"Caste and Wealth Inequality in India"

In this paper, we conduct the novel exercise of analyzing the relationship between overall wealth inequality and caste divisions in India using nationally representative surveys on household wealth conducted during 1991–92 and 2002–03. According to our findings, the groups in India that are generally considered disadvantaged (known as Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes) have, as one would expect, substantially lower wealth than the "forward" caste groups, while the Other Backward Classes and non-Hindus occupy positions in the middle. Using the ANOGI decomposition technique, we estimate that between-caste inequality accounted for about 13 percent of overall wealth inequality in 2002–03, in part due to the considerable heterogeneity within the broadly defined caste groups. The stratification parameters indicate that the forward caste Hindus overlap little with the other caste groups, while the latter have significantly higher degrees of overlap with one another and with the overall population. Using this method, we are also able to comment on the emergence and strengthening of a "creamy layer," or relatively well-off group, among the disadvantaged castes, especially the Scheduled Tribes.

South Asian Economies in Two Imperialist Regimes Between 1950 and 2020

This chapter discusses the evolution of post-colonial South Asian economies using the triad of dominant classes, state and imperialism. Two key insights help us make sense of this evolution. First, the dominant classes such as landed interests, private capital and government bureaucrats in South Asia were able to prevent a radical/progressive restructuring of the economies from the very outset. Any deep crisis that threatened to radically transform the existing social order was solved through an ‘imperialist fix’, whereby the dominant classes in conjunction with the state sought external help (e.g. ‘Green Revolution’ in the wake of food crises of 1960s). On the other hand, imperialist countries, when they needed the cooperation of South Asia in their strategic endeavors or when they underwent capitalist crises, used the region (along with the larger developing world that possesses labor reserves, minerals, and serves as a final market), as a ‘spatial fix’ to solve their crises. It is the coming together of these two processes/fixes that defines the mutual engagement of imperialism and South Asian economies during this period that contained two imperialist orders, one that lasted from 1950 until 1980, and a second one that came into being after 1980

Migration, Crises and Social Transformation in India Since the 1990s

Since liberalization, urban migration in India has increased in quantity, but also changed in quality, with permanent marriage migration and temporary, circular employment migration rising, even as permanent economic migration remains stagnant. We understand internal migration in India to be a re-ordering of productive and reproductive labor that signifies a deep transformation of society. We argue that this transformation is a response to three overlapping crises: an agrarian crisis, an employment crisis, and a crisis of social reproduction. These are not crises for capitalist accumulation, which they enable. Rather, they make it impossible for a majority of Indians to achieve stable, rooted livelihoods

Mapping Religion, Space, and Economic Outcomes in Indian Cities

We deploy a socio-spatial approach and use a spatially representative survey that we conducted in Hyderabad and Mumbai to analyze the relation between city space and religion. After documenting the relative status of religious groups in urban India and different types of cities using secondary databases, we identify poor-ghettos and elite-enclaves in Hyderabad and Mumbai. In both cities, ghettos have a high proportion of Muslims, while enclaves are dominated by non-Muslim inhabitants. Ghettoization of Muslims is far more pronounced in Hyderabad than in Mumbai. A key finding on the relation between city space and religion is that compared to segregated neighborhoods, mixed (“grayer”) neighborhoods produce better economic outcomes like lower poverty. We argue that while Indian cities are becoming less integrated along religious lines over the last 3-4 decades, this process is far from complete, and needs to be reversed

Gender and Work Patterns in Indian Cities: A Socio-Spatial Analysis

Using an original household survey conducted in Hyderabad and Mumbai that identifies intra-city spatial coordinates of residents, we present a socio-spatial analysis of gender and paid work. We show that the ease of movement through the city, allocation of care work related considerations and educational attainment are all crucial to understanding the labor force participation patterns of urban women. A gender lens identifies key facets of access and mobility characterizing urbanization in developing countries. Spatial heterogeneity of residence has very different outcomes for the labor force participation of women and men

Intra-City Inequalities, Neighborhoods and Economic Development

How do neighborhood characteristics influence economic development? How do social cleavages operate within cities in developing countries? This study is among the first of its kind to be conducted in the developing world, and focuses on India to provide answers. Given the limitations of publicly available sources of secondary data, we rely on a spatially representative household survey that we designed and conducted in the cities of Hyderabad and Mumbai. We conduct an inequality decomposition exercise to show that a substantial portion of intra-city income inequality is explained by social cleavages such as classes and social groups (caste and religion). While urban inequalities are stark, we show that spatial co-existence of classes and social groups (a phenomenon that we term as “Grayness”) is pronounced. At the neighborhood level, Grayness has a strong and positive impact on development outcomes. We establish this result by using an instrument that captures intra-city variations in the history of industrialization in these two cities. We discuss the policy implications of our findings

Possibilities of Seeing the ‘Region’ Differently

The papers1 in this special issue of the Economic & Political Weekly aim to tackle the concept of region in its manifestation at multiple scales—subnational (provincial2 and others, including city regions), national, and supranational (regions such as South Asia or Bay of Bengal littoral or the Indian Ocean region or global region). Analyses by social scientists in different disciplines have not successfully combined these multiple scales in understanding the different aspects of Indian history and development. For instance, analysts have largely used either the national scale or the subnational, regional scale but rarely, both these scales. Either the nation manifests itself in a region or a particular region stands in for the nation. The conceptualisation of the region and an examination of the dialectical relationship between the nation and the region have not received adequate attention so far. Especially for the period after 1947, regions are usually officially-defined bounded entities like states, or substate regions Vakulabharanamthat have official demarcation (like the National Sample Survey regions). This special issue is a preliminary attempt at kick-starting the much-needed project of conceptualising the region in the Indian context in all its diversity—in thought as well as its material manifestations

Growth and Distress in a South Indian Peasant Economy During the Era of Economic Liberalisation

This article analyses the impact of agricultural liberalisation on different farming classes in the region of Telangana in South India. The region has been witnessing significant growth in real agricultural output over the last 15 years. At the same time, as NSS (National Sample Survey) household survey data indicate, there have been significant welfare declines not only for marginal farmers and landless labour, but for other groups as well. There have also been more than a thousand farmer suicides between 1998 and 2002. I argue in this article that during the liberalisation period, that is, post 1990, agricultural growth and increased distress have become mutually intertwined. I use the terms, growth-inducing distress and distress-inducing growth to explain this apparent paradox.