India, July 18 -- Everybody, from fund managers in Wall Street to RWA WhatsApp groups, has an opinion on welfare in India. Many of them see this as an agent of economic doom which will destroy not just the fisc but also (poor) people's willingness to work. Then there are those who see this as the litmus test for a civilized society. Listening to the (often-wrong) psephologists on TV channels, one could very well come to believe that welfare is something which has come into existence, and, more importantly, political salience, only in the recent past in India.

The story of welfare in India, however, goes long back in time, is significantly more complicated, and has been constantly evolving over the last century. Making India Work: The Dev...