hello today in the third lecture of politics
of planned development we shall discuss major outcomes of the three objectives that
were identified in independent india the third objective of economic development to ensure
well-being of all proved most difficult to realize land reforms did not take place effectively in
most part of the country political power remained in the hands of the land on owing classes and
begin industrialists continue to benefit and thrive while poverty did not reduce
much the early
initiatives for planned development were at best realizing the goals of economic development of
the country and well-beings of all its citizens the inability to take significant steps
in this direction in the very first stage was to become a political problem
those who benefited from unequal development soon became politically powerful and made it even
more difficult to move in the desired direction the next point is foundations
of india's economic growth and assessment of t
he outcomes of this early phase
of planned development must begin by acknowledging the fact that in this period the foundations
of india's future economic growth were laid some of the largest developmental projects
in india's history were undertaken during this period these included mega dams like
bakra nangal and hirakund for irrigation and power generation some of the heavy
industries in the public sector steel plants oil refineries manufacturing units defense
production etc were started
during this period infrastructure for transport and communication
was improved substantially of late some of these mega projects have come in for a lot of
criticism yet much of the later economic growth including that by the private sector may not have
been possible in the absence of these foundations now let us talk about the land reforms in the agarian sector this period
witnessed a serious attempt at land reforms perhaps the most significant and successful of
these was the abolition of
the colonial system of jamindari this bold act not only released land
from the clutches of a class that had little interest in agriculture it also reduced the
capacity of the landlords to dominate politics attempts at consolidation of land
bringing small pieces of land together in one place so that the farm size could be become
viable for agriculture were also fairly successful but the other two components of land reforms
were much less successful though the laws were made to put an upper l
imit or ceiling to how much
agriculture land one person could own people with excess land managed to evade the law similarly
the tenants who worked in someone else's land were given greater legal security against evictions
but this provision was really implemented it was not easy to turn these
well-meaning policies on agriculture into genuine and effective action this could
happen only if the ruler landless poor were mobilized but the land owners were very powerful
and wielded considerable
political influence therefore many proposals for land reforms were
either not translated into laws or when made into laws they remained only on papers this shows
that economic policy is part of actual political situation in the society it also shows that in
spite of good wishes of some top leaders the dominant social groups would always effectively
control policy making and implementation next point we want to discuss is green revolution
in the face of the prevailing food crisis the countr
y was clearly vulnerable to external
pressures and dependent on food aid mainly from the united states the united states in turn
pushed the india to changes its economic policies government adopted a new strategy for
agriculture in order to ensure food sufficiency instead of the earlier policy of giving more
support to the areas and the farmers that were lagging behind now it was decided to
put more resources into those areas which already had irrigation and those farmers
who were already
well off the argument was that those who already had the capacity could help
increase production rapidly in the short run thus the government offered high yielding variety
seeds for fertilizers pesticides and better irrigation at high subsidized price the government
also gave a guarantee to buy the produce of the farmers at a given price this was the beginning
of what was called the green revolution the rich peasants and the large land or holders
were the major beneficiaries of the process
the green revolution delivered only a
moderate agricultural growth mainly a rise in wheat production and raise the availability
of food in the country but increased polarization between the classes and the
region some regions like punjab haryana and western uttar pradesh became agriculturally
prosperous while other remained backward the green revolution had two other effects
one was that in many parts the stock contrast between the poor peasantry and the
landlords produced condition favora
ble for left wing organization to organize the poor
page peasants secondly the green revolution also resulted in the rise of what is called
the middle peasant sections these were farmers with medium-sized land holdings who benefited from the changes and soon emerged politically
influential in many parts of the country now let us discuss last point later
developments the story of development in india took a significant turn from
the end of the 1960s after nehru's death the congress system en
countered difficulties
indra gandhi emerged as a popular leader she decided to further strengthen the role of the
state in controlling and directing the economy the period from 1967 onward witnessed
many new restrictions on private industry 14 private banks were nationalized the government
announced many pro poor programs these changes were accompanied by an ideological tilt towards
the socialist policies this emphasis great generated heated debates within the country among
political parti
es and also among the experts however the consensus for a state-led economic
development did not last forever planning did continue but its science was significantly reduced
between 1950 and 1980 the indian economy grew at a sluggish per annum rate of 3 to three point
five percent in view of the prevailing in efficacy and consum corruption in some public
sector enterprises and the not so positive role of the bureaucracy in economic development
the public opinion in the country lost the fait
h in initially placed in many of these
institutions such lack of public faith led the policy makers to reduce the importance of
the state in india's economy from the 1980s onward with this we come to end of the
chapter thanks for being a good listener
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