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‘Centre and Periphery’ in Indian Politics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2014

V. R. Mehta
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Extract

IN ONE OF MY BOOKS I HAVE ARGUED THAT ‘MODERNIZATION’ is a process whereby a society becomes increasingly aware of itself, its identity and aspirations, and seeks to make concrete its awareness in terms of seeking equivalence with other nations. The argument of this essay is that while the process of change in India has general characteristics common to other societies, it can never be the same in totality because the initial conditions are so different.

Type
Original Article
Information
Government and Opposition , Volume 17 , Issue 2 , 01 April 1982 , pp. 164 - 179
Copyright
Copyright © Government and Opposition Ltd 1982

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References

1 Mehta, V. R., Beyond Marxism: Towards An Alternative Perspective, New Delhi, Manohar, 1978, ch. 4Google Scholar

2 See for instance, Kothari, Rajni, Politics in India, Boston, Little Brown, 1970;Google Scholar also ‘The Congress “System” in India’, Asian Survey, Vol. VII, No. 12, Dec. 1964, pp. 1161–3.

3 ibid, pp. 163–4

4 See, Lewis, W. A., The Evolution of the International Economic order, New Delhi, Kalyani Publications, 1978.Google Scholar

5 Sri Aurobindo, , ‘New Lamp For Old’, Sri Aurobindo's Political Thought, Haridas, and Mukherjee, Uma (eds), Calcutta, Firma Mukhopadhya, 1958, p. 112;Google Scholar also Ganguly, B. N., ‘Conceptualizing the Indian Middle Class’, Society and Change, Krishnaswamy, K. S., Mitra, Asho et al. (eds), Oxford, 1977, pp. 20, 21.Google Scholar

6 B. N. Ganguly, ibid, p. 33.

7 Haridas, and Mukherjee, Uma (eds), Sri Auro bindo and the New Thought, Calcutta, 1964, pp. 32–3.Google Scholar

8 Nehru, Jawahar Lal, ‘Planning and Development’, Collected Speeches, Vol. I, pp. 15–16.Google Scholar

9 For a statement of this view see Mehta, Asoka, Studies in Asian Socialism, Bombay, 1959.Google Scholar

10 Ranga, N. G., History of the Kisan Movement, Madras, 1939, p. 43.Google Scholar

11 ibid, p. 65.

12 Quoted by Frankel, R., Indian Political Economy 1947–1977, Oxford, 1969, p. 118.Google Scholar

13 Baran, Paul, The Political Economy of Growth, Penguin Books, 1973.Google Scholar

14 W. A. Lewis, op. cit., pp. 9–10; Southworth, H. M. and Johnston, B. C. (eds), Agricultural Development and Economic Growth, Cornell, 1966, p. 561.Google Scholar

15 Basu, Sreekleka, ‘Patterns of Asset‐holding in Rural India’, Economic and Political Weekly, 10 07 1976, pp. 1034–41;Google Scholar Also, Report of the Committee on the Taxation of Agricultural Wealth and Income, Government of India; Heeth Griffin and Ajit Ghose, ‘Growth and Impoverishment in Rural India’, World Development, April/May, 1978, Table 7, p. 371.

16 Compiled by Taii, Hung‐Chao, Politics: A Comparative Analysis, Berkeley, University of California, 1974, p. 95.Google Scholar

17 Frank, André Gunder, On Capitalist Underdevelopment, Oxford, 1975.Google Scholar

18 India: Report of Mission on Needs Assessment for Population Assistance, Report No. 12, UN Fund For Population Activities, 1979, pp. 12–13.

19 See, Connel, John, Lipton, et al., Migration From Rural Areas: The Evidence From Village Studies, Delhi: Oxford, 1976, p. 160;Google Scholar Also Bose, Ashish, Studies in India's Urbanization 1901–1971, New Delhi, 1973, pp. 338–40.Google Scholar

20 UN Report op. cit.

21 Sixth Five Year Plan 1980–85, pp. 11–15, Annexes 1.5, 1.7; Also, Economic Survey, 1980–81, pp. 69–71.

22 Approach to Fifth Five Year Plan, p. 1.

23 Economic Survey, op. cit., pp. 65–7.

24 See, Singh, Charan, India's Economic Policy, Vikas, 1978.Google Scholar

25 See, for instance, Amin, Shahid, ‘Peasant and Capitalists in North India’, Journal of Peasant Studies, 1981, pp. 311–34.Google Scholar

26 Economic Survey, op. cit., p. 131; Also Chandra, N. K., Western Imperialism and India Today', Economic and Political Weekly, Annual, 1973.Google Scholar

27 Madison, A., Economic Progress and Policy in Developing Countries, London, George Allen 1970, p. 73.Google Scholar

28 Paul Baran, op. cit., p. 375.

29 Moore, Barrington, Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World, Boston, Beacon Press, 1966;Google Scholar Nehru, B. K., ‘Western Democracy and the Third World’, Third World Quarterly, 04 1979.Google Scholar For a reply, see, Morris‐Jones, W. H., ‘The West and the Third World: Whose Democracy, Whose Development’, Third World Quarterly, 07 1979.Google Scholar

30 See, Mehta, V. R., Ideology and Modernization in India Google Scholar (forthcoming). This makes out a case for the revamping of political structures in India so that India would be able to improve the lot of the lower section without having to give up the ideas of ‘responsibility’ and ‘accountability’ to the people.