An Early British Government Initiative in the Genesis of Indian Planning

While the idea of planning emerged as central to Indian nationalist economic thought only after the election of 1937, economic planning was a known concept to Indian thinkers in early twentieth century. Gokhale in 1903 and K T Shah and Visvesvaraya in the early twenties had stressed the importance of economic planning. In the early years of the thirties, people like Visvesvaraya, Mitter, Birla and Sarkar were enthused by the de facto recognition by the British rulers of the Indian demand for a positive role of the state in organising the socioeconomic development of the country This allowed them to formulate blueprints of plans and appeal to the colonial regime to implement them.