From the Editor

The Cyclical Return: Rethinking Inequality as a Long- Wave Phenomenon

For much of the twentieth century, the study of economic inequality revolved around the search for a singular and secular trend, whether framed as Simon Kuznets’ optimistic inverted‑U[2] (whereby inequality would naturally fall with maturity) or, more recently, as Thomas Piketty’s formulation of r > g[3] as a driver of inexorable divergence. In recent years, a subtle but consequential consensus has taken shape within the field that attempts to reconcile these opposing visions by conceding that inequality can fall but insisting that it does so almost exclusively through the exogenous violence of war, revolution, or economic depression…

Letter from the Editor-in-Chief, August 2025

To our readers, It is with a deep sense of responsibility and earnest anticipation that I place before the learned reader the first number of the Economic & Political History Review. The founding of this journal arises from the conviction that the economic and political histories of India and South Asia deserve systematic and sustained scholarly attention, and that such inquiry should be pursued with the utmost care for accuracy, clarity, and balance…….

In “Literary Intervention”

Deep Priya Pabbi, 15 August 2025

One day, working in the kitchen, for the first time my mother asked me to reduce the amount of jeera (cumin) I was about to add to the tempering for dal. I could not comprehend the gentle orders. “Jeera is expensive these days”, she commented after seeing my confused look. With a more confused look I said, “What?”. “Hey Bhagwan, what a dumb daughter I have!”, I bet she must have thought. She explained, because Jeera is expensive these days we should use it less, so that those who cannot afford it, are also able to buy it……..