Empowering wageseekers? The computerisation of India’s NREGA in Andhra Pradesh

Silvia Masiero and Diego Maiorano recently visited Andhra Pradesh to study the computerisation of NREGA, India’s largest workfare scheme. They argue that the provision of open data through a dedicated information system increases transparency, but does not automatically result in wageseekers’ empowerment

India at 70: Introduction to the BASAS 2017 Special Issue

This introduction to the 2017 Annual Conference of the British Association for South Asian Studies offers an overview of the collection of selected articles presented at the conference. Overall, the Special issue consists of six articles, including four research articles addressing a wide range of topics spanning from the role of women during the Emergency rule (1975–1977) to the difficult relationship between minorities and the Hindu majority in recent years, and two viewpoint articles. These viewpoints touch on two extremely important and timely topics: Urvashi Butalia, who was the keynote speaker at the conference, looks at Partition and at the importance of survivors in preserving the memory of such a momentous event, whereas Deborah Sutton addresses the articulation of Hindu nationalist views in the scholarship of the ‘Ghent School’. The introduction to the Special Issue also highlights how the research presented in this collection can offer comparative insights to broader phenomena occurring in other regions alike

Democratic backsliding amid the covid-19 pandemic in India

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic led many analysts to worry about the fate of global democracy, as governments the world over centralised power and enacted emergency legislation. In India, the world’s largest democracy, this prediction has turned out to be accurate. However, this article will argue that the pandemic was a mere accelerator of existing trends there. The erosion of democratic institutions in India since the advent of the BJP-led government in 2014 has been so severe that it is no longer possible to classify India as a full democracy. In fact, as this article will show, the very core of India’s democracy, the electoral process, has been corroded so that it is very questionable whether Indian elections are still free and fair. Keywords: Europe in the Worl

The limits of prescription: courts and social policy in India and South Africa

This paper explores social policy-making role of supreme courts in India and South Africa. It argues that that both significantly shaped social policy. But neither imposed its will on elected government – both recognised that judicial power is limited and sought negotiation with the government and other interests to ensure compliance with rulings. Despite the difference between them, both courts promote and support collective action by the poor or their allies in civil society. The paper traces the institutional roots of the relative strength of the two courts and their relations with their governments and links their rulings to the political environment

Poverty reduction, inequalities and human development in the BRICS: policies and outcomes

This paper assesses headway made by governments in Brazil, India, China and South Africa in pursuing three goals: reducing income poverty; reaching the poorest of the poor; and reducing inequality. Outcomes vary as we move up the ladder from the first and easiest of these challenges to the third and most daunting. Then the definition of poverty is broadened to include severe shortage of opportunities, liberties and capabilities. The paper discusses how the four countries performed in ameliorating several human development indicators and in enhancing poor people’s ‘political capacity’, the lack of which is an important dimension of their poverty