Democracy in India : Poverty, Development and Identity

Contents: Preface. 1. Rural development in India. 2. Agrarian reform and rural development. 3. Rural development and poverty alleviation programmes: approach and strategy. 4. Training of trainers on participatory local development. 5. Entrepreneurship as an economic force in rural development. 6. Policies to reduce poverty and accelerate sustainable development. 7. Identity and polities in India. 8. Globalization and the de-nationalization of Indian middle class. 9. The implications of political corruption for India’s economic development. Bibliography. Index.

The most important causes of Poverty in India are poor agriculture, growing population, gap between rich and poor, corruption and black money. India is mainly an agricultural country. About 80% people of our country depend on agriculture. While some have a high opinion of India’s growth story since its independence, some others think the country’s performance in the six decades has been abysmal. It’s arguably true that the Five Year Plans did target specific sectors in order to quicken the pace of development, yet the outcome hasn’t been on expected lines. And, the country is taking its own sweet time to catch up with the developed world. All efforts are frustrated by lopsided strategies and inept implementation of policies. Identity politics has become a prominent subject in the Indian politics in the past few years. Rise of low castes, religious identities, linguistics groups and ethnic conflicts have contributed to the significance of identity politics in India. The discourse on identity, many scholars feel, is distinctly a modern phenomenon. Craig Calhoun aptly describes the situation when he argues that it is in the modern times we encounter intensified efforts at consolidating individual and categorical identities and reinforce self-sameness. The present book deals with all the important dimension of this subject.