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The Economic, Political and Social Dimensions of an Indian State: A Factor Analysis of District Data for Rajasthan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

John Adams  and
Balu Bumb
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Extract

Rajasthan is a large, unusually diverse state in western India. It has a long frontier with Pakistan, and from north to south touches the adjacent states of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Gujarat. Rajasthan adds to its own internal, social, economic, and political complexity some of the features of each of these disparate neighbors. The dominant geological feature in Rajasthan is the Aravalli range, which runs south to north through the heart of the state. This barrier almost completely arrests the already faltering summer monsoon, creating a semiarid and desert zone to the west and a more watered region in the east.

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Articles
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 33 , Issue 1 , November 1973 , pp. 5 - 22
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1973

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References

1Information on the geography and political development of Rajasthan is available in: V. C. Misra, Geography of Rajasthan (New Delhi: National Book Trust, 1967);Google ScholarSisson, Richard, The Congress Party in Rajasthan (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972);Google ScholarShrader, Lawrence L., “Rajasthan,” in Myron Weiner, ed., State Politics in of India (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1968), pp. 321–396.Google Scholar

2 Shrader, op. cit., p. 327.

3Adelman, Irma and Morris, Cynthia Taft, Society, Politics, and Economic Growth (Baltimore:Johns Hopkins University Press, 1967),Google Scholar especially Chapter III; idem, “Analysis-of-Variance Techniques for the Study of Economic Development, ” Journal of Development Studies, VIII (October, 1971), pp. 91–105.Google Scholar

5Adelman, and Morris, , “Analysis-of-Variancc Techniques for the Study of Economic Development, ” pp. 93–94. Also see, Harman, Harry H., Modern Factor Analysis (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1967), Chapter One.Google Scholar

6 Sisson, op. cit., Chapter Six, passim; also, pp. 314–317.

7 Myron Weiner, “Political Development in the Indian States,” in Myron Weiner, ed., op. cit., p. 51.

8 Shrader, op. cit., p. 320.

9 Misra, op. cit., map facing page 168.

10A comparable effort at ranking districts, but one looking at India as a whole, is: Morris-Jones, W. H. and Dasgupta, Biplad, “Socio-economic Classification of Districts, ” Economic and Political Weekly, VI (August 14, 1971), pp. 1763–1774.Google Scholar

In early 1972 the mid-term appraisal of the Fourth Plan was published (Government of India.Planning Commission. The Fourth Plan: A Mid-Term Appraisal). Anncxurc III to Part I is entitled, “List of Industrially Backward Districts selected to for concessional finance from the financial (as on August 5, 1971).” It is not stated what criteria were used to select such districts in the nineteen Indian states. For Rajasthan, sixteen districts (of twenty six) are named: Jalore, Banswara, Dungarpur, Nagaur, Churu Alwar, Tonk, Udaipur, Jodhpur, Ihunjhunu, Sikar, Sirohi, Bhilone wara, Jhalwar, Jaisalmcr and Barmer.

As can be determined from comparison with Table Three in the text, this listing does not correspond exactly with the one derived from the factor scores on Fi. Further comment on the discrepancies would be fruitless, however, since information about the means of arriving at the government's list is not available. Nevertheless, the need to generate such lists for policy purposes does sugqualify gest a possible practical role for factor analysis. Annexures I and II of the same plan document also contain lists of backward districts and areas which presumably are candidates for other special development programs.

11 It is our intention to pursue such analyses.