Since 1947, development planning in South Asia has evolved into a battleground between alternative visions of society, gov ernment and human. Is democracy a luxury only wealthy nations can afford, or the best way out of poverty? Does development depend primarily on introducing technologies, or on building in stitutions? Is it a matter of injecting large amounts of capital, or of building systems of effective management? Does it require greater central control or more local organizational capability? Do low educational levels and general poverty require that devel opment priorities be decided by an administrative or technocratic elite, or does control by an insulated elite assure low levels of gen eral education and continuing poverty?