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Capitalist Planning? The “Bombay Plan” as Contribution to Economic Debates Within the Indian National Movement, 1927-1945



Author(s)

Catharina Hänsel

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DOI:10.17265/2328-2134/2018.01.004

The desire to draft a planning framework for India after independence was not only expressed by leftist groups. It was also on the agenda of business groups who published the Bombay Plan in 1944. Ideas of “economic nationalism”, “state control”, and “socialism” were attained from heterogeneous debates within the national movement and attached to a pro-capitalist agenda. This paper will explain the power relations behind the Bombay Plan, within the field of political forces of the Indian national movement. It shows their success in the strategy of co-operating with the Indian National Congress (INC) to impose their economic agenda. Secondly, it argues that there was a strong capitalist interest in planning.

planning, national movement, Indian National Congress, Indian businessmen, Bombay Plan