Louis Tillin’s Making India Work: The Development of Welfare in a Multi-Level Democracy has been published at a very crucial moment in India’s history. The VB–G RAM G Act, 2025 (replacing MGNREGA) and National Labour and Employment Policy, 2025 were passed just after the release of the book. One of the book’s strengths is the narrative-driven approach relying on myriad historical sources. It is a historical account of the emergence of the social welfare regime in India. Tillin traces this evolution broadly in four phases. At the same time, it challenges the universalist/European narratives of studying welfare states/regimes by looking at the unique case of India. The book’s main contention is that the welfare regime in India is an amalgam of different historical processes, especially colonial history, the capitalist class trying to manage competition rather than confronting a powerful labour movement, electoral competition and federal democracy. It provides a coherent historical investigation of understanding why India’s welfare regime is irregular, extensive, progressive, clientelistic, paternalistic and rights-based. The sophisticated theoretical framework also adds to the value of the book. There has been a protracted historical discussion on the nature of India’s welfare regime and how it will address the disastrous social effects of capitalism, notwithstanding the existence of clientelism and other such problems. This debate dates back to the late colonial era, approximately 1919. Even now, these concepts and discussions continue to have a significant impact on how India’s welfare system is framed. The book is an effort to investigate the same.
The origin, expansion, and reform of India’s welfare system are examined beginning with four main theories regarding the historical evolution of welfare regimes: (a) power resource theories, (b) international political economy arguments, (c) the role of colonialism, and (d) the organization and interests of employers. The author contends that the organization and interests of employers who wished to control interprovincial economic competition in late colonial India should be taken into consideration while understanding the architecture of social policy. Tillin then goes on to discuss how and why Bombay became the epicentre of social policy evolution. The impact of the International Labour Organization (ILO), diverse industrial geography and demand for uniform national labour/industrial policy, decentralization brought about by the Government of India Acts of 1919 and 1935, wage differences between different provinces/Princely States and opposition/support from employers for sickness/social insurance for industrial workers during the colonial era and the Congress’s changing position on social issues are dealt with in detail.
The concerns of many nationalist politicians and business people about the uncontrolled interprovincial competition during the interwar period (World War II) are highlighted. Employers desired a tripartite arrangement with labour and state, and wanted the state to contribute to social security funding as well. The need for national labour policy legislation grew during the interwar years, and it was also seen as a prerequisite for the introduction of new social security programmes. Discussions on labour welfare were accelerated by a number of significant events, including the Indian Communists backing World War II following the USSR’s entry and the impending threat of a Japanese assault. It became more urgent to address labour concerns due to labour unrest and the need to maintain production throughout the war. Employers were also concerned about using war as a means of bolstering Indian industry while averting labour issues.
The post-Independence welfare measures in India are covered; how the different employment and industrial growth plans led to distinct social policy logic for the bulk of India and the small industrial sector, particularly after the Second Five-Year Plan, are discussed. The Nehru-Mahalanobis strategy concentrated on small, capital-intensive industrialization, leaving the remainder of the economy—especially small and cottage industries—to develop independently. Workers in small and cottage enterprises were encouraged to ‘gird their loins’ (p. 101) in order to contribute to the nation-building endeavour. The rationale was to lessen reliance on so-called ‘doles and compassion’, and the ‘duty to work’ was viewed as a civic duty (p. 113). Rural areas were left to fend for themselves. This deliberate strategy hindered the welfare regime’s progress for the bulk of India.
After this, Tillin looks at the electoral competition post-Nehru era and the subsequent expansion of social policy into rural areas. The Green Revolution created new forms of interregional and interpersonal inequality and also eliminated the patron-client relationships that the rural poor relied on, which gave rise to new social policies for the hitherto ignored rural areas. A new social and political class dissociated from the Congress and with considerable political clout was emerging in rural areas. As a result, policies like the Employment Guarantee Scheme (EGS) and the Integrated Rural Development Program (IRDP) emerged during this time. Initially, promotional aspects of social security were favoured by both the State and Central governments and the more protective social measures were disregarded. After the 1980s, Tamil Nadu adopted an alternative approach stressing protective aspects of social security. These policies applied to the whole citizenry, including those in the unorganized sector. This led to the adoption of such policies at both subnational and national levels, and both competed with each other for the design and credit of the social policies.
There was a widely held belief that liberalization would result in the retrenchment of welfare policies and decrease social sector expenditure in India. Both arguments, however, according to Tillin, were mistaken. Reforms necessitated an ‘exit policy’ for ailing firms to lay off workers, which however, failed due to opposition from the small organized labour force. In fact, the Indian Government secured a loan from the World Bank to bolster the pledge of social security with a ‘human face’ during the reforms. The Central Government tried to reform policies like the Public Distribution System (PDS); however, this ignited friction between the Congress and subnational political parties and governments. These subnational governments blamed the Central Government for increasing food inflation and impending financial crises. This was a perfect illustration of how the federal structure makes it more difficult to retrench welfare programmes. Central and subnational governments engaged in direct competition over social welfare programmes as a result of the multi-level electoral competition in a post-Congress polity.
Welfare after 1998 is discussed in the following chapter, which talks about the expansion of the economy along with the number of jobs in the unorganized sector. This phase saw the emergence of contributory social insurance extended to the unorganized sector also. Tillin argues that during this period, the private sector and non-state actors were spurred to provide social security while also embracing labour commodification. Vajpayee implemented more stringent labour legislation and economic reforms which were opposed by the small organized sector. Vajpayee Government’s policies targeted the poorest of the poor in rural regions and used the PDS to limit spending on other socio-economic categories. The Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) was said to have lost the 2004 Lok Sabha elections as a result of a backlash against reforms implemented during the Vajpayee administration. This line of reasoning has been questioned, though. Tillin argues that the Congress party took advantage of the 2004 win to develop a progressive agenda to increase social welfare policies. The development and entrenchment of welfare policies during UPA, according to some analysts, was an attempt to legitimize the new form of capitalist accumulation. These new social policies were viewed by writers such as Partha Chatterjee and Kalyan Sanyal as an effort to undo the consequences of ‘primitive accumulation’. During the UPA-1 era, social policy underwent a ‘rights’-based change. Numerous laws were passed that acknowledged some social welfare benefits as legally enforceable rights as opposed to state-provided freebies. However, both inside and outside of the Congress, there was no clear ideological agreement on the rights-based approach to social security during UPA-II. The insurance-based paradigm that was initiated during the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) administration was maintained under UPA-II.
The author concludes by arguing that the BJP was one of the main opponents of giveaways and freebies in 2014. The Party had pledged to concentrate more on growth-oriented distributional aspects of development before and after coming to power. It was anticipated that the BJP would drastically break from the UPA’s ‘welfare restricted capitalism’ (p. 202); however, this assumption turned out to be incorrect. The BJP quickly developed a set of welfare programmes that were more similar to those of several European Right-wing populist parties. This paternalism has become extremely personal under Modi, with each direct transfer being displayed in his name. According to the author, social assistance programmes now in place in India might be characterized as protection combined with commodification (p. 203).
The book’s dense historical detail and analysis at multiple levels, despite its strengths, may overwhelm certain readers, particularly the non-experts. Also, a very limited analysis of the welfare regime under Modi has been attempted in the conclusion of the book. Given the time of publication of the book, a more detailed analysis post-2014 was possible. The shorter length of the book leaves some of the related and important questions out of the scope of this book, for example, how welfare regimes at different points of time in Indian history actually impacted the people on the ground. Despite these limitations, the book will be essential for anyone interested in welfare and social policy in India, development studies, political economy and comparative social policy.
Waqas Farooq Kuttay is Assistant Professor, Lloyd Law College, Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh.