IEA

Fellowship time: April to June 2010.

Research project:
"Transition to Industrialisation and Modernity, with Democracy and Sovereignty: The Indian Experience in a Comparative Framework"

Abstract:
"Broadly, I wish to study India’s development strategy since independence in a comparative framework. Among the critical questions I wish to explore in this context is the issue of how India after independence from colonial rule evolves perhaps a "unique" strategy of undertaking the process of ‘primitive accumulation’ or the building of the early stages of industrialization with democracy and civil liberties and that too while retaining its newly won political sovereignty and extending it to the economic sphere.
This is typically a contemporary history problem as distinct from a standard modern history one. In the pre-World War II situation, right from the 18th century onwards, the question of primitive accumulation being attempted with democracy and civil liberties did not arise. This was of course true for the socialist world as well. After all complete adult franchise was still a recent phenomenon in large parts of the world. Whereas, for India in 1947, the question of adopting a path of development, which did not assume democracy and sovereignty as necessary elements, did not arise. The basic premises had changed substantially in the contemporary period.
A comparative study of attempts at early industrialization made historically by the countries of the North and those of other countries of the South apart from India will enable me to identify the conditions which strengthened India’s attempt to develop independently and with democracy and those which posed the most difficult challenges. This would hopefully contribute towards the continuing challenge of nation building."

Biographical elements:

Aditya Mukherjee is currently professor of contemporary history at the Indian Center for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi (India) and Director of the Jawaharlal Nehru Institute for Advanced Study. In 2007 he was elected President of the Indian History Congress for Modern India. As a historian, he offers a thorough study of the national liberation movement and the emergence of nationalism. He gives a different perspective on this period and is particularly interested in India since independence.

Bibliography:

Books

India’s Struggle for Independence, Viking, 1988, Penguin, 1989
(co-author), 44th reprint in 2008, translated into several languages..

India After Independence, 1947 - 2000, Viking, 1999, Penguin,2000
(co-author), 12th reprint in 2008, translated into several languages.

Imperialism, Nationalism and the Making of the Indian Capitalist Class 1927-1947, Sage, 2002.

Communalisation of Education, The History Textbook Controversy, editor (with Mridula Mukherjee), Delhi Historians’ Group, 2002.

History in the New NCERT Text Books: A Report and an Index of Errors, (co-author), Indian History Congress, 2003.

India Since Independence, (Co Author), Penguin, 2008.

RSS, School Texts and The Murder of Mahatma Gandhi: The Hindu Communal Project, (co-author), Sage, 2008.

Articles and Chapters in books:

"Indian Capitalist Class and the Public Sector, 1930-1947", Economic and Political Weekly, XI, 3, 17 January 1976, pp.67-73. Reprinted in Monthly Commentary on Indian Economic Conditions, XXXIV, 4-5, Nov.-Dec. 1982, pp.18-23.

"Indian Capitalist Class and Congress on National Planning and Public Sector, 1930-1947", Economic and Political Weekly, XIII, 35, 2 September 1978. Also reprinted in K.N. Panikkar, ed., National and Left Movements in India, Vikas, New Delhi, 1980, pp.45-79.

"Agrarian Conditions in Assam 1880-1890: A Case Study of Five Districts of the Brahmaputra Valley", The Indian Economic and Social History Review, XVI, 2, Apr-June, 1979, pp.207-232.

Indian Capitalist Class and Foreign Capital", Studies in History, I, 1, Jan.-June 1979, pp.105-148.

"The Workers’ and Peasants’ Parties 1926-30: An Aspect of Communism in India", Studies in History, III, 1&2, 1981. Also reprinted in Bipan Chandra, ed., The Indian Left: Critical Appraisals, Vikas, New Delhi, 1983, pp.1-45.

"Business and Politics in Bombay", Indian Historical Review, IX, 1&2, 1981 (Review article), pp.214-232.

"The Indian Capitalist Class: Aspects of its Economic, Political and Ideological Development in the Colonial Period, 1927-47", in S. Bhattacharya and Romila Thapar, eds., Situating Indian History, OUP, Delhi, 1986, pp.239-287.

"Imperialism and the Growth of Indian Capitalism in the Twentieth Century", Economic and Political Weekly, XXIII, 11, 12 March 1988, (with Mridula Mukherjee). Also reprinted in Ghanshyam Shah, ed., Capitalist Development: Critical Essays, Felicitation volume in honour of Prof. A. R. Desai, Popular, Bombay, 1990, pp.77-114.

"Indian Capitalists and National Movement", Mainstream, XXVI, 30, 7 May 1988, pp.24-28.

"The Rupee Question, 1926-28: Rupee-Sterling Ratio and the Gold Standard", Studies in History, V, 1, new series, 1989, pp.99-124.

"Transforming the State the Freedom Struggle Way", New Thinking Communist, 1, 6, 1 September 1989.

"Indo-British Finance: The Controversy over India’s Sterling Balances, 1939-1947", Studies in History, VI, 2, New Series, 1990, pp.229-251.

"Communalism and the Current Regime", Link, 22 Sept. 1991.

"Nehru and Planning", Link, 17 Nov. 1991.

"Colonialism and Communalism", in Sarvepalli Gopal, ed., Anatomy of a Confrontation, The Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhumi Issue, Viking, 1991, Penguin, 1992, pp.164-178.

"Controversy over Formation of Reserve Bank of India, 1927-35", Economic and Political Weekly, XXVII, 5, 1 February 1992, pp.229-234. Reprinted in V. Grover and R. Arora, ed., Development of Politics and Government in India, Vol. I, Deep and Deep, New Delhi, 1994, pp. 381-400.

"The Freedom Struggle and Indian Business," in Footprints of Enterprise: Indian Business Through the Ages, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 1999.

"Post-War Monetary Agreements: The IMF and the IBRD", Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, 1999.

"The Post-colonial Indian State and the Political Economy of Development: An Overview", New Thinking Communist, 15 Oct. 2000, reprinted from Indian After Independence, 1947-2000, Viking/Penguin, 1999/2000.

"Planned Development in India 1947-65: The Nehruvian Legacy," in Shigeru Akita, ed., South Asia in 20th Century International Relations, Tokyo, 2000.

"British Industrial Policy and the Question of Fiscal Autonomy, 1916-1930", Indian History Congress, Bhopal, 2001.

Communalisation of Education, The History Textbook Controversy: An Overview, Mainstream, Annual Number, 22 December 2001, (with Mridula Mukherjee).

"The Depression Years: Indian Capitalists’ Critique of British Monetary and Fiscal Policy in India, 1929-39", Paper for Indian History Congress Panel on Banking and Finance in India, Calcutta, 2000-2001, published in Amiya Kumar Bagchi, ed., Money and Credit in Indian History, from Early Medieval Times, Tulika, 2002.

"Vajpayee, Sangh Cohorts and Indian Nationalism", Mainstream, 1 May 2004, (with Mridula Mukherjee)

"From Planned Economy to Globalisation", in History of Indian Economy, Vol. 8, Indira Gandhi National Open University, September 2004

Evaluation report on the programme for "Elimination of Child Labour through the Universalisation of Elementary Education" for the European Union Donor Consortium and the MV Foundation, (with Urmila Sarkar and Ratna Sudershan), January 2005

"Nehru’s Economic Vision for India: The Road to Fulfillment", in Irfan Habib, ed., India- Studies in the History of an Idea, Munshiram Manoharlal, 2005.

"The Currency Question in Colonial India" Yojana, Special Issue, Vol. 51, August 2007.

"Return of the Colonial In Indian Economic History: The Last Phase of Colonialism in India", Presidential Address, Modern India, Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, New Delhi, 2007, reprinted in Social Scientist, Vol. 36, No. 3/4 (Mar. - Apr., 2008), pp. 3-44