Planning Democracy How a Professor, ..., Nikhil Menon
Planning Democracy How a Professor, ..., Nikhil Menon
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Planning Democracy: How a Professor, an Institute, and an Idea Shaped India
How a Professor, an Institute, and an Idea Shaped India

Author: Nikhil Menon

Narrator: Shahzad Bhiwandiwala

Unabridged: 9 hr 33 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 12/06/2022

Synopsis

India’s Five-Year Plans were one of the developing world’s most ambitious experiments. After nearly two centuries of colonial rule, planning the economy was meant to be independent India’s route from poverty to prosperity. Planning Democracy explores how India married liberal democracy to a socialist economy. Planning not only built India’s data systems, it even shaped the nature of its democracy. The Five-Year Plans loomed so large that they linked surprisingly far-flung contexts-from computers to Bollywood to Hindutva.

In this compelling history, Nikhil Menon brings the world of planning to life through the intriguing story of a gifted scientist known as the Professor, a trail-blazing research institute in Calcutta, and the alluring idea of ‘democratic planning’. Set amidst global conflicts and international debates, Menon reveals how India walked a tightrope between capitalism and communism. Planning Democracy recasts our understanding of the Indian republic, uncovering how planning came to define the nation and revealing the ways in which it continues to shape our world today

About The Author

Nikhil Menon is assistant professor of history at the University of Notre Dame. He grew up in Chennai and studied at Delhi University as well as Jawaharlal Nehru University. His PhD in history is from Princeton University. He lives in South Bend, Indiana.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Mehul on January 07, 2023

From a starry-eyed and idealist position on the importance of "democratic" planning to the politicisation of data, India has come a long way in how it peeks into the future. This book provides a glimpse into India's planning history through the life of its pioneers like P.C. Mahalanobis and the Indi......more

Goodreads review by Karan Lahiri on October 16, 2023

It was a struggle to get through this book, though it showed some promise at the start. The writing is uninspiring. The two-pronged thesis, namely that planning in India was a top-down technocratic imposition, coupled with an effort to lend legitimacy to planning through public participation, is not......more

Goodreads review by Manish on December 30, 2022

Menon's 'Planning Democracy' was an informative work which covers the life and times of PC Mahalanobis and the politics behind the Second Five Year Plan of India. At one level, the book was a painful reminder of the failed opportunities for India to break free from the dreaded Hindu rate of growth.......more

Goodreads review by Pranjal on March 09, 2023

Never had a thought I field as drab as statistical planning would have such a fascinating history. This book is a surprise 5 star for me as I'd not particularly expected the history and arc of India's planned economy to be so important not just for India but also at one point for the entire cold war......more

Goodreads review by Sarthak on September 16, 2023

This book is for nerds. The first half is very entertaining; a group of arrogant individuals thinks they can micromanage everything and very effectively plan five disasters for the country. The second half gets a bit boring as it discusses how the government explained the plan to the people. I never......more

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