Abstract
Agricultural universities are integral to the history of modern India. The aspiration of the Indian state to be economically and socially modern is coincident with the origin of agricultural universities. This paper explores the making of agricultural universities from the Radhakrishnan Committee to the New Agricultural Strategy and shows their connections to the political and economic needs of the nation. Also, the Cold War imperatives encouraged American involvement in India’s agricultural reforms. However, this paper argues that neither the Indian state nor the American experts determined the evolution of these institutes as per their developmental goals. Geopolitical events, like the Partition, the Union-state relationship and the history of marginalisation of agricultural scientists combined and produced varying dynamics. It is within these historical contexts that the paper has analysed the growth trajectory of agricultural institutions, with particular reference to the Punjab Agricultural University—the pivot of the agricultural modernisation programme.
Published Version
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