Towards global equilibrium: American foundations and Indian modernization, 1950s to 1970s

Abstract

This article studies the activities of American philanthropic foundations in India between the 1950s and 1970s. It discusses why private institutions such as the Rockefeller Foundation and the Ford Foundation felt committed to responding to problems of hunger and population growth abroad and how they managed to establish themselves as leaders in the development aid arena. Instead of considering the foundations as handmaidens of US national strategic interests shaped by the Cold War, the article argues that they should be understood as highly flexible transnational agents who, in an ambitious combination of philanthropic motives, institutional interests, and trust in the power of science, diagnosed political problems and developed methods to overcome them in order to reduce global inequality.

Developing histories of Indian development

“…Looking at the work of organizations like the Rockefeller Foundation and the Ford Foundation, Corinna R. Unger reads their actions as retaining some autonomy amidst the currents of international politics, the Cold War, and American foreign policy interests. While these contexts mattered a great deal, viewing these foundations simply as “Washington's handmaidens,” she argues, overlooks the extent to which they were motivated by “utopian ideas, the belief in planning, and philanthropy, and…fighting “backwardness” (Unger, 2011, pp. 121–122).…”

Transforming South–South Technical Support to Fight Noncommunicable Diseases

“…The Point Four agenda of technical assistance to what Truman called ''underdeveloped areas'' reflected--and exploited--the language of a new professional class [7,8]. As the historian Amy Staples notes, conferences at resort locations like Hot Springs, Virginia, and Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, were framed initially within the Allied war effort, but focused on ''tasks to be handled by experts rather than on traditional topics of diplomacy'' [9].…”

“…An example cited by many development specialists is the so-called Green Revolution in agricultural production which grew out of joint activity by governments, private donor agencies such as the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations, bilaterals such as USAID, multilaterals such as the FAO, interna- tional research institutions, and local peasants [13]. Together, they created agricultural universities patterned after the land-grant universities of the United States, an indigenous national agricultural research system, a reorganized government farming authority that undid colonial priorities and networks and facilitated the diffusion of new seeds and expertise and a commitment to innovation by rural food producers [8]. A decade later, farmers were realizing 2-to 3-fold increases in yield compared with yield from 1965 [14].…”

The university in modern South Asia: Historiographical framings between the local and the global

“…10 10 There is a diverse body of literature on the role of global aid agencies and private foundations in the creation of transnational epistemic communities of development in the Cold War era. Some examples relevant to the South Asian case include Sackley (2011, 2012); Parmar (2012); Garg (2020); Kumar (2022); Unger (2011). …”

“…This is because postcolonial projects did not only entail the transfer of power…A conscious sense of novelty of trying to bring newness into the political world, defined this moment" (p.2).10 There is a diverse body of literature on the role of global aid agencies and private foundations in the creation of transnational epistemic communities of development in the Cold War era. Some examples relevant to the South Asian case includeSackley (2011Sackley ( , 2012;Parmar (2012);Garg (2020);Kumar (2022);Unger (2011).11 Recent examples includeDaechsel (2015);Engerman (2018); Siegel (2018).12 For an example of this framing, but from a different regional context, seeLivsey (2017).13 One of the first Indians to earn a doctorate in engineering from MIT, who later became president of the Bengal Engineering College.14 For a discussion of the global historical roots of the social sciences, seeAdelman (2019) andSteinmetz (2013). For preliminary considerations of the evolution of the social sciences in postcolonial India, seeChatterjee (2003),Vijayakumar and Radhakrishnan (2022),George (2022).15 This is a subject that has recently been taken up byPrakash Kumar (2022).16 A recent monograph on the history of the National College of Arts Lahore includes a section on higher technical education under the modernization agendas of the 1950s(Tarar (2022)).…”