Contemporary debates in India hinges on the Indian welfare state reneging on its welfare ideals with increasing openness of the economy. Western ideas on welfarism have never been fully applicable to the Indian context and both the support and the opposition of welfarism in India have come from other sources.
The Indian back drop of welfare state comes from the vision of Shri J. Nehru who was greatly impressioned by the Leviathon. Nehru for the first time coined the term “socialist democracy. In the principal fight between capitalism and labour class – the Government would act as a mediator testing each capitalist action against the concept of “socialism” and rights of workmen. The Indian welfare state is characterised in the Indian Constitution in Part IV in Directive Principles of State Policy.
Nehru’s welfare state model is understood through a three-pronged identification of the Nehruvian democratic socialism, planning and industrialisation and...
