making, written with the sharpness and insight that have always marked Tharoor's work. Required reading at many university courses on India's international relations, this is a masterpiece first book by the author Shashi Tharoor.