Ewolucja nierówności dochodowych i majątkowych w Indiach w latach 1951–2019
The evolution of income and wealth inequalities in India in 1951–2019

Summary/Abstract: An increasing amount of research and available data shows a clear increase in the level ofinequality in worldwide terms over the past 30–40 years. In this context, India is a unique case dueto the enormous ethnic and linguistic diversity and specific social institutions that have arisen overthe centuries.The study is divided into three parts. The first one presents the problem of the inequalities inthe contemporary world and their relationship with the processes of economic growth. The secondpart is devoted to an analysis of the inequalities in India in the years 1951–1989, and the third partis an analysis of this problem since 1990. The article ends with a conclusion, which briefly presentsthe analyses that were carried out. The study mainly uses historical analyses based on domestic andforeign literature, as well as an analysis of the existing data.According to the analyses studied, the shares of individual percentiles in income and wealthremained relatively constant throughout the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, with shares in the upper stratadecreasing slightly over that time. In fact, there was an actual petrification of traditional structuresand inequalities. These circumstances changed in the mid-1980s and accelerated significantly in theearly 1990s along with liberal reforms based on the Washington consensus. As a result, the level ofinequality has increased significantly over the past 30 years.This means that despite more than 70 years of economic reform, it was ultimately impossible tobuild a strong, egalitarian society. In the long run, this may lead not so much to the consolidation ofthe democratic system as to the emergence of a plutocracy in place of democracy, and New Delhi’ssuperpower ambitions will remain within the sphere of theories and plans.

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