Book review: Narendra Shukla, British Raj aur Abhivyakti ki Swatantrata: Aupniveshik Bharat Mein Pratibandhit Sahitya

Published date01 June 2020
DOI10.1177/0019556120922190
Date01 June 2020
Subject MatterBook Reviews
Book Reviews 267
identified innovation as a critical dimension of economic change. According
to him, this economic change revolves around innovation, entrepreneurial acti-
vities and market power. He further considers technological innovation and
entrepreneurial activity as forces which transfer productive resources of the static
economy to dynamic innovations.
Schumpeter characterised ‘entrepreneur’ as someone who carries out new com-
binations called ‘innovation’ which differs vastly from ‘invention’. According to
Schumpeter, there are five major types of innovation which make the person a
successful entrepreneur viz. (1) a new source of raw material, (2) a new method of
production, (3) a new product, (4) a new market and (5) a new organisation (p. 5).
Schumpeter defines these five innovations as ‘carrying out of new combinations’.
But, over time, the forces of these new combinations tend to dissipate as the ‘new’
becomes part of the ‘old’. He further talks about the functions of an entrepreneur
that play a major role in the analysis of entrepreneurship.
Schumpeter considered the entrepreneur as the main agent of change in an
economy. His imagination about an entrepreneur is characteristically motivated by
different psychological motives and possesses a social leadership quality, perform-
ing the functions of commanding, prevailing and advancing. However, his later
version of entrepreneur being a random heroic figure essential for the prosperity
of the economy is largely disagreed by himself. Although limitations and criticisms
exist regarding Schumpeter and his theories, be it his theory of business cycles,
entrepreneurial innovation, socio-economic analysis of the capitalist process,
etc., he is seen as the early advocator of the term ‘entrepreneurship’. In addition,
Schumpeter, whose ‘creative destruction’ is as popular as Milton Friedman’s ‘there
is no free lunch’, is increasingly recognised as a major economist, often given the
same stature as John Maynard Keynes. All the fundamental theoretical insights that
he has provided, and the explanation of the key notions pertaining to entrepreneur
and entrepreneurship is a significant contribution to scholars in humanities and
social sciences. His introduction to the concept of entrepreneurship is a valuable
contribution to present-day society. It is a must-read book for anyone willing to
understand more of Schumpeter’s economic theories and his thinking with regard
to entrepreneur and entrepreneurship, and its role and influences.
Gadadhara Mohapatra
Assistant Professor of Sociology,
Indian Institute of Public Administration
Indraprastha Estate, Ring Road, New Delhi, India
E-mail: gadadharmohapatra.iipa@iipa.org.in
Narendra Shukla, British Raj aur Abhivyakti ki Swatantrata: Aupniveshik
Bharat Mein Pratibandhit Sahitya. New Delhi: Vani Prakashan, 2017,
308 pp., `695. ISBN: 978-93-88434-11-9.
DOI: 10.1177/0019556120922190
British Raj aur Abhivyakti ki Swatantrata, translated as British Raj and Freedom
of Expression (1907–1935), is a book that deals with the banned literature, films

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