The world is grappling to come up with alternative imaginations for transformation despite repeated crises, inequalities and immiseration caused by the increasing dominance of the neo-liberal capitalist framework and the collapse of twentieth-century socialist models. This book looks at concepts that form the core of development economics and political economy and brings together perspectives that explore the inextricable relationship between development and human rights, social movements and the call for social transformation.
The essays in this volume honour the massive corpus of work across a large number of areas around development issues by the eminent economist Jayati Ghosh. The book includes contributions by academics, activists and practitioners and attempts to understand the socio-economic causes of inequality, poverty and oppression. Divided into five parts – corresponding broadly to key areas of Ghosh’s work – the book explores capitalism, inequality and development, gender and development, political economy of trade and financial systems, human development and human rights, and music. The volume situates Ghosh’s work within a heterodox and broad-based understanding of development processes and provides many insights towards a new vision that sets an agenda for further research as well as mobilisation.
This volume will be of great interest to students, researchers, practitioners and scholars working on the issues of development, transformations, political economy, social science, economics, macroeconomics, international economics, politics and development studies.
Table of Contents:
List of Figures x List of Tables xii List of Contributors xiv Acknowledgements xix 1 Introduction 1 PART I Capitalism, Inequality and Development 23 2 A Time of Darkness? The Pursuit of Collective Well-being in an Unequal World 25 Gerry Rodgers 3 The Underdevelopment Trap of Indian Capitalism 39 Surajit Mazumdar 4 Social Capital: The Indian Connection 54 Ben Fine 5 Studying the World in Order to Change the World: Looking Back Across Half a Century 68 Pasuk Phongpaichit and Chris Baker 6 Gandhi, Technology and Employment 77 Prabhat Patnaik PART II Aspects of Human Development and Human Rights 97 7 Food Systems, Markets and Public Policy for Food 99 Barbara Harriss-White 8 Calorie and Nutrient Intake in India from 1993–94 to 2011–12 and Its Implications 117 Sourindra Mohan Ghosh 9 School Meals and Child Undernutrition in India 134 Anjana Thampi 10 Does India’s Post-Colonial Land Acquisition Act Safeguard Farmer Interests? 148 Smita Gupta 11 Three Public Protests and the Dynamics of Democracy in India 165 Zoya Hasan PART III Gender and Development 181 12 How the IMF Discovered Gender Equality but Continued to Undermine Women’s Rights 183 Diane Elson 13 Gender Bias in Data Collection: The Indian Context 200 Sona Mitra 14 Women in Pubic Employment in India: Working for the State in the Neoliberal Era 214 Dipa Sinha 15 Gender Dimensions of Paid and Unpaid Labour of Asian and Mexican Immigrants in the USA, 2003–2018 230 Ruchira Sen 16 Women’s Unpaid Carework in Rural Malaysia 245 Rokiah Alavi and Jomo K. S. 17 Does a Higher Female Share in Managerial Positions Lead to Less Gender-Based Discrimination for Other Female Employees in a Sector? 259 Bidisha Mondal PART IV Political Economy of Trade and Financial Systems 269 18 Political Economy of International Taxation of Digital Businesses 271 Suranjali Tandon 19 The Costs of Financial Inclusion 288 Madhura Swaminathan 20 Digital Transformations: An Exploration of Their Cross-Sectoral Impacts on the Manufacturing Sector 302 Smitha Francis 21 China-Africa Partnership: Implications for African Development 327 Malancha Chakrabarty 22 India’s Trade in Pharmaceutical Products: Recent Trends 339 Reji K. Joseph and Dinesh Kumar PART V Music 363 23 Offkey: Musings on Singing a Tune 365 T. M. Krishna 24 The Language of Grief 377 Vidya Rao 25 Music in Politics, Music as Politics: Understanding Radical Interventions through ‘People’s Music’ in India 394 Sumangala Damodaran Index 410
About the Author :
Sumangala Damodaran is an economist and a musician, whose scholarly work spans industrial organisation and labour studies and popular music studies. She is presently Director of Gender and Economics at the International Development Economics Associates (IDEAs) and has more than 30 years of teaching experience at Delhi University and Dr. B. R. Ambedkar University Delhi. She is also a visiting professor at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and the Institute for Human Development, Delhi.
Smita Gupta works on employment, land rights, tribal rights, natural resources policy, etc. She did policy research for the Planning Commission at the Institute for Human Development, New Delhi. She is currently engaged with household surveys on living and working conditions of the poor in India at the Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi. She regularly makes submissions to Parliamentary Committees on macroeconomic, gender and natural resource policies.
Sona Mitra is an economist and is currently the Director of Policy and Research at the Institute for What Works to Advance Gender Equality (IWWAGE) – an initiative of LEAD at Krea University, India. She has worked on issues of women, labour and development policies for almost two decades. Her current work includes methodological innovations for capturing women’s work better and incorporating the ‘care economy’ concerns within the economic policy discourse.
Dipa Sinha is a Delhi based independent researcher. She writes and researches on issues related to social policy, gender and development, food security and nutrition and public health in India. She has over 20 years of experience of working in research and policy advocacy and is associated with various rights-based campaigns.
Review :
‘Jayati, is a “people’s economist”, and apart from her many remarkable attributes, she is an intrinsic part of the campaigns for furthering economic equality and social justice, in India and in the world. Her seminal contribution to the passage of an Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in India is widely recognized, empowering millions of workers, with the right to employment. She continues to be an integral part of the group of economists committed to ensure the protection of workers guarantees, from incessant alarmist resistance from neo-liberal economists and the political right. The MGNREGA was vindicated in fighting poverty and unemployment, during Covid19 and at other critical times. Always there - in letter and spirit, as a public intellectual, author and comrade, Jayati has been a part of the collective voice for equality, fraternity, justice and dignity. It is befitting that a remarkable person of letters is recognised through a festschrift that celebrates her successful, lifelong engagement with the causes she has stood for all these years.’
— Aruna Roy, social activist
‘Jayati Ghosh is a brilliant and persuasive critic of the current world order. These essays build on the example she has set, magnifying the power of critical economic thinking.’
— Nancy Folbre, Professor emerita of economics University of Massachusetts Amherst
‘The exemplary essays in this volume are a testament to Jayati Ghosh's exceptional contributions not only to development economics and political economy but also to freedom, human rights, social movements, and the transformative power of music. They challenge the narrow scope of orthodox economics, advocate for a broader conception of development that emphasizes structural, institutional, and normative transformations for equity and growth. I strongly recommend the Book to all those who remain committed to people driven development approaches, inclusive public action, and amplifying the voices of the Global South.’
— A.K. Shiva Kumar, Development Economist
