Development and Inequality

This subject explores the relationship between development and inequality by taking India as a central example to investigate two inter-related questions: how do different patterns of development shape inequality and how do existing regimes of inequality limit development? Adopting an intersectional approach to inequality and a multi-dimensional approach to development to answer these questions, we analyse the paradox of persistently high rates of poverty and deepening inequalities within an economy that has registered the world’s second-highest economic growth rates for the last two and a half decades. We consider whether the example of India suggests the need to revise existing paradigms of development thinking. We explore how various development strategies in India have ameliorated or exacerbated the disadvantage of women, lower castes, Indigenous peoples and religious minorities. This subject aims to give students an understanding of how and why approaches to development have changed over time (in India and globally) as well as the skills to analyse how different development approaches (including state-led industrialisation, rights-based welfare and a business-friendly political economy) impact poverty and inequality.