This monograph examines progress in, and policies for, access to elementary education over the past 60 years, the role played by political factors in the process of policy formulation and implementation and the drivers and inhibitors of the implementation of reforms in elementary education in recent years in India. Drawing on interviews and documentary sources, the monograph analyses the growth in central direction and international support for elementary education alongside the parallel and at times countervailing trend towards decentralisation and community participation. It outlines the tensions between agendas focused on expansion, quality improvement, human rights and economic development that led to the legal enactment in 2009 of the Right to Education. Overall, political will is found to be an important driver of progress while corruption, resistance by vested interests and the general condition of poverty in rural areas are among the key inhibitors. (Contains 10 footnotes and 1 table.)