This volume contains some of the core foundational contributions on the broad theme of the political economy of India’s development. These have been culled from the numerous writings of public personages, thinkers and academic writers over the past century. The extant collections of readings on development economics usually contain readings from academic economists like Sen, Bhagwati, Bardhan, Dreze, Basu, etc. The purpose of this collection is to point out to the lay reader that there is a world of writing on development that is outside the realms of academia. Accordingly, we look at the contributions of figures like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Babasaheb Ambedkar, Ram Manohar Lohia, etc., who too had thought hard and deep about the process of India’s development.

The present volume is a purposive selection of 23 articles out of the 75 pieces published earlier in four volumes with the title Economic Development of India, by Routledge in 2015. This selection is brought out with the aim of retaining the flavour of the theme under discussion in a succinct single cover volume with a new introduction that ruminates on the recent developments.