Compressed Capitalism and Late Development in India

We are delighted to announce that this session of the webinar series will feature Prof. Dr. Anthony P. D'Costa , whose lecture will draw upon his book, Changing Contexts and Shifting Roles of the Indian State, and his research article, Capitalist Progress and Moral Economy: Sustaining Employment in India’s Handloom Sector.

To reduce confusion for non-YSI participants: The event will take place on Friday November 12, 11 pm Pacific Time, which is Saturday November 13, 12:30 pm Indian Standard Time.

Abstract

The economic reforms initiated three and a half decades ago are often heralded as the beginning of a “new’ India and the unleashing of massive capitalist development potential. This is not untrue as many indicators of business, technology, and growth rates would confirm. However, what this narrative excludes is the vast swath of India that is untouched by these changes in any meaningful way, even if official reports of declining poverty are to be believed. An alternative approach to understanding India’s development dynamics is to position it in the wider capitalist dynamic of the late twentieth century and suggest that late entry to capitalism entails a set of dynamics in India and generally in the Global South that departs significantly from the classical capitalist transition. Using the concept of compressed capitalism with close affinity to but not equated with uneven and combined development, I show that new technologies, mature capitalists, a relatively well-developed state co-exist with dispossession and displacement of people and the persistence of petty commodity production. The resulting inequality (and wealth polarization) in India in an expanding economy is thus not an anomaly but a reflection of systemic late capitalist dynamics that is beset with a development cul-de-sac.

Speaker Bio

Anthony P. D'Costa is an Eminent Scholar in Global Studies and Professor of Economics at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. In the last thirty years, he has taught at the University of Melbourne as Chair and Professor of Contemporary Indian Studies, at the Copenhagen Business School as the A.P. Moller-Maersk Professor of Indian Studies, National University of Singapore, and the University of Washington as Professor of Comparative International Development. He has written on the political economy of steel, auto, IT, and handloom industries covering India, Japan, China, and South Korea on the themes of capitalism and globalization, state, economic nationalism, development, innovations, industrial restructuring, employment challenges, international migration of professionals, and wealth and inequality. He has written or edited a dozen books, published numerous book chapters and journal articles, and lectured widely. He has received numerous fellowships, including the Fulbright-Hays, American Institute of Indian Studies, and Abe from the Japan Foundation, contributed to the research effort of multilateral organizations, and served on numerous academic and professional committees.

Format

Prof. Anthony P. D'Costa will be speaking for the first 45 minutes. We will then be holding a Q&A Session.

This session is part of the larger project:

Dissecting Capitalism: Its past, present and future

This series aims to explore the tenets of capitalism over the fabric of time and examine its influence on the global economy and social classes.