The argument of this dissertation is that the Indian socialist system, intended to speed industrialization and to improve the underdeveloped colonial economy, has failed todevelop agriculture and to curb the growth of population has thus had a serious adverse effect on the poor Indian citizens whom it was designed to help. The dissertation consists of five chapters. Chapter One gives background on the development of Indian socialism and shows how it branched into Gandhian and Nehruite forms and how the Nehruite form came to dominate during the post-independence period. It also describes the government's industrial policy, that was developed to guide India's future industrial development in line with the socialist goals. Chapter Two discusses two interelated aspects of Indian economic planning: (1) the formation of a planning system with National Commission as its advisory body and the development of the system's long-term objectives and goals; (2) the construction of the five-year plans and their over-all performance. This chapter thus gives a comprehensive picture of official Indian economic policies, and culminating in the six five-year plans begun in 1951, and distinguishes their successes and failures. Chapter Three examines the development and expansion of agriculture under the British India, and then it reviews the government's efforts to improve agriculture, its land-reform policies, the allocation of funds in the five-year plans, the status of peasants, and the food production in the thirty years of planning. Linking agriculture to population, Chapter Four surveys population growth, its causes, and the government's efforts to restrain it. The last section of this chapter investigates the casual connection between population and economy, specifically agricultural economy. Finally, Chapter Five examines the intertwining effects of agriculture and population on the national economy and on the socialist objective itself, pinpoints the planners' mistakes in ignoring these two factors, and recommends some changes to improve agriculture production, to better the peasants' condition, rejuvenate the village economy and to expand employment opportunities for the masses--all to bring India closer to its long-cherished socialist goals.

The central thesis is classical Marxian views concerning the peasant masses have been adopted regarding India; two causal factors are the Hindu Caste system and parliamentary democracy. Descriptive and analytical methodology is utilized to study classical and Indian Marxian theory and its relationship to "Marxist" practice in India. Four major elements involved are: wealthy landowners, poor and landless peasants, the Indian government, and Indian communists. Nonimplemented land reforms and recent capitalist farming compounded the problem. Attacks were launched on the Congress government by three communist parties. Government coalition has included the CPI, and has implemented agrarian reforms advocated by the CPI(M), thereby postponing possible militant communist success.