Title: The Debate Over Financial Independence in India in the Inter-War Years: The Establishment of the Reserve Bank of IndiaSubmitted by: Bill Damachis, South Asia Research Unit, John Curtin International Institute, Curtin University of Technology, AustraliaThe First World War dramatically changed both the political context within which issues of economic growth and social welfare were considered by the colonial state and the economic context within which they had to be resolved. On the one hand, nascent domestic public opinion and an emergent nationalist movement demanded greater accountability and policies geared more to India's, rather than Britain's, interests. On the other, a decline in the importance of colonial commodities and a shift in India's relations with the rest of the world economy necessitated a radical restructuring of the systems of production, trade and finance. The response of the colonial state to these developments was complex and contradictory but included policy measures and instruments that attempted to define and eventually establish an 'Indian' national economy, complete with its own industrialisation strategies, tariff barriers and Reserve Bank. The attitudes, policies and events that led to the establishment of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will be set within a wider social, political, and economic context. Various Commissions of Enquiry looking into the establishment of a central bank in India will be placed in this broader historical context. At the same time it will be highlighted that these instruments and controls were never designed simply to promote India's economic welfare and the development of the country's 'national' economy. They also served a variety of other purposes including the extension of the residual benefits of the colonial system for as long as possible and the safeguard of the authority of the bureaucracy itself. Return to Abstracts menuCarol Burnett Phone: 61 - 3 - 9349 1899 Email: c.burnett@asialink.unimelb.edu.au
|