Dependency and development in India: A study of development planning in historical perspective.

摘要

India's successful non-violent struggle against the British, the promise of a democratic socialist path to economic and social development, and its performance in post-independence period has attracted the attention of many scholars. India as a modern nation-state was conceived by bourgeois liberal nationalist leadership. True to their class background, their notions of "progress" and "development" were either influenced by or borrowed from the West. After independence India undertook a series of plans for economic development. More than four decades of economic planning within democratic framework is a long enough time span to examine the changes that have come about.;India's development planning initially emphasized rapid industrialization with emphasis on heavy industries. The broad-based rural development strategy was abandoned after successive droughts in early 1960s. The costs and consequences of wars with China and Pakistan, increased inflation, food shortages, dependence on food imports led to increased pressure from developed nations and international development agencies to abandon the initial thrust of policies towards heavy industries, import-substitution, and self-sufficiency. Land reforms initiated after independence were not implemented fully and properly. The urgent need to increase domestic food production and the crucial nature of agricultural surplus for industrial development led to adoption of intensive agricultural development. Adoption of green revolution technology eased the food shortages but led to widespread rural unrest.;From the early years of independence India has looked at West for model of modernization and economic development. Soviet techniques of planning, Western models of economic growth, technology for agricultural production, agricultural research, training, and extension, technical know-how for industries, etc. show a pattern of dependence. After four decades, growth of public sector industries, stringent regulation of private industries and apart from ritual incantations of "socialistic pattern of society", the industrial sector shows a strong growth of monopolies. The initial objective of self-reliant growth has not materialized, instead both industry and agriculture are becoming increasingly dependent on foreign technology. India's leadership is increasingly taking recourse to imported technology to avoid political solutions to economic and social problems. As economic growth becomes distorted resulting in new tensions in society, India is still searching for solutions to its problems.