Abstract

The work of Amartya Sen and his collaborators on Indian economic development compares three Indian states so as to demonstrate the superior performance of interventionist, left‐wing governments in West Bengal and Kerala compared to the more typical state of Uttar Pradesh. A careful analysis of the evidence, however, shows that Sen et al. ignore the anti‐interventionist implications of their own evidence of corruption in the state of Uttar Pradesh; dramatically overstate the success of leftist governments in West Bengal; and overlook the role of Kerala's culture and its private education system in accounting for its famously high levels of literacy and female independence.