Desire Named Development

The predatory neo-liberal capitalism that has become the norm in India over the last two decades raises many uncomfortable questions. Today, consumption defines what we are. And with the western capitalist model reigning supreme, all of us seem to have been reduced to being just consumers in the eyes of the government. The effect on India's peasantry has been tremendous. The recent tragic stories played out in Kalinganagar, Singur and Nandigram show how many farmers suddenly find themselves up against the might of the state. The theft of agricultural land from poor farmers in the name of progress has become routine. Meanwhile, private corporations continue to ravage the country's natural resources without any protest from the administration. In Desire Named Development, Aditya Nigam makes the case for dismantling some cherished beliefs and for restructuring the economy and our cities in particular ways. A substantial change in government policies and individual consumption habits can still make another world possible for India's future. Nigam makes a strong case for dismantling some cherished beliefs and for restructuring the economy and our cities in particular ways.

Aditya Nigam is a fellow of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), Delhi. He works in the broad field of social and political theory and is the joint director of the programme in social and political theory at the CSDS. He is interested in issues related to the formations of modernity and the emergence of political subjectivities. He has published regularly on questions of nationalism, identity and radical politics in both English and Hindi. His work looks at the contemporary experience of capitalism and globalization in the postcolonial world. Nigam is the author of The Insurrection of Little Selves: Crisis of Secular-nationalism in India; Power and Contestation: India Since 1989 (with Nivedita Menon); and After Utopia: Modernity and Socialism in the Postcolony.