Contemporary India and its modernisation

This volume brings together essays, addresses, and broad casts focused on the theme of India's modernization. All pieces included in this collection, except the first, have been published in journals and anthologies. The lead essay, "Contemporary India and its Modernization," was sketched on 25 July 1973, my fifty-first birthday, and is previously unpublished. It is perhaps more critical than the others; it represents my frank reaction to the national situation as I see it developing in the twenty-sixth year of India's indepen dence.

Several essays on interrelated themes, published in accessible symposia, are not included in this collection. The interested reader may also see "Cultural Problems in the Economic Development of India" in Religion and Progress in Modern Asia edited by Robert N. Bellah (The Free Press, New York and Collier-Macmillan Limited, London, 1965); "A Note on Communication in Economic Development," and "Communication, Innovation and Planned Change in India" in Communication and Change in Developing Countries edited by Daniel Lerner and Wilber Schramm (East-West Center Press, Honolulu, 1963); and "Modernization and its Adap tive Demands on Indian Society" in Papers on Sociology of Education in India edited by M.S. Gore, I.P. Desai and Suma Chitnis (National Council of Educational Research and Training, Delhi, 1967).