[Reader-list] Please Mind The Gap: Winners and Losers of Neoliberalism in India

[Patrice Riemens]

The argument is well known, but this student essay looks like giving a 
good entry to the issue.
Cheers, p+5D!


http://www.e-ir.info/2017/03/11/please-mind-the-gap-winners-and-losers-of-neoliberalism-in-india/

(This content was written by a student and assessed as part of a 
university degree. E-IR publishes student essays & dissertations to 
allow our readers to broaden their understanding of what is possible 
when answering similar questions in their own studies.)




The conclusion:

This case study aimed at demonstrating that neoliberalism, in the form 
of the New Economic Policy (1991), is a project thought and promoted by 
an elite which is the only one that benefits from it. Although 
neoliberalism is trying to be sold by Western states, institutions and 
elites as the solution to inequality, poverty and development, it is 
important to analyse this and demonstrate that the reality differs to a 
great extent. In order to do so, this essay began by reviewing the 
literature on the subject, outlining the ideas of neoliberalism’s 
advocates in order to fill their gaps regarding the “positive side of 
neoliberalism” by the recent and critical scholarship. Later, the NEP in 
India and its connection with the agrarian crisis served as the perfect 
example to prove that empirical evidence does not tally with the 
neoliberal theoretical claims. Neoliberalism in India, far from 
alleviating poverty and encouraging sustainable development, has only 
widened the inequality gap, created a staggering number of losers, 
roughly the entire agrarian population and majority of the country. In 
return, the winning minority, the business elites who promoted the 
country’s economic liberalisation in the first place, knew that it would 
increase their wealth and social and political influence.