Indian economy under British rule and other essays
- New Delhi Manohar Pub. 1984
- 223 p.
The parasitical symbiosis of an advanced capitalist nation with a vast peasant economy is studied in this volume from various points of view. An introduction provides an outline of the problems of the traditional economy and shows the dilemma of military feudalism. The first essay is devoted to an evaluation of the impact. of British rule on Indian economy. while the second one contains a survey of the social context of Indian history. A specific case study of the evolution of an economic enclave in the Indian coalfield rounds off the first part of this volume.
The second part contains three papers on agrarian relations. A British survey of rural migration and land. reclamation in India is used as a background for a discussion of population pressure or the scarcity of labour on the peasant economy and related issues. The record of rights which is a necessary precondition of land reform but has been beset with many problems in India is the subject of the subsequent paper. Finally the great land revenue debate of the late 19th century is examined in detail.
The third part encompasses three interrelated papers on the impact of the Great Depression of the 1930s on India. This crucial event provided a serious challenge to the continuation of British rule. The peasants who were deeply affected by the fall in prices and the burden of indebtedness turned against the British and looked to the National Congress for support. Regional differences in land systems and cropping patterns conditioned the response of the peasantry which is traced in the first paper on agrarian distress. British financial policy with special reference to the problem of the exchange rate is described in the next paper, while the final one contains. an analysis of British foreign trade policy in this period of imperial preference and discriminating protection.
These nine essays are chips from a historian's workshop which should stimulate further research in this field.