Updated with a new introduction

“Enchanting ... a major work by two of India’s most insightful and intelligent observers today” - William Dalrymple, New Statesman.

By two of India’s leading economists, Jean Drèze and Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, An Uncertain Glory is a passionate, cohesive argument for the need for a greater understanding of inequalities in India.

When India gained independence from colonial rule in 1947, it immediately adopted a stable democratic political system, with multiple political parties, freedom of speech, and extensive political rights. The famines of the British era disappeared, and steady economic growth replaced stagnation, further accelerating over the last thirty years to make India’s growth the second fastest among major economies. Despite a recent downturn, it remains one of the highest in the world.

Maintaining rapid but environmentally sustainable growth remains an important and feasible goal for India. Drèze and Sen argue that the country’s major problems lie in the neglect of the fundamental needs of the people. There have been significant failures both in promoting participatory growth and in properly utilizing public resources generated by economic growth to enhance people's living conditions; social and physical services remain inadequate, from education and healthcare to safe water, electricity, and sanitation.

In the long term, even high economic growth is threatened by underdevelopment of infrastructure and neglect of human capabilities, contrary to the comprehensive approach proposed by Japan, South Korea, and China. In a democratic regime, addressing these failures requires not only significant political change but also a clearer public understanding of the abyssal extent of deprivations in the country. Yet public discussion in India tends to be restricted to the lives and concerns of the relatively affluent.

This book offers a powerful analysis not only of India’s deprivations and inequalities, but also of the constraints in addressing them - and the potential for change through democratic practice.

Pages: 480, Dimensions: 13x13cm