This book is an intellectual history of development and other related ideas in India during the important planning years of 1930 - 50. It deals with the underlying notions of progress, self government, and nation-building contained in developmental goals articulated in India in the late colonial period, the middle of the twentieth century. This work attempts to fill an important lacuna as historical work on the subject of development is relatively rare.

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

Business & Money

Zachariah, Benjamin

Economics

Oxford University Press

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.

Developing India (OIP): An Intellectual and Social History, c. 1930-50 (Oxford India Paperbacks)

History

Asia

Nehru (Routledge Historical Biographies)

This engaging new biography dispels many myths surrounding Nehru, and distinguishes between the icon he has become and the politician he actually was.  Benjamin Zachariah places Nehru in the context of the issues of his time, including the central theme of nationalism, the impact of Cold War pressures on India and the transition from colonial control to a precarious independence. How did Jawaharlal Nehru come to lead the Indian nationalist movement, and how did he sustain his leadership as the first Prime Minister of independent India? Nehru's vision of India, its roots in Indian politics and society, as well as its viability have been central to historical and present-day views of India. Connecting the domestic and international aspects of his political life and ideology, this study provides a fascinating insight into Nehru, his times and his legacy.

Biographies & Memoirs

Historical

Routledge

The iconic figure of Gandhi has come to symbolise the Indian nationalist movement, both in India and throughout the world. This new biography looks at Gandhi, his actions and beliefs, placing them firmly in the context of India at the time. It gives an even-handed view of a man who has in the past been claimed by various schools of thought and tells the story of Gandhi’s early life, including his time as a student in Britain and his many years in South Africa, as well as his return home to take a pivotal role in the Indian nationalist movement. His commitment to non-violence has been an inspiration to generations, but other important elements of Gandhi’s thought need to be examined too.  Issues including his patriarchal views of women, how far he was successful in being inclusive of other castes and of Muslims, and how far he was pro-capitalist and aligned with the right, are fully analysed here. Gandhi’s death by assassination became his last, and possibly most crucial contribution to the nature of the future India, enabling Nehru to push through a vision of India that was not a Hindu sectarian one.

Gandhi (Routledge Historical Biographies)

Reference

Nehru

After the Last Post: The Lives of Indian Historiography (The Politics of Historical Thinking, 1)

De Gruyter Oldenbourg

Playing the Nation Game: The Ambiguities of Nationalism in India

Yoda Press

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