| State, Law and Policy

The Law, Politics, and Society course explores the complex and evolving relationship between the Indian state, its models of development, and the broader questions of justice, governance, and social transformation. The Indian state occupies a distinctive position in the global history of development. Unlike many postcolonial nations that replicated dominant Western models of modernization, India pursued an independent and self-reliant path, shaping its own framework of a mixed economy. This model consciously kept multinational and monopoly capital at a distance, emphasizing industrial growth led by the state and grounded in the ideals of national autonomy. The very character of the Indian state thus influenced the model of development it adopted, intertwining political sovereignty with economic self-determination.

In retrospect, this trajectory invites critical reflection. Competing perspectives—most notably the Nehruvian and Gandhian approaches—offer contrasting visions of what the Indian state should be and how development should unfold. The Nehruvian model privileged centralization and industrialization, envisioning the Central Government as the primary agent of national transformation. On the agrarian question, however, it facilitated the role of state governance, and accordingly, land reforms were placed within the State List under the Constitution. In contrast, the Gandhian model emphasized decentralization, local autonomy, and community-based self-governance, proposing a bottom-up restructuring of political and economic power rooted in village communities and participatory democracy. Gandhi’s conception of constitutional order, as articulated by Principal Agarwal, proposed an alternative vision grounded in village republics, participatory democracy, and moral economy. At its core was a bottom-up approach to power and governance that recognized the agency of ordinary citizens, particularly women and marginalized groups, in shaping the social and political order. In the present context, marked by persistent crises of governance, growing inequality, and the erosion of democratic accountability, this Gandhian vision acquires renewed significance. It challenges us to rethink the centralization of authority and the exclusionary tendencies embedded within the current developmental framework.