Democracy Dialogues - 42 : India Under Modi: Shrinking Democracy, Growing Inequalities

 

Democracy Dialogues Series 42

Organised by New Socialist Initiative

Theme :

India Under Modi: Shrinking Democracy, Growing Inequalities

Speaker: 

Professor Atul Kohli

David K.E. Bruce Professor of International Affairs at Princeton University, USA

Time and Date :

7 PM (IST)

Sunday 25 th January 2026

Join Zoom Meeting :

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84840793414?pwd=Km2sDmvf0XQMY0ISoGKN7emfjzPNLO.1

Meeting ID: 848 4079 3414

Passcode: 168537

The meeting will also be live streamed at Facebook ( facebook.com/newsocialistinitiative.nsi).

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Abstract:

Modi’s rule in India is characterized by shrinking democracy and growing economic inequalities.  The presentation will focus both on the rise of Modi and on Modi’s ruling record.  The following points will be emphasized: growing economic inequalities under Congress governments after 1991 fractured the party's voter base, paving the way for Modi's rise; religious polarization and corporate power have grown simultaneously under Modi; India’s billionaires thrive amid the democratic decline; institutional checks have been eroded and the opposition has been fractured: the judiciary, media, and election bodies have failed to counter executive power; and there is little evidence to suggest a superior economic record in India after 2014: industrial growth has been sluggish, job creation minimal, and welfare spending flat.

About the Speaker: Professor Atul Kohli is a world-reknowned political scientist. He is the David K.E. Bruce Professor of International Affairs at Princeton University. His principal research interests are in the area of political economy of developing countries. He is the author of India Under Modi: Changing State and Society (with Kanta Murali), (2025); Greed and Guns: Imperial Origins of the Developing World, (2022); Imperialism and the Developing World: How Britain and the U.S. Shaped the Global Periphery (2020); Poverty amid Plenty in the New India (2012) (a Foreign Affairs Best Book of 2012 on Asia and the Pacific); State-Directed Development: Political Power and Industrialization in the Global Periphery (2004) (winner of the Charles Levine Award (2005) of the International Political Science Association); Democracy and Discontent: India's Growing Crisis of Governability (1991); and The State and Poverty in India (1987).  He has also edited or coedited ten volumes (most recently, Business and Politics in India, 2019; and States in the Developing World, 2017) and published some sixty articles. Through much of his scholarship he has emphasized the role of sovereign and effective states in the promotion of inclusive development.