ABSTRACT
The view prevailing among most development theorists and planners during the 1950s and 1960s was that the main task was to accelerate overall output growth. They generally argued that various "trickle-down" mechanisms would spread the benefits of growth to all groups if the rate of aggregate were high enough. The excellent growth performance in Punjab and Haryana is attributable in large part to rapid agricultural growth. Value added to agriculture grew at about 4.5 percent annually during the 1960s and 1970s, as compared with 1.9 percent in India as a whole and 2.3 percent in low-income developing countries excluding China and India. Punjab and Haryana confirm the contention of both Lipton and Mellor that an effort to shift toward rural-led growth in low-income countries should not be deferred pending the achievement of a more eqalitarian agrarian structure.
