Abstract

Abstract:

This article considers India's participation in the Bretton Woods conference, where the framework for the post-World War II global economic order emerged. Building on the new historiography of Bretton Woods as well as a more specialized literature on the Indian economy, it shows India's role in Bretton Woods at the confluence of national, imperial, and global historical processes. The article argues that India's presence in the conference shaped the evolution of the country's relationship to international economic institutions. The article addresses India's changing role in the British Empire and world economy, the evolution of a discourse of Indian economic development alongside anti-colonial nationalism, the formulation of Indian objectives for the conference in the aftermath of the economic dislocations of World War II, and the interpretation of the outcomes of the meeting at home that informed India's subsequent ambiguous relationship with international economic organizations.

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