Nationalisations in India: political economy of policy options v.2

It is a study of a little explored aspect of India's planning, public policy and political economy of post-independence development. Making a sharp departure from the conventional discussions of the pros and cons of nationalisations, or their post-mortem, it examines in a historical, macro, sectoral and broad socio-political context, the compulsions, reasoning and counteracting forces connected with juridical trans formation of property relations in many different legal and substantive ways in various non-agricultural enterprises, industries and sectors during the period 1947-1980.
It brings out the economic, political and administrative decision-making processes, which determined the meaning and content of the measure. It shows how conventional measures of State regulation gradually paved the way for nationalisation, though the political, international and ideological factors inevitably had their hand in clinching the issue one way or the other.

The study financed by the Indian Council of Social Science Research and carried out at the Indian Institute of Public Administration, generates for the first time a comprehensive profile of nationalisation over the period of 1947-1980.
What emerges with considerable clarity and force is the manner in which an avovedly as anti-capitalist a measure as nationalisation gets coopted as a useful regulatory and promotional instrument for facilitating the State directed growth of capitalism. Sharply contra sted pattern, size and methods of nationalisa dia during 1947-1968 and 1968-1980 tions in India help explanation of its overall magnitude and macro-level role as a part of the political econ omy of development and the nature of the state processes.
The study provides a unique analytical history of various economic policies in the spheres which experienced nationalisation. When so much is being written about privatisation, the study seeks to provide a theoretical framework and clarification of the relevant issues.