Author:

Dr Sudhi Mandloi

Associate Professor
Faculty of History
School of Undergraduate Studies
Dr B.R Ambedkar University,
KG Campus, Delhi,India

Email: s.mandloi83@gmail.com

Abstract: Subhas Chandra Bose envisaged economic planning as the fundamental cornerstone for the nation’s reconstruction. He strove to implement economic planning as a tool to achieve economic emancipation and social justice. His vision for economic planning created a strong base for the foundation of the National Planning Committee formed under his leadership in 1938. His speeches and writings on economic planning demonstrated an intense urge to transform India’s ravaged colonial economy into a modern industrial one. For achieving this, he endorsed an amalgamation of socialist principles and nationalism for the planned economic development of the nation, believing unplanned development would never eliminate gross inequalities. Bose admired the Soviet Union’s model of planned economy and recommended a strong interventionist approach from the state to guide economic activity of the nation, particularly industrialization, social welfare, and rational development. The idea of planning received a boost from notable Congress leaders, scientists, and economists during the first half of the twentieth century. Congress leaders such as J. L Nehru and S.C. Bose, along with scientists and economists such as Meghnnad Saha, K.T.Shah, and M. Visvesvaraya etc., played a crucial role in discussing the roadmap for planning. Subhas Chandra Bose and J.L Nehru laid the foundation of the National Planning Committee to implement the framework for India’s future economy. This paper argues that Subhash Chandra Bose was as much the brainchild of national economic planning as Jawahar Lal Nehru, but Bose’s contributions have not been adequately acknowledged in mainstream historiography.

Key Words:Acknowledged, Economy,Fundamental, Indian National Congress, Inequality etc