For the book, Sutoris analysed 250 documentaries made by the Films Division of India between 1948 and 1975 to examine the Indian state’s postcolonial development ideology. Most of the documentaries analysed by Sutoris have never been discussed in existing literature, and deal with economic planning and industrialisation, large dams, family planning, schemes aimed at the integration of tribals (Adivasis) into society, and civic education. By comparing these documentaries to late-colonial films on ‘progress’, his book highlights continuities with and departures from colonial notions of development in modern India. 

Peter was in conversation with Avijit Mukul Kishore, the prolific filmmaker, cinematographer and film curator. 

About Peter Sutoris
Peter Sutoris, born in Slovakia, is a scholar of development, a documentary filmmaker (The Undiscovered Country) and an educator. A History graduate of Dartmouth College, he is currently a PhD candidate and Gates Scholar at the Education Faculty of Cambridge University. His current research focuses on cross-cultural scalability of development interventions, with a focus on environmental education programs.