A Sixth of Humanity

A Sixth of Humanity: Independent India's Development Odyssey is a 2026 book on the developmental history of post independent India. It was written by economist Arvind Subramanian and political scientist Devesh Kapur^[1].

The central theme of the book is that the Indian growth model presents a certain 'precociousness'^[1] where democracy outpaced economic development and social change, and where service sector developed before the development of the manufacturing sector and so on^[2]. It puts forward a four-fold framework of 'state, society, nation and markets' to analyse India's growth story^[3].

The central problem, as identified by the authors, is statism, where people look at the state as the “provider and protector"^[4][3]. “Too much was asked of the state, too often and too soon”, write the authors. However, the work also notes that the state machinery in India is actually surprisingly small; India has almost half the number of police personnel per population as compared to England and Wales^[2]; State employment as a percentage of the working-age population in India has been far below the global average^[4]. The book contains rich comparative analyses of the many different trajectories traversed by different states in the country, and deals with how development is linked to interstate relations^[2].

The Economist in its review noted that the book that runs into more than 600 pages adopts an approach where 'charts, arguments and catchy phrases' are used in abundance^[2]. Tej Parikh, writing in the Financial Times, concluded that the authors provide "one of the most comprehensive analyses" of India's development journey to date^[1].Pulapre Balakrishnan, writing in the Indian Express, criticised the authors stating that the work "is hobbled by the absence of a theoretical vision of growth"^[5].