Since its inception, the Indian model of development has the twin objectives of economic development and social justice woven together. This has shaped both policy and popular aspiration in post-Independence India. In this context, Democratizing Development: Struggles for Rights and Social Justice in India explores and analyses how development gets vitiated by multiple powers and subverts the democratic ideals of participation, equality, inclusion, redistribution and equity, and how the poor and socially marginalized struggle to make development democratic. Examining development through the lens of the most marginalized, the book shows the democratic potential of development as well as the result of its absence.

The book contains empirically drawn cases and supplements these with theoretical and analytical arguments. It contributes to contemporary debates in social science such as democracy, social justice, civil society, social mobilization, social inclusion, redistribution and participatory governance.