Development and Social Inequalities in India

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Abstract

In this essay, development is viewed as a multidimensional concept, which encompasses economic, political, and politicaleconomic aspects. Using this approach, the paper is a historical exploration of the relationship among economic, political, and distribution developments in Indian society in a period of sixtyfour years (after India's independence until the end of 2005). The author attempts to examine consistency or inconsistency between economic and political development mechanisms and social inequalities throughout India’s historical periods. A combination of four approaches including modernization theory, conflict (contrast), dependency (pessimism), and the theory of state will be applied to explain the overall relationship between economic and political oriented developments and equality. In addition, a comparative historical explanation and fuzzy analysis techniques are adopted to study the causal explanations for income and dignity inequalities. The paper concludes that good governance and furnishing the grounds in order to reinforce the democratic acts by civil society and political elites will be effective in improving the interactions between development and democracy, which leads to the decrease of inequalities and improvement of quality of life indicators.

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World Studies Quarterly
Volume 1, Issue 2 - Serial Number 2
Autumn & Winter
October 2012
Pages 7-48

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