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The Political Economy of the BRICS Countries


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7).

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      Source: Calculated from IHDS data.

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      This can be supported by an alternative way of looking at the data as well. If we look at the average per capita incomes of the households belonging to different categories, our finding on STs is further strengthened. Among the six groups, STs have experienced the smallest growth (in percentage terms) in their average per capita income during the period between 2004–2005 and 2011–2012 (Table 8).

      India Among the BRICS

      Dreze and Sen (1995) made a distinction between two alternative paths of development — growth-mediated and support-led. While the development experience of the East Asian countries, especially South Korea, could be seen as manifestation of growth-mediated development, Sri Lanka, Costa Rica, and the Indian state of Kerala could be seen as examples of support-led development, according to their characterization. In this context, they also discussed the pitfalls of what they called ‘un-aimed opulence’, which aptly characterized Brazil in the 1980s. In the 1960s and 1970s, Brazil was one of the fastest growing countries in the world. But the country could hardly be seen as an example of growth-mediated development. As a matter of fact, Dreze and Sen expressed the fear that unless serious attention is paid to the persistent deprivation of basic necessities of life by large sections of the population, India might be in danger of ‘going Brazil’s way, rather than South Korea’s’. While their apprehension has been vindicated to a great extent by the experience of India, Brazil meanwhile seems to have changed its course so that ‘un-aimed opulence’ can hardly be used now to characterize Brazil.

      As the principal focus of this chapter is inequality between social groups, rather than interpersonal inequality, it would be worthwhile to compare the Indian scenario with some other BRICS countries, namely, Brazil and South Africa, drawing on the secondary literature. Fortunately, we can draw on at least one paper that has its focus on racial/ethnic inequality in India, Brazil, and South Africa, among others. Table 9 draws on Elbers et al. (2008). Theil’s GE(0) measure has been applied to consumption expenditure data roughly pertaining to the year 2000.

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      Sources: Elbers et al. (2008).

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      Source: Bucciferro (2017).

      Conclusion

      In this chapter, we have focused on a particular aspect of inequality, namely inequality between socially identifiable groups, which is believed to have implications for the socio-political dynamics of a country. In the 1970s and 1980s, Brazil was seen as a case of ‘un-aimed opulence’, the consequence of which was accentuating inequality in income and wealth. Since 1988 when Brazil made the transition to a regime of democratic governance, a number of radical pro-poor measures have been undertaken, which have had visible impacts on the overall inequality as well as inequality between the racial groups. In India, by contrast,