Ep 306: The History of the Planning Commission
The Seen and the Unseen - hosted by Amit Varma
Is There a Need for a New Nation Formation?
Tech solutionism reminds me of a phrase that I use associated with Malanobis, which is a sort of techno-utompeanism. And this belief that if you had enough data, that if you Had the computer to crunch the data, that it would lead to optimal solutions in a planned economy. So I think that there is an inflated belief in the possibilities of technological solutions. We've seen what it has done to India. But as a historian, my job is to try to understand them and explain them, right?
Society cannot be designed in a top-down way. Central planning was a historic blunder that harmed India -- even though it was conceived by great men with good intentions. Nikhil Menon joins Amit Varma in episode 306 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about the flawed genius PC Mahalanobis, the planning commission, and his own life as a scholar. (For full linked show notes, go to SeenUnseen.in.) Also check out: 1. Nikhil Menon on Amazon and University of Notre Dame. 2. Planning Democracy: How A Professor, An Institute, And An Idea Shaped India -- Nikhil Menon. 3. The Evolution of Everything -- Episode 96 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Matt Ridley). 4. The Use of Knowledge in Society — Friedrich Hayek. 5. Sherlock Holmes, Ramayana and Mahabharata. 6. The Rooted Cosmopolitanism of Sugata Srinivasaraju — Episode 277 of The Seen and the Unseen. 7. Religion and Ideology in Indian Society — Episode 124 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Suyash Rai). 8. Political Ideology in India — Episode 131 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rahul Verma). 9. The Decline of the Congress -- Episode 248 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rahul Verma). 10. The Intellectual Foundations of Hindutva — Episode 115 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aakar Patel). 11. Aakar Patel Is Full of Hope — Episode 270 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aakar Patel). 12. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism — Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 13. The Discovery of India -- Jawaharlal Nehru. 14. The Collected Writings and Speeches of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar. 15. Caste, Capitalism and Chandra Bhan Prasad -- Episode 296 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Chandra Bhan Prasad). 16. John Locke on Wikipedia, Britannica and Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 17. John Dewey on Wikipedia, Britannica and Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 18. The Ideas of Our Constitution — Episode 164 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Madhav Khosla). 19. Friedrich Hayek on Wikipedia, Britannica, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy and Econlib. 20. The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism -- Friedrich Hayek.. 21. ये लिबरल आख़िर है कौन? — Episode 37 of Puliyabaazi (w Amit Varma, on Hayek). 22. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms — Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah). 23. India’s Lost Decade — Episode 116 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Puja Mehra). 24. The Forgotten Greatness of PV Narasimha Rao — Episode 283 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati). 25. The Life and Times of Montek Singh Ahluwalia -- Episode 285 of The Seen and the Unseen. 26. The Gentle Wisdom of Pratap Bhanu Mehta -- Episode 300 of The Seen and the Unseen. 27. On Exactitude in Science (Wikipedia) — Jorge Luis Borges. 28. What is Libertarianism? — Episode 117 of The Seen and the Unseen (w David Boaz). 29. India’s Greatest Civil Servant — Episode 167 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Narayani Basu, on VP Menon). 30. Angus Deaton, John von Neumann, Albert Einstein and Howard Aiken. 31. The Life and Times of Vir Sanghvi — Episode 236 of The Seen and the Unseen. 32. Les Misérables -- Victor Hugo. 33. Hardy Boys on Amazon. 34. One Hundred Years of Solitude -- Gabriel Garcia Marquez. 35. Love in the Time of Cholera -- Gabriel Garcia Marquez. 36. Midnight's Children -- Salman Rushdie. 37. Fixing Indian Education — Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan). 38. Shahid Amin and Sunil Kumar. 39. 300 Ramayanas -- AK Ramanujan. 40. Nehru’s Debates — Episode 262 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tripurdaman Singh and Adeel Hussain.) 41. Whatever happened To Ehsan Jafri on February 28, 2002? — Harsh Mander. 42. Who Broke Our Republic? — Episode 163 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Kapil Komireddi). 43. John McPhee on Amazon. 44. Mumbai Fables -- Gyan Prakash. 45. Emergency Chronicles — Gyan Prakash. 46. Gyan Prakash on the Emergency — Episode 103 of The Seen and the Unseen. 47. Delhi Reborn: Partition and Nation Building in India's Capital -- Rotem Geva. 48. A People’s Constitution — Rohit De. 49. Jugalbandi: The BJP Before Modi — Vinay Sitapati. 50. The BJP Before Modi — Episode 202 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati). 51. India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy -- Ramachandra Guha. 52. Roam Research. 53. Zettelkasten on Wikipedia. 54. Linda Colley on Amazon and Princeton. 55. Gandhi as Mahatma -- Shahid Amin. 56. Tanika Sarkar, Neeladri Bhattacharya and Janaki Nair. 57. The Great Man Theory of History. 58. Pramit Bhattacharya Believes in Just One Ism — Episode 256 of The Seen and the Unseen. 59. Demystifying GDP — Episode 130 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rajeswari Sengupta). 60. Milton Friedman on Amazon, Wikipedia, Britannica and Econlib. 61. The Man of System — Adam Smith (excerpted from The Theory of Moral Sentiments). 62. The Idea of India — Sunil Khilnani. 63. The Rocking-Horse Winner -- DH Lawrence. 64. Taylor Sherman and Niraja Gopal Jayal. 65. Kamyab Hum Karke Rahenge -- Lata Mangeshkar and Mohammed Rafi on central planning. 66. Naya Daur -- BR Chopra. 67. Chhodo Kal Ki Baatein -- Song from Hum Hindustani. 68. Char Dil Char Raahein -- KA Abbas. 69. Jhootha Sach (Hindi) (English) -- Yashpal. 70. Marxvaad Aur Ram Rajya — Karpatri Maharaj. 71. Narendra Modi takes a Great Leap Backwards — Amit Varma. 72. The Importance of Data Journalism — Episode 196 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 73. Rukmini Sees India’s Multitudes — Episode 261 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 74. Circe -- Madeline Miller. 75. The Song of Achilles -- Madeline Miller. 76. The Thursday Murder Club -- Richard Osman. 77. Only Murders in the Building. Check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free! Episode art: ‘Central Planning’ by Simahina.
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