Prakash Kumar delivered a lecture on ‘Reign of Technocracy: A History of the Green Revolution’. It was chaired by Awadhendra Sharan.
ZOOM ID: 85943403852 PASSCODE: csdsdelhi
The green revolution in India has been widely interpreted as a scientific phenomenon (high yielding variety seeds) or as an agricultural phenomenon (new agricultural strategy), making this important palimpsest fall in the corner of social scientific analyses. My forthcoming book frames the green revolution as part of a historical process of agrarian modernization in the twentieth century with a colonial and post-colonial past. The colonial origin of agrarian regions, refugee settlement, post-partition reconstruction in Punjab, clearing of submontane lands in Tarai and the path dependency of productive practices in western UP farming prepared the northwestern region for this revolution. Despite significant challenges from decolonizing forces, a technocratic developmentalism came to shape the experience of agrarian change in India. This developmentalism was in no small measure influenced by the growing presence of American expertise in India in the 1950s and 1960s.
Prakash Kumar is Associate Professor of South Asian history at Pennsylvania State University. He specializes in the history of science, agricultural history, development studies, and global history. His first book, Indigo Plantations and Science in Colonial India was published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) in 2012. His next book on the technological history of the green revolution will also be published by CUP in 2025.
Awadhendra Sharan is Director, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi.
Monday, 23 September 2024, 4 pm, Seminar Room and Zoom https://bit.ly/3ZgK6GM
