Looking Back at the Nehru - Mahalanabis Strategy : A Discourse Analysis

Authors

  •   Samyo Basu Ph.D. Scholar, Economics Department, University of Calcutta. 56, B.T. Road, Kolkata - 700 050.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17010/aijer/2022/v11i4/172191

Keywords:

Heavy-Scale Industrialization

, Public Sector Investment, Export Pessimism, Planning As Discourse, Discourse As Hegemonic

JELClassification Codes

, B1, O2, P1, Z1

Paper Submission Date

, September 9, 2022, Paper sent back for Revision, November 25, Paper Acceptance Date, November 30, 2022

Abstract

This paper discussed the constitutive relations between the Nehru-Mahalanabis strategy and the discourse of planning that had characterized Indian economic policy-making over 40 years after independence in their continuities and discontinuities of interaction. It understood and analyzed the theoretical underpinnings behind the heavy-scale industrialization policy through public investment (under export pessimism) in reflection of the predominant discourse of development that the third world subscribed to at that period — that of central-planning led capitalist accumulation. Rather than engaging in the multiple debates that had raged the political-economic policy-making of the post-reforms period, like that of agriculture vs. industry, state planning vs. market motive, growth vs. equity, etc., it cut through the analysis by the discourse method, which identified the particular way of knowing the reality – how the discourse produced and disseminated effects of truth, and brought players (e.g., the State) to act and intervene, thereby securing the legitimacy and power of the representation, or the regime of truth of the discourse.

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Author Biography

Samyo Basu, Ph.D. Scholar, Economics Department, University of Calcutta. 56, B.T. Road, Kolkata - 700 050.

 

Samyo Basu is a Ph. D. scholar in the Economics department at Calcutta University. His interests lie in the class analysis of the third world economies as compared to the non-conflictual teleological approach that modern development economics has towards them. To him, it is not just the economy but a confluence of culture, politics, economy and nature that shapes the trajectory of post-colonial (capitalist) development. Besides these, he has a knack for literature on development economics and the Indian economy and its history.

Area of research: Political economy, Marxian economics, Development economics, Indian economy

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Published

2023-02-14

How to Cite

Basu, S. (2023). Looking Back at the Nehru - Mahalanabis Strategy : A Discourse Analysis. Arthshastra Indian Journal of Economics & Research, 11(4), 45–58. https://doi.org/10.17010/aijer/2022/v11i4/172191

Issue

Section

Economic Development and Growth

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