4. Making India work? 1947–1989

Author(s):  
Craig Jeffrey

The emergence of India as an independent nation was associated with a new institutional drive, centred on the state, to cultivate hope. Yet the post-independence period also witnessed the successive failure of the state to address the problems of poverty and inequality that became so evident during British Rule. In some respects, successive political regimes have unwittingly exacerbated the scarcities and inequalities that affect many Indians. ‘Making India work? 1947–1989’ considers the first government under Prime Minister Nehru and the radical nature of the Constitution. It then discusses the poor economic climate at the time of Nehru’s death in 1964 and the governments of Indira Gandhi and her son, Rajiv.

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-160
Author(s):  
Christophe Jaffrelot

In the 2009 and 2014 elections, the poorer the voters were, the less BJP-oriented they were too. The situation changed in 2019, when the prime minister appeared to be equally popular among all the strata of society, including the poor. Modi’s massive appeal to the poor is counterintuitive given the weakening of pro-poor policies like the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and the elitist character of BJP. If class has lost some of its relevance for explaining the results of the 2019 elections, caste is showing some resilience, not as aggregates in the garb of OBCs or SCs, but as jatis at the state level. In spite of the BJP’s claim that the party’s ideology was alien to any consideration which may divide the nation, its strategists have meticulously studied caste equations at the local level in order to select the right candidates. This caste-based strategy partly explains the above-mentioned class element as the small OBC and Dalit jatis that the BJP has wooed are often among the poorest—and upper caste poor vote more for BJP than their co-ethnic rich anyway.


2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 157-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graziella Moraes Silva ◽  
Matias López

Abstract We analyze the cultural repertoires mobilized by elites to describe "Brazilian people." We rely on survey and in-depth interview data to capture how political, bureaucratic and business elites in Brazil frame poverty and inequality. Our data suggest that elites acknowledge poverty as a structural problem for the State to solve, but remain skeptical on the odds of actual solutions, indicating fatalistic perceptions that categorize the Brazilian poor as unorganized, passive, ignorant, and irrational. Moreover, in their definition of the poor, elites draw a symbolic boundary, separating an active sector (which includes the elites) and a passive one (the "people"). The paper also addresses the effects of such symbolic boundaries on the overall picture of Brazilian inequality.


Author(s):  
R. A. W. Rhodes

This chapter replies to key criticisms about policy networks, the core executive, and governance. On networks, the chapter discusses the context of networks, and the ability of the theory to explain change. On the core executive, it discusses a shift away from a focus on the prime minister to court politics. On governance, the chapter returns to redefining the state, steering networks, metagovernance, and storytelling. It restates the case for the idea of the differentiated polity. This is edifying because it provides a vocabulary for a more accurate description of British government. Finally, the chapter provides a link to Volume II by summarizing the decentred approach to the differentiated polity.


Author(s):  
Jordanna Bailkin

This chapter asks how refugee camps transformed people as well as spaces, altering the identities of the individuals and communities who lived in and near them. It considers how camps forged and fractured economic, religious, and ethnic identities, constructing different kinds of unity and disunity. Camps had unpredictable effects on how refugees and Britons thought of themselves, and how they saw their relationship to upward and downward mobility. As the impoverished Briton emerged more clearly in the imagination of the welfare state, the refugee was his constant companion and critic. The state struggled to determine whether refugees required the same care as the poor, or if they warranted their own structures of aid.


Author(s):  
Samuel K. Cohn, Jr.

While describing the peculiarities of cholera myths and riots from Asiatic Russia to Quebec, 1831–7, this chapter emphasizes the remarkable similarities across national and linguistic divides, oceans, and political regimes. The chapter argues first that this pan-regional mental landscape with the poor and marginal lashing out against elites and the medical profession cannot be explained by political events, regimes, or other causes particular to local settings. Secondly, these beliefs and struggles, instead of fading with successive waves of cholera, continued in places such as Russia, parts of Eastern Europe, Spain, and Italy. Moreover, their geographic scope and violence could increase, as with the total destruction of the industrial town of Hughesofka (today Donetsk) and riotous crowds reaching 10,000 in Astrakhan in 1892, murdering governors, counts, and physicians. As Fernand Braudel taught us long ago, pan-regional phenomena cannot be explained by local events.


Author(s):  
Florian Matthey-Prakash

What does it mean for education to be a fundamental right, and how may children benefit from it? Surprisingly, even when the right to education was added to the Indian Constitution as Article 21A, this question received barely any attention. This book identifies justiciability (or, more broadly, enforceability) as the most important feature of Article 21A, meaning that children and their parents must be provided with means to effectively claim their right from the state. Otherwise, it would remain a ‘right’ only on paper. The book highlights how lack of access to the Indian judiciary means that the constitutional promise of justiciability is unfulfilled, particularly so because the poor, who cannot afford quality private education for their children, must be the main beneficiaries of the right. It then deals with possible alternative means the state may provide for the poor to claim the benefits under Article 21A, and identifies the grievance redress mechanism created by the Right to Education Act as a potential system of enforcement. Even though this system is found to be deficient, the book concludes with an optimistic outlook, hoping that rights advocates may, in the future, focus on improving such mechanisms for legal empowerment.


1964 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 230-245 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen J. Heasman

Sidney and Beatrice Webb, in their book The State and the Doctor, which was submitted in the first instance as a memorandum to the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws in 1909, dismiss the work of the free dispensaries and medical missions in one short paragraph.


2021 ◽  
Vol 138 (3) ◽  
pp. 599-616
Author(s):  
Pieter Badenhorst

This article examines the nature and features of ‘unused old order rights’ (‘UOORs’) under item 8 of Schedule II of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act 28 of 2002 in light of the recent decision by the Constitutional Court in Magnificent Mile Trading 30 (Pty) Ltd v Celliers 2020 (4) SA 375 (CC). At issue was: (a) whether an UOOR was transmissible to heirs upon the death of its holder; and (b) the applicability of the Oudekraal principle to the award of an unlawful prospecting right to an applicant, contrary to the rights enjoyed by the holder of an UOOR. The article analyses the constituent elements of an UOOR, rights ancillary to the UOOR’s and the nature and features of UOORs and ancillary rights. The article also considers the possible loss of an UOOR by application of the Oudekraal principle due to the unlawful grant of a prospecting right by the state, as custodian of mineral resources. The article illustrates that the CC ensured in Magnificent Mile that the Oudekraal principle does not undermine the security of tenure and statutory priority afforded to holders of UOORs by ultra vires grants of inconsistent rights to opportunistic applicants. Concern is also expressed about the poor administration of mineral resources by the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roland Mierzwa

Peace has to be thought of in a more complex way, which is mainly stimulated by women from civil society. Many questions can no longer be addressed in a thematically and politically isolated or delimited way; chains of action and challenges are too interwoven. So far, too little attention has been paid to the preferential option for the poor, the approach of religionless Christianity and a feminist-liberation-theological-pacifist approach. Topics that are more marginal, such as a peace-ethical approach to money and the relationship between peace and health, are also addressed. Finally, the difficult question of how far one may still cooperate with the state when one is on the trail of peace is explored.


Significance The assassination follows months of political turmoil and rising gang violence and comes just weeks before elections, scheduled for September 26. Interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph, who has taken charge of the country, said yesterday that measures were being taken “to guarantee the continuity of the state and to protect the nation". Impacts Further political assassinations would exacerbate unrest. The Dominican Republic has closed its border, fearing a migrant surge; the situation will bolster public support there for a border wall. The UN Security Council meets today and may authorise emergency action in Haiti; any substantial redeployment, however, would take time.


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