Unit 10
- What were the main objectives of India's Five-Year Plans, and how did they influence the state's role in the economy?
- How did the Green Revolution impact Indian agriculture and its political landscape?
- “Indian policy makers made a mistake by emphasising the role of state in the economy. India could have developed much better if private sector was allowed a free play right from the beginning”. Give arguments for or against this proposition.
- State the main arguments in the debate that ensued between industrialisation and agricultural development at the time of the Second Five Year Plan.
- Read the following passage:
“In the early years of Independence,two contradictory tendencies were already well advanced inside the Congress Party. On the one hand, the national party executive endorsed socialist principles of state ownership, regulation and control over key sectors of the economy in order to improve productivity and at the same time curb economic concentration. On the other hand, the national Congress government pursued liberal economic policies and incentives to private investment that was justified in terms of the sold criterion of achieving maximum increase in production”.—Francine Frankel
(a) What is the contradiction that the author is talking about? What would be the political implications of a contradiction like this?
(b) If the author is correct, why is it that the Congress was pursuing this policy? Was it related to the nature of the opposition parties?
(c) Was there also a contradiction between the central leadership of the Congress party and its state level leaders?
