Class and Inequality in China and India, 1950–2010

Vamsi Vakulabharanam is Co-Director of the Asian Political Economy Program and Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He has previously taught at the University of Hyderabad (2008-14) and the City University of New York (2004-07). His recent research focuses on inequality in India and China and the political economy of Indian cities through the axes of gender, caste, class, and religion. In the past, he has also worked on agrarian change in developing economies, agrarian cooperatives, and the relationship between economic development and inequality. Vakulabharanam was awarded the Amartya Sen award in 2013 by the Indian Council of Social Science Research.

To study social class and inequality in China or India alone is a formidable task. Yet Vakulabharanam, who has been working on both countries for years, has produced a landmark book explaining and comparing the recent history of inequality in both countries. While social class has been a concern of Indian studies, Vakulabharanam is the first to focus on--and demonstrate--its importance in understanding the Chinese case. The book's hallmark is its analysis of the links between global patterns of capitalist organization and internal developments within individual countries, which helps explain remarkable similarities in their experiences. This is an invaluable book for anyone interested in the lives of over a third of humanity.