The Indian sugar lobby is popularly talked of as the source of all sugar price rises. In this study of the growth of the sugar mill industry from before Independence to the present day, Sanjaya Baru shows that there is actually more than one lobby, and rather than being a single monolithic entity there is actually much conflict of interest between the various groups. Power - and in the sugar industry, as elsewhere in the economy, this means the ability to seek favour with the government - has shifted, first from the foreign-dominated companies to the large Indian business houses, and then increasingly to the co-operative sector. Likewise, mill capacity has migrated steadily southward to the more agriculturally favourable tropical region. This process has, however, been monitored throughout by government policy which, as Baru shows, has sought to protect the less economically viable northern region against both its southern rivals, from the demands of the cane growers themselves, and from the Khandsari industry. This illuminating study of the growth of the political economy of sugar since Independence has wide-reaching implications for the economy as a whole.
- ISBN10 0195624238
- ISBN13 9780195624236
- Publish Date May 1990
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 9 February 1995
- Publish Country IN
- Imprint OUP India
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 239
- Language English