In the story of India’s colonisation, Karnataka, then the princely state of Mysore, has a unique position. Restored to the throne in 1881, the Wadiyars had freedom to rule the land as they saw fit. Mysore became the first state to have a representative assembly, took on infrastructural projects and garnered praise from leaders for being a model state. But, what motivated this desire which predated Nehruvian planning by decades? Chandan Gowda’s latest Longing for an Elsewhere (Oxford University Press; ₹1,595), traces it to colonial ideas of backwardness that Mysore’s elite bought into. Excerpts:
Why were you interested in tracing the ideas of development that influenced the princely state of Mysore?
After Mysore was restored as a semi-autonomous state in 1881, the Maharaja and his Dewans showed interest in industrial development. The book shows where they got their ideas from. German economist Friedrich List argued that less-industrialised nations like Germany required a protectionist state to build their economies and Indian thinkers like MG Ranade and RC Dutt, who were inspired by him, inspired the Mysore state.
I try to theorise why the modern Indian state saw itself as a developmental state. There is nothing natural about any state accepting that it needs to develop. The British introduced a notion of evolutionary history in which Europe had progressed through industrialisation, while non-Western societies were perceived to be behind because they were rural, religious and technologically backward. Many educated Indians accepted this, but believed they need not remain permanently behind.
Princely states have also been insufficiently studied. The kind of British oppression seen in Calcutta, Madras and Bombay presidencies was absent in Mysore. Local society was shielded from the everyday colonial violence, which shaped how its political and literary cultures evolved.
What does the case study on the Bhadravati Iron Works (BIW) Project reveal about attitudes towards development at the time?
Mysore invested massively on the project. Wherever steel was manufactured, large supplies of charcoal were needed, but there are no deposits in Bhadravati, so a forest is burned down for it. Mysore kept the factory going despite losses because it was a symbolic asset. State guests were taken there on visits and it was seen as civilising local people by inculcating habits of an industrial society. When Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar visited, he saw Birmingham in Bhadravati. Products made here were displayed at exhibitions in England and this iron was reportedly seen as superior to Swedish iron, assuring us that Mysore was doing well. Today, if a rocket doesn’t take off, we feel insulted because we’ve internalised a vision of a global audience finding us lacking.
How were Mysoreans responding to this new wave of industrialisation?
The Mysore Representative Assembly’s members criticised the BIW but never the need for an iron plant in the first place. Author Shivaram Karanth wrote an account of it, but it is a neutral description. The English romantic poets, who inspired early 20th-century Kannada poets, were harsh critics of industrialisation because it had torn apart the social fabric. Believing in the integrity of the Mysore planners, Kannada literary figures, however, did not sufficiently engage with their vision of development. The rulers of Mysore, who had travelled in the West, didn’t see the dark side of capitalism. Canadian agricultural officer James Coleman and German horticulturist Krumbiegel cautioned against going the American-European way because they had caused social misery, but nobody listened.
In what ways does this history of developmental thought still influence our policies?
Our desire to be seen as arriving in the world is a direct consequence of having been shamed by colonial accusations of backwardness and of seeking to restore lost honour by pursuing a Western vision of development. In the popular imagination, development is often symbolised by fast highways, consumer goods or high-rise buildings. The government projects a $5 trillion economy and everyone thinks it is fantastic. But no one asks: Will gains be equitable? What is the ecological impact? We need to rethink our idea of development because it destroys community life and local ecologies.