Antinomies of the Indian State

Abstract

The BRIC economies, that refer to Brazil, Russia, India and China, symbolize the apparent shift in global economic power away from the USA and Western Europe. India is one of the prominent members of the BRIC economies. India’s annual growth rates of net national income at constant market price during the eighth ((1992–1997), ninth (1997–2002), tenth (2002–2007) and eleventh (2007–2012) Five-Year Plans have been as high as 6.5%, 5.4%, 7.6% and 7.5% respectively. In 2014–2015, the advance estimates of the annual growth rate of net national income at constant price were reported at 7.4%. In other words, India’s economy has grown at a relatively high rate since the initiation of the free market or New Economic Policy in 1991. The benefits of India’s new economic policy and foreign investment friendly climate, however, have been slow or negligible for the large majority of the poor. Only five countries outside Africa (Afghanistan, Bhutan, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea and Yemen) have lower “youth female literacy rates” than India, only four countries (Afghanistan, Cambodia, Haiti, Myanmar and Pakistan) do worse than India in terms of child mortality rates and none has a higher proportion of underweight children (World Development Indicators 2011). Hence, the question arises, how does the new economic policy gain acceptance in a democratic India? And how does a democratic state gain legitimacy in the face of such uneven development?