This article studies the ideas which shaped the development of welfare institutions in India. The analysis is situated in the broader context of the ongoing discussion on welfare regimes outside the OECD. It focusses on the way in which socio-political ideas shape the institutional arrangements of welfare regimes. Agency, context and coherence of ideas matter for their success, but they are also mediated through cultural parameters and preexisting institutional environments. In the case of India, ideas of social transformation played a strong role in the independence movement, but in the overall policy environment around the foundation of the republic, national unity was favoured over the potential turmoil created by social reforms. The early politics of accommodation have had a lasting impact up to now, despite two later ideational shifts.
