A Dissenting Voice: B. R. Shenoy's Austrian Economic Critique of India's Central Planning

Abstract

B. R. Shenoy stood as the sole Indian dissenter against central planning in the early decades of India's independence. Although it has been noted that Shenoy's critique of planning was influenced by F. A. Hayek after he attended his lectures as a graduate student at the London School of Economics, the influence of the Austrian school of economics on Shenoy's arguments has not been fully explored. We trace the roots of Shenoy's arguments within the Austrian framework, particularly in the context of the Socialist Calculation Debate and the Hayek-Keynes debate on government fiscal and monetary interventions. This paper highlights how Shenoy's prescient critiques of inflation, resource misallocation, and the knowledge problem in India's planning efforts were grounded in the theories and frameworks of the Austrian school of economics.

Keywords: B. R. Shenoy, Central Planning, Planning in India, Austrian Economics, Socialist Calculation Debate, Hayek-Keynes Debate