Join us for this in-person and online event that explores how top-down modes of development are challenged from below.
This event follows from an earlier event on the same theme, held on 11 December 2024 (details here).
The global expansion of authoritarian rule is witnessing a brand of development that is intensifying processes of social polarisation and growing inequalities. There is an increasing co-option of institutions and policies to the detriment of basic liberties and rights amidst consolidation of unbridled power. These forms of authoritarian developmentalism are based on top-down ‘big’ infrastructure development and economic growth and increasingly associated with violent ethno-nationalism exploiting majoritarian crises of masculinity, authoritarian populism, increasing inequality and a toxic state-capital nexus. Often considered to be ‘growth without development’ (Jaffrelot 2016), it is preoccupied with the centralisation of power/authority and quelling of dissent through a range of rhetorical and material strategies that pose fundamental threats to democracy, equality and justice.
With a particular focus on India which has become a powerful middle-income country and international development actors are now less significant in its development, there is a need to visibilise the ways in which the country has taken a more isolationist turn, posing new challenges for development studies. Through this event, we are hoping to illuminate the Indian context as a laboratory for these ascendant trends and counter-resistance, to offer wider lessons for development research, policy and practice.
These conversations are organised as part of the Challenging Authoritarian Developmentalism from Below: Perspectives from India initiative of the Institute of Development Studies (IDS).
Event timings
Panel 1: Trends of Authoritarian Developmentalism (14:00 to 15:30)
Moderator: Professor Lyla Mehta, Research Fellow, Institute of Development Studies (IDS).
Speakers:
- Nikita Sud, Professor of the Politics of Development, University of Oxford;
- Adil Hossain, Assistant Professor, School of Development, Azim Premji University;
- Mona Mehta, Associate Professor and Associate Dean, Arts, Ahmedabad University;
- Salil Tripathi, editor and author.
Break: 15:30 to 16:00.
Panel 2: Narratives of Resistance (16:00 to 17:30)
Moderator: Dr. Samreen Mushtaq, Research Fellow, Institute of Development Studues (IDS).
Speakers:
- Subir Sinha, Reader in the Theory and Politics of Development, SOAS;
- Kalpana Sharma, journalist and author;
- Goldie Osuri, Professor of Sociology, University of Warwick;
- Sambhaji Bhagat, anti-caste activist, poet and music director.
Discussion and Concluding remarks (17:30 to 18:00)
How to watch
The event will take place in person and online on Zoom.
The event will be streamed live on Zoom. Please read Zoom’s privacy policy for more information.
Accessibility
The event will take place in the IDS Convening Space which is on the 1st floor of the IDS Building. If you need to use the lift then press floor 1A.
If you have any accessibility issues then contact: [email protected]
Key contacts
