South Asia-journal of South Asian Studies, Oct 2, 2015
India went to the polls in a general election in AprilÀMay 2014. The prime ministerial candidate ... more India went to the polls in a general election in AprilÀMay 2014. The prime ministerial candidate of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Narendra Modi, was pitted against Rahul Gandhi (great-grandson of India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru), who led India's long-standing party of government, the Indian National Congress, which had headed a coalition government over the previous ten years. Mr. Modi was a controversial figure because, as chief minister of the state of Gujarat (2001À14), he had been in charge of a government that was widely considered to have been responsible for the deaths of many Muslims in 2002 in the most serious outbreak of violence between Hindus and Muslims that independent India had experienced. The events of that year have been described as a 'pogrom'. But, drawing on his considerable rhetorical skills, 1 and the reputation he had established for the success of the Gujarat 'Model for Development', as he called it, 2 Modi successfully projected himself as capable of delivering on the promise of national economic development after what were represented as years of stagnation and corruption under the Congress. Christophe Jaffrelot, in his contribution to this special issue, refers to the description of Gujarat's economic success under Modi as 'miraculous'. This panegyric was suggested by Arvind Panagariya, professor of economics at Columbia University and appointed as the first vice chairman of the NITI Aayog, which has now replaced the Planning Commission 3 (a change discussed in her article here by Mitu Sengupta). The promise of rapid economic development, together with the idea that he would promote 'Minimum Government, Maximum Governance' (discussed in this collection by Sanjay Ruparelia), was a message that was very successfully projected to the electorate, via Modi's own speeches across the country and through a skilful use of media, including social media. This effort was massively funded by major corporate groups. The BJP campaign was focused around Modi and resembled that of an American presidential candidate in a way that had never happened before in India. It was supported by the extent of the control exercised by the BJP over a significant fraction of the media. In the event, Modi won an extraordinary victory. The Congress was reduced to a small rump in the new parliament, and for the first time in a quarter of a century, a single party secured an absolute majority in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian parliament. This confounded the expectations of many astute observers who had reckoned that the coalition arrangements entered into by strongly-supported regional political parties would continue to 1 Modi's rhetorical skills are widely applauded in the press, but not recognised by all. It has also been said that he reverts to rustic sarcasm in a way that is unbecoming of a national leader (Andrew Wyatt, personal communication, 10 July 2015). 2 'How did Gujarat Emerge as a Model for Development?' [http://www.narendramodi.in/how-did-gujaratemerge-as-a-model-for-development, accessed 7 July 2015).
The United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) is an autonomous research i... more The United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) is an autonomous research institute within the UN system that undertakes multidisciplinary research and policy analysis on the social dimensions of contemporary development issues. Through our work we aim to ensure that social equity, inclusion and justice are central to development thinking, policy and practice.
It has been widely supposed that the cash inputs required for the successful adoption of the new ... more It has been widely supposed that the cash inputs required for the successful adoption of the new technology, together with the enhanced profitability of cereal cultivation, will substantially increase the level of commercialisation in South Asian agriculture; accelerate the incorporation of villages into regional and national market networks; create or further expand a capitalist sector in agriculture; and further increase economic differentiation. The most important social implications of these processes are thought to be that, whereas in the past employment was offered within a traditional set of social relations involving a range of obligations and sanctions, it will come to depend on the cash nexus; that, in place of vertical alliances with landowners and bigger farmers, the labourers and small farmers will seek security in horizontal alliances with other members of their own group, or with outside political authorities; in other words, that increasing ‘proletarianisation’ will take place.
The results of our survey of adoption of HYVs (pp. 57–73 and 117–18) point to the importance of a... more The results of our survey of adoption of HYVs (pp. 57–73 and 117–18) point to the importance of adequate and reliable water supplies, and provide further support for the argument that water is more critically constraining than land in the improvement of agricultural production. Yet massive new irrigation projects are expensive, and the experience both of India and Sri Lanka suggests that all the benefits expected to accrue from them are generally not realised. According to Carruthers, ‘The greatest potential source of large increases in the present levels of food supply in South Asia will come, in the next decade, from increasing efficiency of existing irrigation systems [my italics] and exploitation of known groundwater resources.’ (Carruthers, 1974, p. 1) and keidinger (1974), having shown the intertia of a system and style of irrigation management developed when irrigation water was expected to serve a function different from that now required of it, went on to suggest ways in which one large canal system in North India might be operated more efficiently without any changes in existing engineering structres. It seems likely that study of the management of water in irrigation systems —i. e. of the institutions and personnel concerned with making and implementing decisions regarding the allocation of water between farmers and its distribution to the fields — may lead to substatntial benefits (cf. Chambers, 1974).
World Bank loans in¯uence the environment for social capital formation. They may have positive or... more World Bank loans in¯uence the environment for social capital formation. They may have positive or negative eects. This paper reviews experience in rural Mexico, concluding that in many cases the Bank appears to be contributing to the dismantling of social capital more than to its construction.
... My own research in Chennai was carried out with the able and genial assistance of C. Pritham.... more ... My own research in Chennai was carried out with the able and genial assistance of C. Pritham. ... 30. I owe my recognition of the possible significance of the uses of the word activist in Chennai, and the arguments of this paragraph, entirely to Venkatesh Chakravarthy. ...
Our research has been funded from a president's research grant awarded to John Harriss by Simon F... more Our research has been funded from a president's research grant awarded to John Harriss by Simon Fraser University. We are grateful to SFU for these resources; and John Harriss is also grateful to the Institute of South Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore for the opportunity of working on this paper during his tenure of a visiting research professorship in 2010. We thank Barbara Harriss-White and Judith Heyer for their helpful comments.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Indian government, led by Narendra Modi, imposed a stri... more In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Indian government, led by Narendra Modi, imposed a stringent lockdown with only four hours notice. It paid no attention to the millions of migrants who work on a temporary basis in Indian cities. Most lost their livelihoods as a result of the lockdown, and millions sought to return to their native villages. At the same time, the rural economy confronted its own difficulties caused by the lockdown. The relief that the Modi government offered to the large numbers of poor people who had been adversely affected by its response to COVID-19 was limited and poorly delivered. The episode showed the lack of responsiveness of Indian democracy to the needs of working people and the failures of development. Yet Modi's particular brand of authoritarian populism worked so well that a government displaying very little compassion retained strong popular support.
When India was invented as a modern country in the years afterIndependence in 1947 it styled itse... more When India was invented as a modern country in the years afterIndependence in 1947 it styled itself as a secular, federal,democratic Republic committed to an ideology of development.Nehru s India never quite fulfilled this promise, but more recentlyhis vision of India has been challenged by two revolts of theelites Reinventing India : liberalization, Hindu nationalism and popular .
Administrative "success" or "failure" during the pandemic are hard to assess ... more Administrative "success" or "failure" during the pandemic are hard to assess given uncertainties both of criteria and of data. But there can be no doubt about the mishandling of the pandemic at crucial junctures by the Indian government, or about the culpability of prime minister Narendra Modi himself. He has this in common with other "strongmen" of contemporary world politics, but Modi was unusually successful in turning the events of the pandemic to reinforce his dominance. The immediate political factors that influenced the Indian response had to do with political leadership and with the "decisionism" that characterised Modi's actions, but in the context of the pursuit of the goals of Hindu nationalism. This article explains the responses of the Indian government drawing on a framework based on the comparative analysis of Baum and her co-authors. It shows how the events of the pandemic reflect on India's politics and on the characte...
La Constitution de l’Inde promettait de transformer la société hiérarchique en instaurant une com... more La Constitution de l’Inde promettait de transformer la société hiérarchique en instaurant une communauté civique d’égaux. Les études anthropologiques montrent cependant que le statut de la citoyenneté en Inde et le faisceau de droits qui lui sont associés constituent le terrain de formulation de revendications et de contestations quotidiennes. Sur ce terrain, l’intermédiation est très importante, en partie à cause du pouvoir infrastructurel relativement limité de l’État et de son échec à assurer l’alphabétisation et l’éducation minimale de la population. Le fait que les « citoyens » doivent négocier avec l’État et la façon dont pour cela ils ont fréquemment besoin d’intermédiaires ont pour conséquence la création d’une hiérarchie de citoyens (ou plus exactement de citoyens, de clients et de quémandeurs) au lieu de la citoyenneté égale pour tous que promettait la Constitution.
This chapter recounts how Karl Polanyi developed an explanation for the rise of fascism and for t... more This chapter recounts how Karl Polanyi developed an explanation for the rise of fascism and for the world crisis of the mid-twentieth century. In doing so, he elaborated a profound critique of the kind of thinking about economic development — described as 'market fundamentalism' and commonly referred to as neoliberalism. In the early twenty-first century, neoliberal economic policies, together with the implications of rapid technological change, have caused a crisis, comparable with that analysed by Polanyi, in which social, environmental, and financial problems are interwoven, and to which the rise of authoritarian populism is one response. The Covid-19 outbreak has further exposed the unsustainability of the global system of market fundamentalism and may point to another 'great transformation'. It is possible that a combination of worldwide movements against inequality and environmental degradation with local struggles for citizenship, economic and social rights, a...
This article examines two puzzling trends that have characterized India’s economic growth. The fi... more This article examines two puzzling trends that have characterized India’s economic growth. The first is how and why the political economy of development in India discarded an earlier model of import-substitution industrialization that was widely supported by the country’s dominant proprietary groups. The second is why, despite India’s economic success, poor people have remained mired in extreme poverty compared to China and some other countries in East and Southeast Asia. The article begins by looking at India’s economic development between 1950 and 1980 and then turns to economic reforms pursued by various governments. It also considers some of the factors that led India to embrace a more concerted agenda of pro-market reforms in the 1990s, including the economic crisis of 1990–1991 and elite politics.
The paper presents the findings of the most recent study and traces the story of agrarian social ... more The paper presents the findings of the most recent study and traces the story of agrarian social change in the village through the 20th century, drawing on the successive surveys. At the beginning of the century Gangaikondan was dominated by Brahman landlords; by its end the most numerous Dalit/Scheduled Caste community, the Pallars, had more land in aggregate than any other single caste, though most owned only small holdings. They were also pre-eminent in the electoral panchayat institutions of the village. The agricultural economy of the village has declined fairly steadily, and it might be described as being now "post-agrarian" in the sense that only a small minority of households depend primarily upon agriculture.
South Asia-journal of South Asian Studies, Oct 2, 2015
India went to the polls in a general election in AprilÀMay 2014. The prime ministerial candidate ... more India went to the polls in a general election in AprilÀMay 2014. The prime ministerial candidate of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Narendra Modi, was pitted against Rahul Gandhi (great-grandson of India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru), who led India's long-standing party of government, the Indian National Congress, which had headed a coalition government over the previous ten years. Mr. Modi was a controversial figure because, as chief minister of the state of Gujarat (2001À14), he had been in charge of a government that was widely considered to have been responsible for the deaths of many Muslims in 2002 in the most serious outbreak of violence between Hindus and Muslims that independent India had experienced. The events of that year have been described as a 'pogrom'. But, drawing on his considerable rhetorical skills, 1 and the reputation he had established for the success of the Gujarat 'Model for Development', as he called it, 2 Modi successfully projected himself as capable of delivering on the promise of national economic development after what were represented as years of stagnation and corruption under the Congress. Christophe Jaffrelot, in his contribution to this special issue, refers to the description of Gujarat's economic success under Modi as 'miraculous'. This panegyric was suggested by Arvind Panagariya, professor of economics at Columbia University and appointed as the first vice chairman of the NITI Aayog, which has now replaced the Planning Commission 3 (a change discussed in her article here by Mitu Sengupta). The promise of rapid economic development, together with the idea that he would promote 'Minimum Government, Maximum Governance' (discussed in this collection by Sanjay Ruparelia), was a message that was very successfully projected to the electorate, via Modi's own speeches across the country and through a skilful use of media, including social media. This effort was massively funded by major corporate groups. The BJP campaign was focused around Modi and resembled that of an American presidential candidate in a way that had never happened before in India. It was supported by the extent of the control exercised by the BJP over a significant fraction of the media. In the event, Modi won an extraordinary victory. The Congress was reduced to a small rump in the new parliament, and for the first time in a quarter of a century, a single party secured an absolute majority in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian parliament. This confounded the expectations of many astute observers who had reckoned that the coalition arrangements entered into by strongly-supported regional political parties would continue to 1 Modi's rhetorical skills are widely applauded in the press, but not recognised by all. It has also been said that he reverts to rustic sarcasm in a way that is unbecoming of a national leader (Andrew Wyatt, personal communication, 10 July 2015). 2 'How did Gujarat Emerge as a Model for Development?' [http://www.narendramodi.in/how-did-gujaratemerge-as-a-model-for-development, accessed 7 July 2015).
The United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) is an autonomous research i... more The United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) is an autonomous research institute within the UN system that undertakes multidisciplinary research and policy analysis on the social dimensions of contemporary development issues. Through our work we aim to ensure that social equity, inclusion and justice are central to development thinking, policy and practice.
It has been widely supposed that the cash inputs required for the successful adoption of the new ... more It has been widely supposed that the cash inputs required for the successful adoption of the new technology, together with the enhanced profitability of cereal cultivation, will substantially increase the level of commercialisation in South Asian agriculture; accelerate the incorporation of villages into regional and national market networks; create or further expand a capitalist sector in agriculture; and further increase economic differentiation. The most important social implications of these processes are thought to be that, whereas in the past employment was offered within a traditional set of social relations involving a range of obligations and sanctions, it will come to depend on the cash nexus; that, in place of vertical alliances with landowners and bigger farmers, the labourers and small farmers will seek security in horizontal alliances with other members of their own group, or with outside political authorities; in other words, that increasing ‘proletarianisation’ will take place.
The results of our survey of adoption of HYVs (pp. 57–73 and 117–18) point to the importance of a... more The results of our survey of adoption of HYVs (pp. 57–73 and 117–18) point to the importance of adequate and reliable water supplies, and provide further support for the argument that water is more critically constraining than land in the improvement of agricultural production. Yet massive new irrigation projects are expensive, and the experience both of India and Sri Lanka suggests that all the benefits expected to accrue from them are generally not realised. According to Carruthers, ‘The greatest potential source of large increases in the present levels of food supply in South Asia will come, in the next decade, from increasing efficiency of existing irrigation systems [my italics] and exploitation of known groundwater resources.’ (Carruthers, 1974, p. 1) and keidinger (1974), having shown the intertia of a system and style of irrigation management developed when irrigation water was expected to serve a function different from that now required of it, went on to suggest ways in which one large canal system in North India might be operated more efficiently without any changes in existing engineering structres. It seems likely that study of the management of water in irrigation systems —i. e. of the institutions and personnel concerned with making and implementing decisions regarding the allocation of water between farmers and its distribution to the fields — may lead to substatntial benefits (cf. Chambers, 1974).
World Bank loans in¯uence the environment for social capital formation. They may have positive or... more World Bank loans in¯uence the environment for social capital formation. They may have positive or negative eects. This paper reviews experience in rural Mexico, concluding that in many cases the Bank appears to be contributing to the dismantling of social capital more than to its construction.
... My own research in Chennai was carried out with the able and genial assistance of C. Pritham.... more ... My own research in Chennai was carried out with the able and genial assistance of C. Pritham. ... 30. I owe my recognition of the possible significance of the uses of the word activist in Chennai, and the arguments of this paragraph, entirely to Venkatesh Chakravarthy. ...
Our research has been funded from a president's research grant awarded to John Harriss by Simon F... more Our research has been funded from a president's research grant awarded to John Harriss by Simon Fraser University. We are grateful to SFU for these resources; and John Harriss is also grateful to the Institute of South Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore for the opportunity of working on this paper during his tenure of a visiting research professorship in 2010. We thank Barbara Harriss-White and Judith Heyer for their helpful comments.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Indian government, led by Narendra Modi, imposed a stri... more In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Indian government, led by Narendra Modi, imposed a stringent lockdown with only four hours notice. It paid no attention to the millions of migrants who work on a temporary basis in Indian cities. Most lost their livelihoods as a result of the lockdown, and millions sought to return to their native villages. At the same time, the rural economy confronted its own difficulties caused by the lockdown. The relief that the Modi government offered to the large numbers of poor people who had been adversely affected by its response to COVID-19 was limited and poorly delivered. The episode showed the lack of responsiveness of Indian democracy to the needs of working people and the failures of development. Yet Modi's particular brand of authoritarian populism worked so well that a government displaying very little compassion retained strong popular support.
When India was invented as a modern country in the years afterIndependence in 1947 it styled itse... more When India was invented as a modern country in the years afterIndependence in 1947 it styled itself as a secular, federal,democratic Republic committed to an ideology of development.Nehru s India never quite fulfilled this promise, but more recentlyhis vision of India has been challenged by two revolts of theelites Reinventing India : liberalization, Hindu nationalism and popular .
Administrative "success" or "failure" during the pandemic are hard to assess ... more Administrative "success" or "failure" during the pandemic are hard to assess given uncertainties both of criteria and of data. But there can be no doubt about the mishandling of the pandemic at crucial junctures by the Indian government, or about the culpability of prime minister Narendra Modi himself. He has this in common with other "strongmen" of contemporary world politics, but Modi was unusually successful in turning the events of the pandemic to reinforce his dominance. The immediate political factors that influenced the Indian response had to do with political leadership and with the "decisionism" that characterised Modi's actions, but in the context of the pursuit of the goals of Hindu nationalism. This article explains the responses of the Indian government drawing on a framework based on the comparative analysis of Baum and her co-authors. It shows how the events of the pandemic reflect on India's politics and on the characte...
La Constitution de l’Inde promettait de transformer la société hiérarchique en instaurant une com... more La Constitution de l’Inde promettait de transformer la société hiérarchique en instaurant une communauté civique d’égaux. Les études anthropologiques montrent cependant que le statut de la citoyenneté en Inde et le faisceau de droits qui lui sont associés constituent le terrain de formulation de revendications et de contestations quotidiennes. Sur ce terrain, l’intermédiation est très importante, en partie à cause du pouvoir infrastructurel relativement limité de l’État et de son échec à assurer l’alphabétisation et l’éducation minimale de la population. Le fait que les « citoyens » doivent négocier avec l’État et la façon dont pour cela ils ont fréquemment besoin d’intermédiaires ont pour conséquence la création d’une hiérarchie de citoyens (ou plus exactement de citoyens, de clients et de quémandeurs) au lieu de la citoyenneté égale pour tous que promettait la Constitution.
This chapter recounts how Karl Polanyi developed an explanation for the rise of fascism and for t... more This chapter recounts how Karl Polanyi developed an explanation for the rise of fascism and for the world crisis of the mid-twentieth century. In doing so, he elaborated a profound critique of the kind of thinking about economic development — described as 'market fundamentalism' and commonly referred to as neoliberalism. In the early twenty-first century, neoliberal economic policies, together with the implications of rapid technological change, have caused a crisis, comparable with that analysed by Polanyi, in which social, environmental, and financial problems are interwoven, and to which the rise of authoritarian populism is one response. The Covid-19 outbreak has further exposed the unsustainability of the global system of market fundamentalism and may point to another 'great transformation'. It is possible that a combination of worldwide movements against inequality and environmental degradation with local struggles for citizenship, economic and social rights, a...
This article examines two puzzling trends that have characterized India’s economic growth. The fi... more This article examines two puzzling trends that have characterized India’s economic growth. The first is how and why the political economy of development in India discarded an earlier model of import-substitution industrialization that was widely supported by the country’s dominant proprietary groups. The second is why, despite India’s economic success, poor people have remained mired in extreme poverty compared to China and some other countries in East and Southeast Asia. The article begins by looking at India’s economic development between 1950 and 1980 and then turns to economic reforms pursued by various governments. It also considers some of the factors that led India to embrace a more concerted agenda of pro-market reforms in the 1990s, including the economic crisis of 1990–1991 and elite politics.
The paper presents the findings of the most recent study and traces the story of agrarian social ... more The paper presents the findings of the most recent study and traces the story of agrarian social change in the village through the 20th century, drawing on the successive surveys. At the beginning of the century Gangaikondan was dominated by Brahman landlords; by its end the most numerous Dalit/Scheduled Caste community, the Pallars, had more land in aggregate than any other single caste, though most owned only small holdings. They were also pre-eminent in the electoral panchayat institutions of the village. The agricultural economy of the village has declined fairly steadily, and it might be described as being now "post-agrarian" in the sense that only a small minority of households depend primarily upon agriculture.
Uploads
Papers by John Harriss