ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews selected debates within broad literatures on development policy and gender mainstreaming. Accounts of twentieth-century development discourse commonly compare modernisation theory and dependency theory, with modernisation theory’s normative prescriptions of domestic economic and political development, invoking a dichotomy of tradition and modernity, and dependency theory’s focus on political economy and unequal relations in the international capitalist system. Indian feminist conceptual frameworks and critiques played important roles in the international literature on women, gender, and development, and in conceptualising women’s empowerment in grassroots women’s movements. For years, development literature on India was disconnected to broader development studies literature, except perhaps Amartya Sen’s work which traversed Indian and international spheres. Nationalist modernisation projects often designate a central role for the state as a director, facilitator, or conduit for interest groups or international capital. The rising influence of subnational state governments has tested central government institutions.
