Vinay Bahl

Erasing the Binary Distinction of Developed and Underdeveloped Vinay Bahl

This book challenges the binary distinction of developed and underdeveloped in the categorization of any country while proposing to erase this binary with a yardstick of parity, which, the author believes, is naturally rooted in human creativity as human beings are one of the many creative expressions of Nature. Through a sample comparative historical study focusing on the question of the emergence of the large-scale steel industry (1880-1914) of four chosen countries, two considered "developed" (Imperial UK and Post-colonial Imperial USA) and two considered "underdeveloped" (Imperial Russia and Colonial India), it is shown how this yardstick of parity can be applied without the categorization of societies as either developed or underdeveloped. The author hopes that this will help to remove the baseless, irrelevant and humiliating labels of "lacking" and "not yet" from so-called "underdeveloped" countries and open a conceptual space wherein it would be possible to imagine an alternative theoretical framework that is sorely needed to break out of the so-called development model in which the world is mired, along with the sense of fatalism and hopelessness that accompanies it.