Why India's inequality is a policy choice, argues Capital and Ideology

In the debate over inequality, caste has played a key role. Instead, an ambitious agrarian reform, backed by a more redistributive tax system would have been more helpful, argues Thomas Piketty

Thomas Piketty
Last Updated at May 16, 2020 21:44 IST

An ambitious agrarian reform, backed by a more redistributive tax system to pay for better health and educational services, would have helped to pull up the disadvantaged classes and reduce Indian inequalities

In addition to health and education, the other structural policy that might have contributed to a major reduction of social inequality in India is of course redistribution of property, especially farmland. Unfortunately, no agrarian reform was attempted or even considered at the federal level. Broadly speaking, both the Constitution of 1950 and the principal political leaders of independent India took a relatively conservative approach to issues of property.

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