ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to analyse the relationship between social structure and economic performance in India and Pakistan. It seeks to establish whether the social system had a significant dysfunctional role in hindering growth in the past, and whether the situation has changed since independence. It analyses the extent to which governments in office really tried to change the social structure and the degree to which their rhetorical commitments were constrained by the inertia of tradition and by the vested interests which inherited economic and social power. It is interesting to compare India and Pakistan because they had a common history before 1947 and have since followed social policies which, in theory, are quite different. India has aimed to establish a ‘socialist pattern’ and to ensure that the benefits of growth filter down, whereas Pakistan in the 1960s proclaimed the need for functional inequality because of the alleged conflict between equity and growth.