How Moral Is South Asia's Economy?— A Review Article

Abstract

The five books discussed in this review article deal either with famine or with related issues concerning access to food in South Asia. Famine is a powerful but distorting lens through which to look at any society. Both the causes and the consequences of famine reveal important social and cultural facts about parts of South Asia at particular times. More important, the analysis of famine is inseparable from the problems of agricultural technology, inequality, and dependence in normal times. The underlying argument of this article is that famines raise questions about the changing relationship between the structures of enfranchisement and the realities of entitlement in the societies in which they occur.