Inclusive growth in the context of excluding property rights system: a look into the feudal past and contemporary evidences

Inclusive growth refers to a growth process that reduces poverty faster, that is broad based and labor-intensive, reduces inequalities across regions and across different social groups, opens up opportunities for excluded and marginalized not only as beneficiaries but also as partners in the growth process. The secular prevalence of poverty and inequalities implies that the growth process had never been inclusive. The growth process in the context of unfettered private ownership right to own, use, and transfer habitat and landed properties was such that it excluded many and included few. Feudalism excluded the erstwhile peasants from cultivating the land. There was a persistent effort to conserve feudal land ownership system throughout history over the entire world. This led to extreme inequalities and exclusion of a large group of people from the benefits of growth. Analysis of evidences for economic exclusion from the 2011 population census data offers the conclusion that the 2000 years legacy of economic exclusion still prevails in India in terms of literacy, safe housing, access to safe drinking water, access to sanitation facilities and possession of assets.