Session 15 of REIN Reading Circle.
Topic of discussion
We will discuss the idea of 'Indian Economics' that emerged during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century. Scholars tried bringing in historical particularities and nationalism to their study of the Indian economy, set against the background of the emergent nationalist movement. Through this we will look at questions of development, education and pedagogy, and what are the implications of placing the nation as a central category of analysis in economic thought.

Essential reading

Ranade, Mahadev Govind. 1906. Chapter 1: "Indian Political Economy", in Essays on Indian Economics: Collection of Essays and Speeches. Madras: G.A. Nateson and Co. [the primary text which inspired a generation of economists to work upon a conception of Indian Economics, aspiring to induct history and the national interest in their economic writings.]

Goswami, Manu. 2004. Chapter 7: "Political Economy of Nationhood", in Producing India: From Colonial Economy to National Space. Oxford: Permanent Black, pp.209-241.

Suggested reading (Optional)

Goswami, Manu. 2004. Chapter 8: "Territorial Nativism: Swadeshi and Swaraj", in Producing India: From Colonial Economy to National Space. Oxford: Permanent Black, pp.242-276.
[this chapter looks at the early-twentieth century swadeshi movement and its quest to create an organic national community and national economy. It links up closely with the creation of a homogenous and singular national identity]

Karak, Anirban. 2020. "What was 'Indian' Political Economy? On the separation of the 'social, the 'economic', and the 'ethical' in Indian nationalist thought, 1892-1948", Modern Asian Studies.

Ambirajan, S. 1978. "Introduction", in Classical Political Economy and British Policy in India. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, pp. [shows the importance of political economy to the administration of British India and sets a background to the importance of studying the history of political economy in a colonial context]

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