74 SOCIMi SCWW1ST How Green Wets the Revolution The author theft begiris to unfold tlie Indian experience cf tiM last twenty-five years, tfe concentrates on the agricultural strategy of the 1960s and is of the opinion that the period of the so-called ^Green Revo-* lution^ is marked by the march of technology. The stagnation that haste-fallen agriculture since then can be overcome with more effort but along the same lines. He seems to be optimistic about farnwg prospects because improved banking facilities are on tap, removing a major obstacle to technological advances. One would, however, join issue with this view because the explanation for the stagnation is not so convincing. If one were to attribute the rise in farm output during the ^Green Revolution* years to advance of technology, how worid one account for the later stagnation and decline? Surely this was because cpace the rich farmers increased output to their optimum levels of profitability, total agricultural output could not further be stepped up because facilities like credit are not available to the medium and poor peasants who are not able to put up adequate collateral. This is of course asswiing that the ^Green Revolution9 did take place. But such a pnertrise ii very much open tb questibn since most of the increase in output was only in wheat production and that also not in all the wheat-growling areas. More wheat was harvested because there was An increase in acreage during this period. It mu&t also be pointed out that the production of some of the other cmpa actually showed 4 downward trend. Even if ow were to consider in telw^rijrtieral Issues and concentrates on the growth rate, the arguments for the existence of a ^Green Revdution^ are stilt not convincing. Thia can be seen from the fact that the growth rate in the 1960s, the decade of ^the ^Gre^a fiMN^u* tion,5 was» lower than in the fifties. That there wai an incirtlSI^Afc the rate of growth in 1965-66 and for a few yeatff afterwards h fc^ly due to the fact that 1964*65 was a bad year te To1 describe an agricultural recovery from-drm^ht to good m^ft^>i»tls as the ^Green Revolution9 is misleading, to say the least. Indwfl Planning Goes Haywire^ In. studying the role of technology in the Indian context it is but natural to relate it to the country's economic developments Any »tep» taken in this direction should be judged i^ the light of it& alignment with the planning strategy of the fime-> It h her® that we recopiiale^ tb^t the basic fault of the Second Five Year Plan lay m the fiafit that a model for a socialist system, the Feldman model, was superimposed on the economy of India in {he form of the Mahalanobis adaptation. This superimposition led to technology moving, to a point, against the process of economic development. It is not surprising how and why this happened: the Second Plan was based on the strategy that a rapid development of heavy industries would in the long run lead, on the one hand, to a consistent increase