A Case for India's Agrarian "Modernization"

India’s agrarian history has for the most part been cast within colonial and nationalist frameworks, a trend that leaves plenty of space to discuss the engagement of American actors with the course of colonial and postcolonial development. This paper explores the agrarian ideals of American Presbyterian missionaries and foundation officials whose paths crossed the subcontinent when India transitioned from late colonialism to political sovereignty. The query in this paper is specifically centred on the Allahabad Agricultural Institute (or AAI) that was established by American Presbyterian missionaries in 1912 in colonial India and was serviced by incoming waves of American agricultural experts which gave the institution a distinct identity in the midst of the colonial context. The institution survived India’s transition to sovereignty, and on both sides of the independence divide it remained an icon of Americanist effort to launch projects of rural and agrarian uplift. The agents at Allahabad were conduits in establishing connections with the Land Grant institutions and foundations in the United States in the colonial period and after independence. These prescriptions collided with the local visions of improvement in colonial India. Before and after independence, such contacts enabled American modernist ideals to compete for prominence with the developmentalist visions of colonial and nationalist political elites. The interrogation of the relationship of a specifically Americanist “modernization” with colonial and nationalist paradigms brings new historical insights and provides conceptual clarity to earmark processes leading up to the building of India’s agrarian futures.

India’s agrarian history has for the most part been cast within colonial and nationalist frameworks, a trend that leaves plenty of space to discuss the engagement of American actors with the course of colonial and postcolonial development. This paper explores the agrarian ideals of American Presbyterian missionaries and foundation officials whose paths crossed the subcontinent when India transitioned from late colonialism to political sovereignty. The query in this paper is specifically centred on the Allahabad Agricultural Institute (or AAI) that was established by American Presbyterian missionaries in 1912 in colonial India and was serviced by incoming waves of American agricultural experts which gave the institution a distinct identity in the midst of the colonial context. The institution survived India’s transition to sovereignty, and on both sides of the independence divide it remained an icon of Americanist effort to launch projects of rural and agrarian uplift. The agents at Allahabad were conduits in establishing connections with the Land Grant institutions and foundations in the United States in the colonial period and after independence. These prescriptions collided with the local visions of improvement in colonial India. Before and after independence, such contacts enabled American modernist ideals to compete for prominence with the developmentalist visions of colonial and nationalist political elites. The interrogation of the relationship of a specifically Americanist “modernization” with colonial and nationalist paradigms brings new historical insights and provides conceptual clarity to earmark processes leading up to the building of India’s agrarian futures.

India’s agrarian history has for the most part been cast within colonial and nationalist frameworks, a trend that leaves plenty of space to discuss the engagement of American actors with the course of colonial and postcolonial development. This paper explores the agrarian ideals of American Presbyterian missionaries and foundation officials whose paths crossed the subcontinent when India transitioned from late colonialism to political sovereignty. The query in this paper is specifically centred on the Allahabad Agricultural Institute (or AAI) that was established by American Presbyterian missionaries in 1912 in colonial India and was serviced by incoming waves of American agricultural experts which gave the institution a distinct identity in the midst of the colonial context. The institution survived India’s transition to sovereignty, and on both sides of the independence divide it remained an icon of Americanist effort to launch projects of rural and agrarian uplift. The agents at Allahabad were conduits in establishing connections with the Land Grant institutions and foundations in the United States in the colonial period and after independence. These prescriptions collided with the local visions of improvement in colonial India. Before and after independence, such contacts enabled American modernist ideals to compete for prominence with the developmentalist visions of colonial and nationalist political elites. The interrogation of the relationship of a specifically Americanist “modernization” with colonial and nationalist paradigms brings new historical insights and provides conceptual clarity to earmark processes leading up to the building of India’s agrarian futures.

India’s agrarian history has for the most part been cast within colonial and nationalist frameworks or in analyses of modernity and development in the South Asian historiography. This leaves plenty of space to discuss the tethering of modernization to development as is the practice among U.S. historians of American foreign relations who study interventions made by American state and non-state actors among postcolonial nations in the post-World War II period. This paper explores the agrarian ideals of American Presbyterian missionaries and foundation officials whose paths crossed the subcontinent when India transitioned from late colonialism to that of post-colony. The query in this paper is specifically centred on the Allahabad Agricultural Institute (or AAI) that was established by American Presbyterian missionaries in 1912 in colonial India and was serviced by incoming waves of American agricultural experts which gave the institution a distinct identity in the midst of the colonial context. The institution survived India’s transition to sovereignty and on both sides of the independence divide and it remained an icon of Americanist effort to launch projects of rural and agrarian uplift. The agents at Allahabad were conduits in establishing connections with Land Grant institutions and foundations in the United States in the colonial period and after independence. On both sides, American modernist ideals competed for prominence with the developmentalist visions of colonial and nationalist political elites. These prescriptions collided with local visions of improvement of the agrarian world that South Asianists have interpreted within frames of modernity and development. The interrogation of the relationship of the former with colonial and nationalist paradigm brings new historical insights and provides conceptual clarity to earmark processes leading up to the building of India’s agrarian futures. It is those interactions at the ground level that this paper entrusts itself with the task of exploring.