<p>Mining in India makes up only a small share of the country’s total economy, but this sum belies its political, economic, social, strategic, and environmental significance. As a sector, mining is at the core of the strategic and nation-building imperatives of the Indian state and the economic interests of Indian capital. The interests of these actors run counter to those of environmental activists and local communities who face displacement and environmental degradation from mining activities. This paper considers tensions between these varied forces as they impact mining’s sectoral political network across four periods: the state-led developmental era from the 1950s to the 1980s; the early decades of economic liberalization from the mid-1980s to the early 2000s; the 10-year period from 2004 to 2014 of expanded social, legal, and environmental rights; and the period that began in 2014 marked by deepening privatization. Across these periods, shifts in the country’s development ideology and the nature of state intervention in the sector have determined whether mining’s sectoral political network has been open to external influences and what types of actors have been able to impact mining governance.</p>