So much has been written and said about the post-Independence economic develop- ment of India, that yet another narration of the Indian experience demands somejustification. While R.M. Sundrum’s foray into this well-charted terrain does not throw much new light on the subject—it is not merely an exercise in updating and documenting existing literature. It is in fact a logical successor to the author’s previous work Development Economics (1983). The present book seeks to illustrate the general principles and theoretical issues raised therein, giving these arguments and contentions a concrete embodiment through the discussion of a specific economy. (The logical choice being India for considerations that are professedly practical, philosophical—and personal!). The book which attempts to provide ‘a conspectus of the whole subject in a brief compass’, addresses itself to ‘students, administrators and the general public’. It analyses the ‘broad dimensions of structural change and development’ in India and identifies some of the long-term forces impinging on this process.
Nov-Dec 1987, volume 11, No 6