Date of Submission

Spring 2021

Academic Program

Economics

Project Advisor 1

Aniruddha Mitra

Project Advisor 2

Michael Martell

Abstract/Artist's Statement

This project examines whether economic development efforts in India were effective in mobilizing Dalits during the post-independence era. Global and national policy continue to fail to recognize the role caste plays in inequality and poverty, further excluding Dalits from gaining freedoms continuously rewarded to higher-castes. By taking a historical approach when examining the caste system and its persistence in economic and social structures in the modern era, there can be a greater understanding of how Dalits remain excluded from major institutions and struggle to mobilize, regardless of the gaining of constitutional rights. From a chronological perspective, this project investigates the development paths and socialist-era policies from the 1947-1991 period and how caste identity within Indian politics further excluded Dalit development. It moves on to investigate the period of economic liberalization in India (1991 to the early 2000s) and how each economic era impacted Dalit development. This project will further address the issues Dalits face in terms of gaining economic freedoms and mobilization due to social exclusion and the caste system’s ability to evolve to modern times.

Open Access Agreement

Open Access

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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