Abstract Contemporary scholarship rarely questions the expectation of gratitude in asymmetrical relationships, such as those between institutional structures and persons with disabilities, where refusal is difficult. This dynamic organises dependence and constrains choice in the Indian context, where access to education, welfare, and institutional accommodation is often contingent, negotiated, and unevenly realised. From the perspective of moral economy, affect theory, and disability studies, gratitude operates as a form of moral governance, not through overt coercion but through affective compliance. It is not simply expressed as a voluntary emotion but rather as a social performance, read as evidence of deservingness. This demand is not uniformly distributed; rather, its intensity flows through the faultlines of caste, class, gender, and religion such that the capacity to withhold gratitude is itself structured by power. This article argues that when gratitude lies not in its presence but in its necessity, and when appreciation becomes a condition of access, gratitude ceases to be a virtue and instead functions as the quiet consolidation of inequality.
Latika Khullar (Thu,) studied this question.