Ideas of development at independence: modernisation and the two models

Detail

1. What "development" meant in 1947: the West as the standard

• After the Second World War, development was taken to mean becoming "modern".
• "Modern" meant becoming like the industrialised West: Western Europe and the US.
• Modernisation (the idea that every country will go through the same process the West went through, and come out like the West):
• Traditional social structures break down. Old caste, clan and village ties lose their hold.
• Capitalism and liberalism rise. Private markets grow, and so do individual rights.
• Growth and material progress follow. Output, income and consumption go up.

• Scientific rationality spreads. Decisions come from reason and science, not custom or faith.

• A ranking vocabulary came out of this idea. Countries were labelled:

• "developed": the industrialised West, seen as the finish line
• "developing": countries on the way

• "underdeveloped": countries still at the start

• This vocabulary treats the West as the only standard. Every other country is measured by how far it is from the West.

2. Rostow: the classic statement of modernisation theory

• W.W. Rostow, The Stages of Economic Growth: A Non-Communist Manifesto (1960), is the classic text of modernisation theory. It became the basic blueprint for that theory [2].
• It sets out five stages that, it says, every nation passes through [2]:

Stage	What happens
1. Traditional society	Mainly farming, with little change in technology
2. Preconditions for take-off	Savings, investment and new ideas begin to build up
3. Take-off	Rapid industrialisation and a sharp jump in investment
4. Drive to maturity	Growth spreads across the whole economy
5. Age of high mass-consumption	People buy consumer goods on a large scale

• Growth is a straight line. In this theory every country moves the same way, from a traditional farming society to a modern industrial one [2].
• Take-off is the key stage. At this point investment, output and the growth rate all turn sharply upward, and the economy moves into "self-sustained growth" (growth that keeps going on its own) [2].
• The subtitle shows the Cold War link. "A Non-Communist Manifesto" offered new nations a growth path that was a rival to the Soviet path [2].

3. Gandhi's Hind Swaraj (1909): the Indian critique

• Gandhi wrote Hind Swaraj (Indian Home Rule) in 1909. It holds the core of his ideas [3].
• It is a classic attack on modern machine civilisation. It criticises [3]:
• Western materialism (a focus on money and possessions) and colonialism
• industrialism and urbanisation (the growth of big cities)

• the modern state itself

• Its goal was "an exploitation-free society in which the ordinary individual can claim and defend his rights" [3].

• It also rejects violence completely [3].
• NCERT's question: Must we be Western to be modern? Gandhi's answer was no. He held that India could build its own idea of a good life without copying the West.

4. The two models on the eve of independence

• Liberal-capitalist model of development: the path followed by much of Europe and the US.
• Private enterprise (businesses owned by individuals, not the state) produces most goods.
• Markets (buying and selling at prices set by supply and demand) decide what is produced and at what price.

• In India in 1947 this model had very few supporters.

• Soviet (socialist) model of development: the path of the USSR.

• The state owns factories, land and resources.
• Centralised five-year plans are used. A central body fixes production targets for the whole economy.
• The plans began in 1928.
• The model brought spectacular growth against heavy odds in the 1930s and 1940s.
• It impressed the Communists, the Socialists and Nehru inside the Congress.

Feature	Liberal-capitalist model	Soviet model
Who owns production	Private individuals and firms	The state
Who decides what to produce	The market	Central planners
Main examples	Much of Europe, the US	USSR
Support in India, 1947	Very little	Communists, Socialists, Nehru

• Choosing a model was part of the Cold War. Each side, the US bloc and the Soviet bloc, held up its own model for newly free countries (→ india-external-relations).

5. The Soviet record behind the appeal

• Gosplan (the USSR's central planning board) was set up in February 1921 [5].
• At first it was only an advisory council. It could influence the level and direction of state investment [5].

• In 1928 it took on full planning. That year the First Five-Year Plan was adopted [5].

• First Five-Year Plan (1928–1932), under Stalin [4]:

• It focused on heavy industry (steel, coal, machines) and the collectivisation of agriculture (merging private farms into state-controlled collective farms).
• It aimed for rapid industrialisation, and steel output was to be more than doubled by 1932 [4][5].

• It cut the private sector sharply [5].

• Results by the start of the Second World War (1939) [4]:

• Industrial output grew four times.
• The number of workers tripled.

• The urban share of the population rose from 19% to 34%.

• The cost was heavy [4]:

• Consumer goods (everyday things people buy) were sacrificed for heavy industry.

• There were severe famines, especially in Ukraine.

• Indian admirers saw the speed of the growth. Critics pointed to the force used and the human cost.

6. The nationalist consensus

• Free India would not copy the colonial state.
• The British government had a narrow commercial role. It mainly protected trade and collected revenue.

• Free India's government was expected to do much more.

• Most leaders agreed that reducing poverty and redistributing wealth were the government's job.

• The Constitution wrote this aim into law. Article 39 (a Directive Principle: a goal the state must keep in mind when making laws, which no court can enforce) directs the state to ensure that [6]:
• Article 39(b): the ownership and control of the community's material resources are distributed to serve the common good

• Article 39(c): the economic system does not lead to a concentration of wealth and means of production that harms the public

• The Constituent Assembly debated this clause. It was taken up as Draft Article 31 on 22 November 1948 [6].

• Socialist members felt it did not go far enough towards socialism [6].
• Ambedkar said the wording was kept open so that any future government could fit it to the economic model it chose. The aim was "economic democracy" [6].

7. Where the consensus broke: what comes first?

• The disagreement was over priorities, not over the goal.
• Industry first: build heavy industry quickly, as the USSR did. This was the view of Nehru and the planners.

• Agriculture first: fight rural poverty, raise farm output and support village industries. This was the view of Gandhians and farm-based leaders.

• This debate came back later as the dispute over the Second Plan (1956), which put industry first.

8. Why planning was popular worldwide (1940s–50s)

• The Great Depression (from 1929) showed that free markets could collapse. That made state action look necessary.
• Japan and Germany were rebuilt after 1945 under deliberate, state-guided programmes.
• The USSR grew fast under its five-year plans, even in hard conditions.
• Result: across the world, planning was widely accepted as the tool of development. India was part of this global mood.

Prelims Hooks

• Rostow's The Stages of Economic Growth (1960) carries the subtitle "A Non-Communist Manifesto". Its third stage is "take-off" [2].
• Rostow's five stages, in order: traditional society → preconditions for take-off → take-off → drive to maturity → age of high mass-consumption [2].
• Hind Swaraj was written in 1909. It attacks modern machine civilisation, industrialism, urbanisation and the modern state [3].
• The USSR's First Five-Year Plan ran from 1928 to 1932. Its focus was heavy industry and collectivised farming [4].
• Gosplan was set up in 1921 as an advisory body. It became the full planning body in 1928 [5].
• Article 39(b) and (c), both Directive Principles, deal with distributing material resources for the common good and preventing the concentration of wealth [6].
• Trap: in 1947 the liberal-capitalist model had very few supporters in India. The Soviet model impressed the Communists, the Socialists and Nehru.
• Trap: the three causes of planning's global appeal were the Great Depression, the rebuilding of Japan and Germany, and Soviet growth. The Marshall Plan is not one of the three in NCERT's list.

Mains Points

• Must development mean Westernisation? Modernisation theory (Rostow, 1960) sees one straight-line path for every country. Hind Swaraj (1909) rejects industrial civilisation outright. India chose a middle way: industry and science, but under a democratic state committed to redistribution (Article 39). This is useful for GS-I on post-1947 nation-building.
• India's "third way" in the Cold War: India did not adopt pure capitalism, which had little support at home. It also did not adopt the Soviet command economy, which used force (collectivisation and famine, 1928–32). It borrowed Soviet planning but kept democracy and private property. Economic choice thus ran in step with non-alignment.
• What the consensus agreed on, and what it fought over: leaders agreed that the state must end poverty and reduce inequality, unlike the colonial state's narrow commercial role. They split over industry versus agriculture. That split shaped every later Plan and the 2015 move from the Planning Commission to NITI Aayog.
• Why the state took the lead: the Great Depression, the post-war rebuilding of Japan and Germany, and Soviet growth made planning the global common sense of the 1940s–50s. When judging Nehruvian planning, use this context and not only hindsight.