This seminar is hosted by the Oxford India Centre for Sustainable Development at Somerville College Oxford

Please contact salome.hughes@some.ox.ac.uk, 01865 270633 for further information or to register your attendance.

Speakers: Dr Liz Dávid-Barrett, Centre for Corporate Reputation Saïd Business School, Professor William Gould, Professor of Indian History, University of Leeds

William Gould
Corruption and anti-corruption in modern India: History, patronage and the moral politics of anti-colonialism
This paper argues that the rise of large-scale anti-corruption movements in India reveals more than simply public dissatisfaction with apparently ever increasing corruption scandals. Instead, public debate on corruption in India is related to two long-term political concerns since the 1940s: firstly a popular critique of the (post)colonial state derived from the moral politics of anti-colonialism; and secondly the survival of a practical politics of anti-corruption in forms of patronage politics in Indian parties. The paper explores these ideas by examining the relationship between large scale scandals and routine practices through three phases of political critique of corruption: the 1930s-50s, the 1980s-90s and the post 2006 period.

Lunch is included.