Zones of reterritorialization: India's free trade zones in comparative perspective, 1947 to the 1980s*. Issue 3 (18th October 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Maruschke, Megan
• Is Part Of: Journal of global history. Volume 12:Issue 3(2017)
• Page Start: 410
• Page End: 432
• Publication Date: 2017-10-18
• Subjects: export processing zone, -- free trade zone, -- India, -- reterritorialization, -- special economic zone; World history -- Periodicals; Historiography -- Periodicals; Globalization -- Periodicals; 909
• DOI: 10.1017/S1740022817000201
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1740-0228

Abstract

Abstract: During the period of decolonization and the Cold War, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and US development agencies promoted free trade zones to developing countries. However, other zones emerged prior to and apart from these policy models, some of which, including India's early zones, took on features of this model only by the 1980s. To make sense of zones within and beyond a UNIDO model, this article understands them through their connection to the rise of nation-state territoriality around the world. The zone is thereby a spatial strategy used in processes of state (re)territorialization to rearticulate state spatiality under the global condition. This article explores such a perspective by situating the history of India's early free trade zones comparatively.