The collapse of the sterling system after WWI left a vacuum into which the dollar system would eventually expand, but only after world depression and another world war. The life of Charles P. Kindleberger, whose intellectual formation spanned the critical years of dollar system formation, parallels the subsequent vicissitudes of that system, of which he was perhaps the keenest observer.

When the Dravidar Kazhagam (DK), formed in 1944 underthe leadership of Periyar and the stewardship ofAnnadurai, made a concerted effort to moot thedemand for an independent south Indian republic tobe known as Dravida Nadu, one question that had tobe confronted was, if a plebiscite was to be held onthe question, would people vote for the idea ofDravida Nadu? This naturally formed the corollary,whether there could be mass participation in protestaction or agitation to press for Dravida Nadu.Annadurai realized that they were in no position tobe assured of either. The origin of the Dravidianidea was a counter-hegemonic assertion againstBrahminic and casteist hegemony. If the JusticeParty elite who ruled the state under dyarchy werekeen on ensuring that Brahmins did not monopolizepower in the emerging state machinery and civilsociety, the Self-Respect Movement of Periyar waswaging a battle on the turf of the common sense ofthe people against Brahminism and casteism, andpatriarchy. As we have repeatedly noted, it was onlyafter the attempt to make Hindi learning compulsoryin 1937 by the Congress ministry underRajagopalachari did the threat of Brahmin hegemonytransforming into north Indian hegemony become apalpable reality, in and through the politicalvehicle of the Congress party with leverage fromfringe groups like the Hindu Mahasabha with theideational content of Hindutva, as we noted in ourreading of Arya Mayai(Aryan Allure) inthe first chapter. Since the transformation fromcounter-hegemonic struggles and articulations to ademand for an independent Dravidian country wasrecent in origin, there was a long way to go tomobilize people towards that end. Annadurai wasprescient in realizing that the idea of freedom, thedesire to become a self-governing republic, that hadspread in the process of the independence strugglethat the Congress had led should now form the basisfor the demand for an independent Dravidian countryas well. He saw them as successive stages ofhistory. This was in contrast with the stillcounter-hegemonic approach of Periyar, which madehim declare August 15, 1947, as a day ofmourning.

Kindleberger’s 1985 presidential address to the American Economic Association launched the final stage in his career, even as the 1985 Plaza Accord launched the next stage in the development of the dollar system. Kindleberger’s high hopes after Plaza were ultimately disappointed but, learning from the period after Nixon’s 1971 abdication of US leadership, he shifted his hopes instead to the prospect of “muddling through.”

The global institutional changes initiated in 1995 and implemented in 2005 impacted India's pharmaceutical and textile industries, both of which were of immense strategic importance to the Indian economy. To sustain these industries and improve their competitiveness under new institutional regimes, successive Indian governments have initiated numerous policies that continue to evolve. The purpose of this chapter is to outline the industry-specific policy initiatives promulgated to cope with global institutional changes. However, to understand the underlying logics and the various components of the policy choices, one has to look at the national institutional context within which these industries historically evolved prior to 1995, as the respective trajectory of each industry in the previous periods impacted the policy constraints and opportunities in dealing with global institutional changes. Accordingly, before detailing the post-1995 policy initiatives, this chapter first discusses the historical context of these industries, especially in relation to policy regimes. Given their importance to the Indian economy, each of these industries has been extensively studied by numerous scholars, and these studies have critically evaluated numerous policy interventions over the years. The purpose of this chapter is to highlight the broad and evolving thrust of policy choices in a comparative framework rather than attempt to be comprehensive in detailing all policy interventions before or after global institutional changes impact each industry. The chapter divides the policy regimes into four periods: (a) import substitution industrialisation, 1947–1985; (b) economic liberalisation, 1985–1995; (c) preparing for global institutional change, 1995–2005; and (d) coping with global institutional change, 2005–2020. After discussing the evolving policy choices in each of these periods regarding their applicability to the two industries, these choices are placed within an appropriate industrial policy framework. This framework will then guide analyses in subsequent chapters in terms of the impact of policy interventions on the evolution of the two industries and the implications of firm strategic choices within each industry in response to the two global institutional changes.

Import Substitution Industrialisation and the Licence Raj (1947–1985)

Akin to much of the developing world, India followed an import-substitution industrialisation model for economic growth for almost forty years after its independence from the British in 1947 (Kohli 2004).

Philip Spratt, aged twenty-four, arrived in India inDecember 1926. He was a member of the BritishCommunist Party sent to India by the Comintern (theCommunist International) to found and guide theactivities of the Communist Party in India. He wasinstrumental in founding the front organizationWorkers and Peasants Party (WPP) and was guiding theactivities of the party and trade unions. He wasarrested in 1929 and subsequently convicted in whatcame to be known as the Meerut conspiracy case. Histwelve-year sentence was later reduced to two yearsand he was released in 1934. By that time, he hadturned very critical of the Comintern, whichdictated the activities in India without a properappreciation of ground realities. He becamedisillusioned with communism, moving gradually tosupport market economy and liberal democracy. Herecorded his experiences in 1955 in a book with thetell-tale title Blowing UpIndia: Reminiscences and Reflections of a FormerComintern Emissary (Spratt 1955).However, what interests us here is his last bookpublished in 1970, a year before his death,succinctly titled The DMK inPower (Spratt 1970).

Spratt developed a Tamil Nadu connection in the 1930swhen he married the grandniece of MalayapuramSingaravelu Chettiar, popularly called Singaravelar(1860–1946), one of the founding figures of thecommunist movement from Tamil Nadu, who was also aclose associate of Periyar in the 1930s. Sprattinitially moved to Bangalore, where he became theeditor of Mysindia, apro-American journal. He later moved to Chennai andbecame the editor of Swarajya, a magazine run by C.Rajagopalachari, who was heading the SwatantraParty, which was extremely critical of the Congressbrand of socialism and state control. It should beborne in mind that Rajagopalachari was in support ofthe DMK since the late 1950s in its opposition tothe Congress in Tamil Nadu.

The political vigor and success of the Dravida MunnetraKazhagam (DMK), a particular political vehicle ofthe diffuse ideation of Dravidianism, rests on themetaphoric hyphen that both brings together andseparates the twin political identities of Dravidianand Tamil. The Dravidian aspiration was anchored inthe demand for an independent, sovereign, socialistsouth Indian federation of states that the partydeclared as its goal at the moment of its inceptionin 1949 and held until 1963, when it was officiallygiven up due to a constitutional amendment by theIndian government that proscribed “secessionism.”1Such a political aspiration was made possible byTamil language as the source of the culturaldistinction, which enabled the DMK to articulate thedemand for a Dravidian republic. Since the partyprimarily operated within the precincts of thelinguistic state of Tamil Nadu, its goal to form afederation of the four south Indian linguisticstates without such an aspiration being expressed bypolitical organizations in the other states made ita case of a part standing for the whole. Whilecritics have called it a weakness, detractors ajoke, and scholars have found it difficult to parse,we seek to posit it as the gift of history thatenabled the party to succeed so well in the basicact of the construction of a people through theformation of the political. We argue that theanchorage of Dravidian identity in the apparentlydistant demand for a south Indian republic insteadof a nation of Tamil-speaking people helped to layemphasis on the internal antagonism betweenBrahminical social order and the underprivilegedplebeian stock who sought empowerment. Since much ofour analysis of the various attributes of thepolitical mobilization of the party rests on thisbasic hypothesis, we would like to pay closeattention to this unique combination of the twoidentities, Dravidian and Tamil, with a hyphen ofsimultaneous conjunction and separation.

We also need to spell out how this pairing of Dravidianand Tamil was key to the processes we call“construction of a people” and the “formations ofthe political.” If constructing a people can betaken as demographic delimitation of the site of thepolitical, the formation of the political as theaccompanying act needs to set the stage for the playof agonism that Laclau calls internal frontier.

Since 1949, the Chinese party-state’s approach to health policy has fluctuated with the vicissitudes of politics, oscillating between neglect and an instrumental use of healthcare to promote state legitimacy. This chapter examines health policy in China from 1949 until the 2000s, with a focus on rural areas. During the Maoist period, two factors hindered the erstwhile Ministry of Health in improving health services: budget constraints and political oscillations that prioritized ideology over expertise. In 1978, Deng Xiaoping initiated market reforms and subordinated healthcare and social policy to economic growth. In the early 2000s, due to pressure from society, shifts in governance style, and encouragement from at home and abroad, the Chinese government initiated a dialogue on healthcare reform that culminated in the 2009 plan to overhaul the health system. But because local government was still primarily responsible for funding health policy and faced budget constraints, legacies of health policy in the second half of the twentieth century continued to impact healthcare in the 2000s.

After his formal PhD, from 1936-1942 Kindleberger continued his education as a central bank staffer, absorbing the key currency approach of John H. Williams at the New York Fed, critically engaging the monetarist approach of Per Jacobsson at the BIS, and then enthusiastically signing on for the globalist vision of Alvin Hansen at the Board of Governors.

Local government in China is largely responsible for funding social policy and has significant control over the specifics of program design and implementation. Therefore, the same policy can look quite different across provinces and even across counties within the same province. What accounts for local variation in social policy provision? This chapter provides a framework of provincial policy styles and demonstrates how these distinct ways of governing help explain variation in social policy implementation. First, the chapter presents an index of policy styles to classify Chinese provinces based on their dominant policy style: pragmatist, paternalist, or mixed. Then, the chapter examines how provinces diverge in their social policy priorities using provincial social policy spending to measure social policy priorities. The analysis finds that pragmatist provinces are more likely to prioritize education and healthcare, while paternalist provinces are more likely to prioritize poverty alleviation and housing.