Developing India: An Intellectual and Social History, c. 1930-50

By Benjamin Zachariah

Book Overview

This book is about the ideas regarding the concept of the term "development" which emerged in circa 1930-50. It is a study of the formative period in history when the underlying notions of progress, self-government, and nation building were articulated. The author considers how the notions were driven by immediate political battles, yet inspired by a vision of the future that incorporated notions of sovereignty and equity.

Drawing on a variety of intellectual resources, the author analyses three themes around development: the importance of science and technology, the need for the government to express certain social concerns, and the need for national discipline. The argument is that alternative notions of development-consciously different from those based on free trade and industrialization could emerge in the inter-war period, when the future of capitalism did not appear as assured as they did in the nineteenth century. This book opens up a new arena in the historiography of South Asia, that of an intellectual history of late colonialism in India, and of the nationalism that succeeded it.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0198086075
• ISBN13: 9780198086079
• Release Date: December 2012
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.4" x 8.4"