Faculty Research Forum: A Sixth of Humanity with Devesh Kapur

Professor Devesh Kapur presents his book, A Sixth of Humanity: Independent India's Development Odyssey, in a conversation with Professors Filipe Campante and Pravin Krishna chaired by Dean James B. Steinberg, introduced by Vice Dean for Faculty Affairs Peter M. Lewis.

India's journey has been distinctively "precocious" in comparative terms. It opted for democracy before development and social change, promoted high-skilled services before and over low-skilled manufacturing, and chose a globalization that favored exports of talented people and short-changed the poor. The socialist state became an inefficient capitalist one before providing the public goods of physical infrastructure and human capital. The outcomes have been surprising, with the country achieving high-skilled services success and creating and sustaining democracy, albeit flawed, and maintaining a modicum of order. As the world gets radically upended, India's development odyssey is at a critical juncture.

A Sixth of Humanity: Independent India's Development Odyssey traces how one of the largest and most diverse countries in the world uniquely and daringly attempted four concurrent transformations—building a state, creating an economy, changing society, and forging a sense of nationhood—under conditions of universal suffrage.

A light lunch will be provided.

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