Western economists and eastern societies : agents of change in south Asia, 1950-1970

In this book Dr George Rosen discusses the experience of one major western intellectual group, the economists, in advising the governments of India and Pakistan from 1950 to 1970. He examines why various American institutions became involved in such an effort, why economists were interested in serving as advisors, what western economists had to offer the two governments, and why the governments were interested in inviting economists. The study attempts to look at the stated and unstated assumptions and goals of such programmes.

The author further seeks to examine the process of the exchange of ideas, and the working of the exchange between the western advisors and the Indian and Pakistani officials and economists with whom they were associated. He looks at the cultural, political and disciplinary limits within which the exchanges occurred, and the impact of these limits upon the advisory experience. Finally, the study examines what effect the experience had-upon the individual western economists, the field of economic development in the west, upon the Indian and Pakistani economists, and subsequent approaches to development in these countries.

Foreign advisors were strongly influenced by the political environment within which that advisory effort occurred. This included the relations of the US government with India and Pakistan as well as the internal political conflicts which arose from conflicts in the social systems of the countries being advised. The political factor was a contributing element to the end of those projects. The experience with political problems also had an impact upon the general response by economists in the US to economic development as a field for economists.

The material for this study is derived from the records of the organizations involved (the Ford Foundation, the India Project of the MIT Center for International Studies, etc) and from many interviews with economists who worked in the two countries.

Dr Rosen is currently Professor at the University of Illinois in Chicago. In India, he has worked as an economist both for the MIT Center and the Ford Foundation. He was also an advisor to the Planning Commission in Nepal during the early 1960s.