Head of research area: Joël Cabalion
The research projects included in this research area contribute to shedding light on the structure as well as the transformations of inequalities in contemporary India by zooming in on a few major areas such as agriculture, labour and education. In the context of international debates on the evolution of work and growth trends, this line of research interrogates old and new models of development and offers a better understanding of the transitions and challenges in India today. This area hosts several research projects that renew methodological debates on the measurement of inequality.
- Growth, Work, Inequalities
We hereby look at the major trends of evolution in work as well as forms of inequalities, ranging from the questioning of existing models of economic growth to the elaboration of appropriate tools to measure inequality and poverty in India.
- Rural worlds in transition: agrarian and environmental crises
This section examines not only the longue durée of agricultural trends in India but also its most salient contemporary challenges, particularly in relation to the emergence of agroecology or in the wake of land dispossession in rural areas.
- Privatization of public services
We explore in this section the compelling evolutions faced by the public sector in India and the various privatization drives engaged by the Indian State, notably in the educational field.
Researchers :
- CSH members: Kiran Bhatty, Joël Cabalion, Spoorthi Gangadikar Christophe Guilmoto, Odile Henry, Himanshu, Surinder Singh Jodhka and Tista Kundu.
- CSH Associate Researchers and Visiting Researchers: Bina Agarwal, Bruno Dorin, Nicolas Gravel, Clémence Jullien, Arnaud Kabba, Loraine Kennedy, Jules Naudet, and Delphine Thivet.
Challineq, Eqoppind (AXA), Wealth Inequality and Elites in India
Project: Wealth Inequality and Elites in India (Surinder S. Jodkha)
Following an initial country workshop in India in September 2021, this comparative project spanning South Africa, Brazil and India intends to reveal what drives wealth inequality in the Global South, and how it can be addressed with an approach using a political economy and multidisciplinary frame. The study was originally commissioned by the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies (SCIS) of the University of Witwatersrand and is supported by the Robert Bosch Stiftung. The Wealth and Inequality Research group based in India is coordinated by Surinder Jodhka and Vamsi Vakulabharanam. Their study is an attempt at understanding the various temporal regimes of capitalism, the differentiation of accumulation across regional and social groups as well as the relation between wealth and politics or the changing nature of state-business relationship. Spread across four cities of different regions of India, their teams are currently collecting primary data on aspects of mapping the social dynamics of wealth ownership.
