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Abstract
This paper investigates the development of a close relationship between the Ford Foundation—the world’s richest and most internationally oriented philanthropic organisation in the Cold War era—and India in the 1950s. Unlike existing literature on private foundation–recipient country relationships, which overwhelmingly focusses on the donor perspective, this essay explores the recipient perspective, thereby contributing to the emerging literature on Third World agency in international politics. Complicating the idea that recipient countries were overwhelmingly interested in aid maximisation, this article shows that India moved closer to the Ford Foundation in order to fulfil diplomatic rather than aid-related objectives.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Andrew Sartori, Manu Goswami, John Shovlin, Corinna Unger, Mary Nolan, Anirban Bandopadhyay, Geoffrey Levin, Joshua Sooter, Ella Wind, Debak Das and Sneha Lamba for commenting on various drafts of this paper. I am also grateful to the two anonymous South Asia reviewers for their extremely valuable suggestions. Of course, all errors are mine.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. Francis X. Sutton, ‘The Ford Foundation: The Early Years’, in Daedalus, Vol. 116, no. 1 (1987), pp. 41–91.
2. Mark Robinson, Chris Parker and Gowher Rizvi, Investing in Ideas, Innovations, and Institutions: An Overview (New Delhi: Ford Foundation, 2002).
3. Peter D. Bell, ‘The Ford Foundation as a Transnational Actor’, in International Organization, Vol. 25, no. 3 (June 1971), pp. 465–78; and Corinna R. Unger, ‘Present at the Creation: The Role of American Foundations in the International Development Arena, 1950s and 1960s’, in Comparativ, Vol. 24, no. 1 (2014), pp. 66–80 (68).
4. Unger, ‘Present at the Creation’, p. 70.
5. Inderjeet Parmar, Foundations of the American Century: The Ford, Carnegie, and Rockefeller Foundations in the Rise of American Power (New York: Columbia University Press, 2015); Edward H. Berman, The Influence of the Carnegie, Ford and Rockefeller Foundations on American Foreign Policy: The Ideology of Philanthropy (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1983); and Kathleen D. McCarthy, ‘From Cold War to Cultural Development: The International Cultural Activities of the Ford Foundation, 1950–1980’, in Daedalus, Vol. 116, no. 1 (1987), pp. 93–117.
6. Examples of US post-World War II histories include Michael E. Latham, The Right Kind of Revolution: Modernization, Development, and US Foreign Policy from the Cold War to the Present (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2011); and David Ekbladh, The Great American Mission: Modernization & the Construction of an American World Order (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2009).
7. David Engerman, Price of Aid: The Economic Cold War in India (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2019), pp. 8, 64; and Nick Cullather, The Hungry World: America’s Cold War Battle against Poverty in Asia (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010), p. 146.
8. Mathew Connelly, Fatal Misconception: The Struggle to Control World Population (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008), pp. 200–1.
9. Nicole Sakley, ‘Foundation in the Field: The Ford Foundation New Delhi Office and the Construction of Development Knowledge, 1951–1970’, in Ulriche Herbert and Leonhard John (eds), American Foundations and the Coproduction of World Order in the Twentieth Century (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2012), pp. 232–60; Leonard A. Gordon, ‘Wealth Equals Wisdom? The Rockefeller and Ford Foundations in India’, in The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 554, no. 1 (Nov. 1997), pp. 104–16; and Kathleen D. McCarthy, ‘From Government to Grass-Roots Reform: The Ford Foundation’s Population Programmes in South Asia, 1959–1981’, in VOLUNTAS, Vol. 6, no. 3 (1995), pp. 292–316.
10. Engerman, Price of Aid, pp. 11–2.
11. For a discussion, see Stuart Corbridge and John Harriss, Reinventing India: Liberalization, Hindu Nationalism and Popular Democracy (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2000), pp. 43–66, quote at p. 45.
12. Dennis Merrill, Bread and the Ballot: The United States and India’s Economic Development 1947–1963 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1990); H.W. Brands, India and the United States: The Cold Peace (Boston, MA: Twayne Publishers, 1990); Robert J. McMahon, Cold War on the Periphery: United States, India, and Pakistan (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996); and Rudra Chaudhuri, Forged in Crisis: India and the United States since 1947 (Noida: Harper Collins Publishers, 2014).
13. Vijayalakshmi Pandit to Jawaharlal Nehru, 14 May 1951, Vijayalakshmi Pandit Papers, 1st Instalment, Subject File 59, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (henceforth, NMML).
14. Program Planning Division Staff Meeting, 15 May 1951, Reel C-1141, FA 735, John B. Howard, Series 1951: General Correspondence, Ford Foundation Records, Rockefeller Archive Center (RAC) (henceforth, Howard Correspondence).
15. Ibid.
16. The Ford Foundation’s records suggest that its interest was initially limited to India. Hoffman’s mission went to Pakistan, it appears, because not doing so would mean getting sucked into ‘Asian politics’. See letter by Justice O. Douglas to Paul Hoffman, 24 July 1951, Howard Correspondence.
17. Howard to ‘Bun’, 15 Aug. 1951, Howard Correspondence.
18. ‘Report on Visit to Near East, South Asia and Far East’, 1951, Ford Foundation Records, Catalogued Reports, Reports 1-3254, RAC.
19. Ibid.
20. Vijayalakshmi Pandit to Paul Hoffman, 20 July 1951, Howard Correspondence.
21. ‘Report on Visit to Near East, South Asia and Far East’.
22. ‘Memorandum from Paul Hoffman’, 19 Dec. 1951, Howard Correspondence.
23. Jawaharlal Nehru to the Secretary General, Foreign Secretary, and the Commonwealth Secretary, 24 April 1954, Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru, Second Series (New Delhi: Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund, 1984-2017), SWJN2, Vol. 25, p. 494.
24. ‘US Economic Assistance to India’, 1966, MEA, WII/104/26/66, National Archives of India (henceforth, NAI).
25. Jawaharlal Nehru to Vijayalakshmi Pandit, 13 Feb. 1951, Vijayalakshmi Pandit Papers, 1st Instalment, Subject File 60, NMML.
26. For figures between 1951 and 1955, see Deshmukh to Nehru, 28 July 1955, JN SG 365, Part II, NMML. For figures between 1951 and 1967, see ‘The Ford Foundation and Foundation-Supported Activities in India: Summary of Grants from 1951 to Jan 1st 1967’, 1967, Ford Foundation Records, Catalogued Reports, Reports 1–1324, RAC. For US figures, see ‘US Economic Assistance to India’, 1966, MEA, WII/104/26/66, NAI. These figures do not include American rupee and dollar loans or PL 480 assistance.
27. ‘A. 37 The Importance of having a Strategy for Introducing Change’, Ford Foundation Records, Douglas Ensminger Oral History, Series A: Topic Related to non-Project areas, Box 1 (1971)’, RAC (henceforth Ensminger Oral History Series A).
28. Daniel Immerwahr, Thinking Small: The United States and the Lure of Community Development (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2015), p. 76.
29. Ibid.
30. ‘Introduction’, Ensminger Oral History Series A, RAC.
31. Nicolas R. Micinski, ‘The Changing Role of the Ford Foundation in International Development 1951–2001’, in VOLUNTAS, Vol. 28 no. 3 (2017), pp. 1301–25.
32. ‘Ford Foundation’s Nineteen Years of Involvement with India’s Community Development Program’, Ford Foundation Records, Douglas Ensminger Oral History, Series B: Topics Related to Project Areas, Box 2 (1971), RAC (henceforth, Ensminger Oral History, Series B).
33. Ibid.
34. ‘Ford Testifies on Work of Foundation’, The Washington Post (25 Nov. 1952), Historical Newspapers (Proquest) [https://search-proquest-com.proxy.library.nyu.edu/docview/152440988/D760AF48D093407CPQ/53?accountid=12768, accessed 18 Mar. 2019].
35. Albert Meyer was one of the most important Americans in India in the 1940s and 1950s, especially close to Nehru, and an important figure in the Community Development Program. However, his specific role in shaping the India–Ford Foundation relationship is not clear and needs more research.
36. Mehta to Deshmukh, 7 Mar. 1954, C.D. Deshmukh Papers, 1st Instalment, NMML.
37. McMahon, Cold War on the Periphery, p. 172.
38. Nehru to Secretary General, 14 April 1954, SWJN2, Vol. 25, pp. 492–3; and Nehru to Secretary General, 4 Mar. 1954, SWJN2, Vol. 25, pp. 489–90.
39. Nehru to Secretary General, 7 Sept. 1955, Jawaharlal Nehru Papers, 380 Part, 1, NMML (henceforth, Nehru Papers).
40. Nehru to Secretary General, 4 Mar. 1954, SWJN2, Vol. 25, pp. 489–90.
41. Nehru to General Secretary AICC, 18 May 1955, SWJN2, Vol. 28.
42. Ibid.
43. Nehru to Mohan Singh Sinha, 22 April 1953, SWJN2, Vol. 22, pp. 318–20.
44. Nehru to G.L. Mehta, 7 Sept. 1953, SWJN2, Vol. 23, pp. 493–4.
45. The Foreign Assistance Organization was the precursor to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
46. G.L. Mehta to Nehru, 26 May 1954, G.L. Mehta Papers, 3rd and 4th Instalments, NMML.
47. Nehru to G.L. Mehta, 7 June 1954, Nehru Papers, 259 Part I, NMML.
48. C.D. Deshmukh to Nehru, 28 July 1955, Nehru Papers, 365 Part II, NMML.
49. Nehru to C.D. Deshmukh, 29 July 1955, Nehru Papers, 366 Part I, NMML.
50. Nehru Papers, 365 Part II, NMML.
51. Nehru to Rowan Gaither Jr., 3 Sept. 1955, Nehru Papers, 380 Part II, NMML.
52. Nehru to Secretary General, 3 Sept. 1955, Nehru Papers, 380 Part II, NMML.
53. Under Dulles, the United States supported Portugal’s claim on Goa over India’s.
54. Mehta to S. Dutt, 11 Feb. 1956, MEA, 68(9)-AMS/56, NAI.
55. Vijayalakshmi Pandit to Nehru, 14 Nov. 1952, G.L. Mehta Papers, 3rd and 4th Instalments, NMML.
56. Oral History Interview, Nicholas G. Thacher, 28 May 1992, Truman Library, p. 43 [https://www.trumanlibrary.org/oralhist/thachern.htm, accessed 20 Mar. 2019]; also see ‘Principal Features of Republican Foreign Policy during 1953’, MEA, 1954, S/54/1333/70, NAI.
57. Ministry of External Affairs, 68(9)-AMS/56, NAI.
58. Nehru to Krishna Menon, 12 Mar. 1954, SWJN2, Vol. 25.
59. ‘Cabinet Resolution’, Nehru Papers, 259 Part 1, 4 June 1954, NMML.
60. Nehru to G.L. Mehta, 7 June 1954, Nehru Papers, 259 Part I.
61. ‘Note to the Members of the Cabinet’, 10 Sept. 1954, SWJN2, Vol. 26.
62. Edward F. Ryan, ‘Probe of Foundations Beset by Committee Fight on Focus’, The Washington Post and Times Herald (1954–59) (17 May 1954), Historical Newspaper (Proquest) [https://search-proquest-com.proxy.library.nyu.edu/docview/148532409/509F0A4D3C074C94PQ/23?accountid=12768, accessed 18 Mar. 2019].
63. Micinski, ‘The Changing Role of the Ford Foundation in International Development, 1951–2001’.
64. ‘Current Topics’, The Times of India (1861–Current), 17 Feb. 1955, Historical Newspaper (Proquest) [https://search-proquest-com.proxy.library.nyu.edu/docview/613574845/4E59EE3592AC4AF2PQ/89?accountid=12768, accessed 20 Sept. 2020].
65. See Unger, ‘Present at Creation’, for an explanation of the foundations’ success in fending off domestic (US) political attacks.
66. Nehru to Congress Parliamentary Committee, 3 May 1955, SWJN2, Vol. 28, p. 154.
67. For Nehru’s enthusiasm for Appleby’s report, see ‘Paul Appleby’s Visit to India’, Unpublished Writings and Articles, 1962, 1963, 1964, Deshmukh Papers, 1st Instalment, NMML; also see ‘Relationship with Nehru’, Ensminger Oral History, Series A, RAC, pp. 17–8.
68. G.L. Mehta to Jawaharlal Nehru, 26 May 1954, G.L. Mehta Papers, 3rd and 4th Instalments, NMML.
69. Sutton, ‘The Ford Foundation’.
70. Ibid.; also see Bell, ‘The Ford Foundation as a Transnational Actor’.
71. ‘The Sensitivity of the Ford Foundation Contributing to India’s Art and Cultural Programs’, Ensminger Oral History, Series B.
72. McCarthy, ‘From Cold War to Cultural Development’, p. 98.
73. ‘Books for South India Program’, 1955, MEA, S/54/7231/70, NAI.
74. Ibid.
75. Ibid.
76. Ibid.
77. Leela Gandhi, The Ford Foundation and Its Art and Culture Program in India: A Short History, 50th Anniversary Monograph Series (New Delhi: The Ford Foundation, 2002), p. 26.
78. ‘Southern Languages Book Trust: Final Report’, Report 008290, 1961, Ford Foundation Records, Catalogued Reports, 6262–9286, RAC; Ford Foundation Program Letter no. 78, RAC; ‘The Southern Languages Book Trust: Problems and Progress’, Report 001778, 1956, Ford Foundation Records, Catalogued Reports, 1–3254, RAC. I would like thank Anne Schult for taking time out from her own research to get to these documents for me.
79. Connelly, Fatal Misconception, p. 199.
80. Rockefeller Foundation and Ford Foundation Operations in India’, 1958, MEA, 67(4) AMS/58, NAI.
81. Cullather, The Hungry World, p. 77.
82. ‘Rockefeller Foundation and Ford Foundation Operations in India’, 1958, MEA, 67(4) AMS/58, NAI.
83. Ibid.
84. For Ford Foundation–Iran relations, see Victor V. Nemchenok, ‘“That So Fair a Thing Should Be So Frail”: The Ford Foundation and the Failure of Rural Development in Iran, 1953–1964’, in The Middle East Journal, Vol. 63, no. 2 (2009), pp. 261–84.