The Making of Modern Agriculture in Independent India: Global Knowledge Network, National Planning, and...

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Madhumita Saha

The Making of Modern Agriculture in Independent India

Global Knowledge Network, National Planning, and the Green Revolution

Madhumita Saha

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Hardback

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English

Routledge India
03 September 2025

Regional studies; The Cold War; Primary industries; The environment; Agricultural science

This book provides a comprehensive historical account of agricultural development in independent India. It studies concerns regarding food shortages in the years immediately after independence, covers the debates over the introduction of Green Revolution technology, and examines the knowledge network that facilitated the introduction of new seeds.

The book presents a critical examination of agricultural modernisation—its technoscientific practices, manpower, and institutions—and provides deeper insights into how it shaped the rural economy, the relationships it maintained with agricultural sciences, and the extensive control it sought to exert over the environment. It examines multiple facets of food crop research, from sites of knowledge production, transnational knowledge networks, and the evolution of the research community, to the challenges faced by Indian agricultural scientists.

An important contribution, this book will be an essential read for scholars and researchers of South Asian Studies, agriculture, food security, historians of science and technology, environmental studies, developmental studies, agrarian studies, modern Indian history, and the Cold War.

By: Madhumita Saha
Imprint: Routledge India
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
Weight: 590g
ISBN: 9781032764269
ISBN 10: 1032764260
Pages: 220
Publication Date: 03 September 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Primary
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Introduction Ch. 1: Poor Soil, Rich Soil: Scientists Seek a Roadmap for ‘Modern’ Agriculture Ch. 2: Technology and Ideology: The Red Scare, American Technical Cooperation, and Agricultural Universities Ch. 3: Breads or Bullets, Cows or Crops: India’s Course of Transition, 1959- 64 Ch. 4: Science as Panacea: Technocratic India opts for the ‘Green Revolution’, 1965-68 Ch. 5: Technology and Agrarian-Environment: Green Revolution technologies in farmers’ fields. Epilogue

Madhumita Saha is Associate Professor of History at Amity University, India. Her research focuses on the history of science and technology, agriculture, and environmental history in modern India. She has been a Fulbright Doctoral Fellow and PACHS Dissertation Writing Fellow. She is currently working on the history of agricultural science in India at the juncture of colonialism and rising nationalism.