1 - Introduction: Relocating Development Economics

Summary

The first generation of modern Indian economists in the late nineteenth century became known as the Early Nationalists, as they began India’s fight for independence. When historians and political theorists analyse them, they often portray them as political scientists and nation-builders who mostly regurgitated existing European economic thinking. Much less has been written on their contribution to economics, despite them being the first generation of modern economists in India. This book shows how they produced original, forward-thinking knowledge on economic development. The intention is not to define development a priori, but to use development as an overarching focus to tease out the concepts, theories, models and policy prescriptions that the first generation of modern Indian economists studied and disseminated, and to bring these Indian economists into the global debate around what progress and development mean. This book places these economists into the history of economics and offers economic historians new sources on the Indian economy at the end of the nineteenth century. The book explores their understanding of how India’s economy evolved, their prescriptions for bringing progress back to India, the economic consequences of imperialism, and a global plan for development. By relocating development economics to another time and space, the book uncovers new variations on the idea of development.