The office of the governor carries the legacy of colonial administration in India where power structures were centred around the office of the Governor-General. Though the makers of the constitution retained the office of the governor, its powers were reduced significantly and was converted into the nominal head of the state. To meet the political exigencies of the newly independent state and to uphold the spirit of democracy, the office of the governor was given an inferior position compared to that of the democratically “elected council of ministers” of the state. According to the constitution, the governor’s office serves as a channel of communication between the “central government and the state”, an agent of the central government in the state, and the state’s equivalent of India’s president. The powers and duties of the governor were not questioned or challenged during the first two decades following independence because of the political predominance of the Indian National Congress and one-party rule in both the central government and in the states. Since a single party ruled the centre and almost all the states the country functioned as a unitary state in practice. However, after the death of Nehru, the dominance of the Indian National Congress (INC) diminished gradually and regional parties started showing their presence in the national scene heralding the arrival of an era of coalition politics in the country. In this changed premises the states started perceiving the office of the governor as centre’s encroachment into state administration and they began to question the intervention of the governor in the affairs of the state. The mode of appointment of the governor, his power to reserve state bills for presidential consideration his role in the declaration of a state emergency and his discretion in the appointment of vice-chancellors of state universities all became bones of contention and the political tug of war reached even the Supreme Court leading to long fought legal battles. Despite these political controversies, the “Sarkaria Commission (1988) and the Punchhi Commission (2010)” made recommendations on strengthening the position of the Governor. But from 2014 onwards the political dynamics of the country has changed significantly with a strong one-party dominated coalition government at the union, the states ruled by regional parties and a weak opposition. With the states demanding equal opportunities, resources and policy prioritisation in their favour, it has led to a post-cooperative federalist scenario where political debates surrounding the office of the governor is getting intensified. In this context, the present study examines the changing nature of the Governor’s role in Independent India and its relevance and challenges in contemporary times.- Reproduced