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

This unusual work delves into the underlying notions of progress, self-government, and nation building in developmental goals articulated in India in the late colonial period. The author, considers how ideas of ‘development’ in India took shape in the 1930s and 1940s driven by immediate political battles, yet inspired by a vision of the future that incorporated notions of freedom and equity. He carries the narrative into the fifties, drawing on a variety of intellectual resources. 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 it did in the nineteenth century. Zachariah identifies three interlocking themes around which development was conceptualized during this period: the importance of science and technology; the need for the government to express certain social concerns; and the need for national discipline. The 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. Sharply analytical yet lucidly written, it will attract scholars and students of history, sociology, politics, urban studies, and cultural studies, as also historians of science and technology.