A History of India, Vol. III (M. Torri)

Economic and Political …, 2006

Of all the changes that have swept India’s polity since the late 1980’s, among the most significant is the nearly simultaneous rise of Hindutva forces and those favouring economic ‘liberalisation.’ Both were once pariahs in India’s political scene, and both have now reached the centre stage, with the latter now regarded as unquestioned by both our national parties. The nature of the links, if any, between neoliberalism and social reaction – particularly the Hindu right – is not entirely obvious. Typically, these forces’ simultaneous rise is identified either as a reflection solely of common class interests or as the result of a one-way causal relationship. For instance, one common argument has been that Hindutva’s “emotive issues” have either been a conscious diversion from or an unconscious result of the social stresses caused by neoliberal reforms. I seek here to explore a different dimension, namely that Indian neoliberalism and Hindutva share deeper, common political goals and hence also share a potential project of political action. I explore the possible existence of a political alliance (though not a merger) between neoliberalism and Hindutva, particularly during the NDA period.

Radical Notes / Aakar Books, 2008

"This paper seeks to argue that, for reasons specific to Indian capitalism at this historical moment, what we might call the political projects of Hindutva and neoliberalism share certain socio-political agendas. This shared agenda extends at times to a tactical alliance of the two, where both seek to exploit their "common ground" in order to achieve a restructuring of the Indian polity. Moreover, this alliance has already had a considerable impact on large parts of the discursive and political landscape of India - an impact that has not yet been seriously challenged. The argument here is neither that this shared agenda was inevitable, nor that it precludes alliances between neoliberalism and other political forces in India. The analysis postulates that this is a historically specific development, shaped by political circumstances, the current balance of forces and the choices made by political actors. Yet, this is also not an alliance based purely on expediency. These projects have shared a logic whose validity is not infinite - in the sense that it will eventually break down under the weight of its contradictions - but is also not entirely non-existent."

2017

This paper assesses the origins and the consequences of the decisive right wing shift in Indian politics ushered in by the 2014 elections. Tracing this to long-term but not linearly developing tendencies in Indian politics, the paper relates these with the distinctive nature and history of capitalist development in India, particularly the sharply polarizing growth and accumulation regime of the neo-liberal era and the crisis it now confronts. Asserting that the electoral success of the Narendra Modi-led BJP was based on it being the political agent of not change but of a reassertion by India’s economic elite, the paper explains the challenge of managing sharply contradictory interests that this places in the path of the consolidation of the new regime.

2018

No part of this dissertation has formed for any award of any degree or fellowship.

World Review of Political Economy, 2023

His area of interest includes critical development studies and Marxian political economy. He is the co-editor of Global Political Economy: A Critique of Contemporary Capitalism (2022). He has published widely in reputed international and national academic journals.

The neoliberal economic reforms in India since 1991 have significantly impacted the discourse of democratic federal governance in India. Democratic politics and neoliberal reforms have witnessed (i) the rise the clout of the capitalist classes, and (ii) the rise of political parties of ethnic identities. The policy shifts relating to bureaucratic deregulation, privatization, and globalization have unsettled the preexisting regime of state-directed economic development entailing unprecedented political and economic corruption, including electoral malpractices and criminalization of politics. The decline and atrophy of the party system is being partly compensated by judicial activism, investigative journalism, civil society movements against corruption, and new social movements on environment and ecology, gender justice, quality of life and services, rights of children and the old, etc. Privatisation and globalization have considerably reinforced the trend of political federalization challenging the prior trend of parliamentary centralism. Economic reforms have pushed up the GDP growth rate to higher points than ever before, but it is not accompanied by redistributive justice. Class as well as regional economic disparities have tended to increase to distressing levels. The increased emphasis on governance in the neoliberal discourse on capitalist development is caught in a dilemma between emphasis on accountability, transparency, efficiency and effectiveness, and rule of law, on the one hand, and the tendency to subordinate democratic rights of the people of the imperative of corporate development and governmentality, on the other.

2008

This thesis examines the relationship between state and capital in post-independence India. There was a dramatic shift from the strategy of state-led capital accumulation. After the 1950s, this strategy became increasingly dirigiste. From the 1980s, economic policy in India shifted towards neoliberalism. The conventional wisdom is that this transition to neoliberalism was driven by poor economic performance in India during the period of state-led growth. The economy was characterised by inefficiencies because of government-created distortions that stifled entrepreneurship and needed to be corrected by neo-liberal 'reforms'. However, capitalists in India were beneficiaries of dirigiste policies, and did not adopt neoliberalism as their collective agenda even when their disenchantment with the state peaked in 1965-66. It was only from around 1980 that a section of capitalists in India began to support a neoliberal turn. What explains this paradigmatic shift? This is the centra...

This article intends to explore how neoliberal market economy impacts social democracy in globalising India and examines its implications for the millions of Dalits. It argues that the institution of social democracy, which flourished in India during the Nehruvian era of mixed economy and welfare state, seems to be fast approaching its demise under the ongoing process of neoliberalism. It further argues that the fast-expanding domain of the corporate sector and the free flow of global capital, in conjunction with the gradual withdrawal of the welfare state, will not only widen inequalities, but also stifle the growth of social democracy in the country.

Human Geography, Vol 2, No 3. pp 37-51, 2009

Neoliberal transformation is not simply a top-down process. Neoliberal hegemony at the global level has an ally in the Indian elite in producing class-biased economic growth at the national scale. This paper examines the social contestations around India’s economic policy regime, its reproduction and transformation. It shows how the coercive power of global governance institu- tions has worked in tandem with the interest of the local elite to produce neoliberal changes in India. But class elites are not a homogeneous group. Fractures in class power affect the nature of political-economic change. Post-independence, the rural bourgeoisie, i.e., the quasi- feudal landlords and the medium-size landowners, at different stages of political-economic history, were the main social forces influencing economic policy, and the Tatas and Birlas, India’s big business houses, were their urban counterparts. 1980s were witness to the rise of a “new breed of entrepreneurs” in India with foreign business collaborations, who have now emerged as the dominant class-relevant force, constantly nudging India in the neoliberal direction. Additionally, neoliberalism has the support of the Indian upper caste since the new economic regime has created avenues for re-assertion of upper-caste power. Thus, the Indian economic space continues to be contested through endogenous politico-democratic contestations, fractured and continually reorganizing class power, caste assertions, global policy discourses and coercive power of global governance institutions.