Download or read book Credit Markets and the Agrarian Economy of Colonial India written by Sugata Bose and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study draws on a variety of historiographical approaches to explore a theme central to all discussions of the colonial economy in India. Bose considers such questions as why peasants borrowed, how credit intruded into peasants' lives and transformed their world, how we may most usefully characterize the relationship between peasants and usurers, and how debtors perceive their creditors.
Download or read book Traditional Industry in the Economy of Colonial India written by Tirthankar Roy and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1999-11-04 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The majority of workers in South Asia are employed in industries that rely on manual labour and craft skills. Some of these industries have existed for centuries and survived great changes in consumption and technology over the last 150 years. In earlier studies, historians of the region focused on mechanized rather than craft industries, arguing that traditional manufacturing was destroyed or devitalized during the colonial period, and that modern industry is substantially different. Exploring new material from research into five traditional industries, Tirthankar Roy s book contests these notions, demonstrating that while traditional industry did evolve during the Industrial Revolution, these transformations had a positive rather than destructive effect on manufacturing generally. In fact, the book suggests, the major industries in post-independence India were shaped by such transformations. Tirthankar Roy s book offers new and penetrating insights into India s economic and social history.
Download or read book Stages of Capital written by Ritu Birla and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2009-01-14 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Stages of Capital, Ritu Birla brings research on nonwestern capitalisms into conversation with postcolonial studies to illuminate the historical roots of India’s market society. Between 1870 and 1930, the British regime in India implemented a barrage of commercial and contract laws directed at the “free” circulation of capital, including measures regulating companies, income tax, charitable gifting, and pension funds, and procedures distinguishing gambling from speculation and futures trading. Birla argues that this understudied legal infrastructure institutionalized a new object of sovereign management, the market, and along with it, a colonial concept of the public. In jurisprudence, case law, and statutes, colonial market governance enforced an abstract vision of modern society as a public of exchanging, contracting actors free from the anachronistic constraints of indigenous culture. Birla reveals how the categories of public and private infiltrated colonial commercial law, establishing distinct worlds for economic and cultural practice. This bifurcation was especially apparent in legal dilemmas concerning indigenous or “vernacular” capitalists, crucial engines of credit and production that operated through networks of extended kinship. Focusing on the story of the Marwaris, a powerful business group renowned as a key sector of India’s capitalist class, Birla demonstrates how colonial law governed vernacular capitalists as rarefied cultural actors, so rendering them illegitimate as economic agents. Birla’s innovative attention to the negotiations between vernacular and colonial systems of valuation illustrates how kinship-based commercial groups asserted their legitimacy by challenging and inhabiting the public/private mapping. Highlighting the cultural politics of market governance, Stages of Capital is an unprecedented history of colonial commercial law, its legal fictions, and the formation of the modern economic subject in India.
Download or read book Agrarian Development in Colonial India written by Peter Robb and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2021-07-08 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book looks at agriculture, development, poverty and British rule in India, especially in the Patna Division in Bihar between c.1870–1920. It traces the economic influence of British policies and maps the impact of legal, administrative and scientific interventions to rural conditions and norms in the state. The book discusses British theories and policies of ‘improvement’, comparing them with Bihar’s agricultural practice and socio-economic conditions to draw conclusions about rural impoverishment. Following on from his earlier book, Ancient Rights and Future Comfort on the Bengal Tenancy Act of 1885, the author also presents case studies on famines, debts, canal and village irrigation, flood-protection and the cultivation and production of indigo, opium and sugar. He analyses extensive archival material to reflect on property law, scientific interventions, cropping patterns, trade and intermediaries. He examines the economic role of governments, Eurocentric development theories and the complex impact of development policy on agriculture and society in Bihar. The book will be of interest to academics and students of colonial history, modern Indian history, agrarian studies, economic history, sociology, and development studies. It will also be useful to development practitioners and researchers working on the history of agrarian conditions and public policy.
Download or read book Economic Evolution and Revolution in Historical Time written by Paul W. Rhode and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2011-01-28 with total page 488 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book challenges the static, ahistorical models on which Economics continues to rely. These models presume that markets operate on a "frictionless" plane where abstract forces play out independent of their institutional and spatial contexts, and of the influences of the past. In reality, at any point in time exogenous factors are themselves outcomes of complex historical processes. They are shaped by institutional and spatial contexts, which are "carriers of history," including past economic dynamics and market outcomes. To examine the connections between gradual, evolutionary change and more dramatic, revolutionary shifts the text takes on a wide array of historically salient economic questions—ranging from how formative, European encounters reconfigured the political economies of indigenous populations in Africa, the Americas, and Australia to how the rise and fall of the New Deal order reconfigured labor market institutions and outcomes in the twentieth century United States. These explorations are joined by a common focus on formative institutions, spatial structures, and market processes. Through historically informed economic analyses, contributors recognize the myriad interdependencies among these three frames, as well as their distinct logics and temporal rhythms.
Download or read book Late Victorian Holocausts written by Mike Davis and published by Verso Books. This book was released on 2017-01-01 with total page 367 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examining a series of El Niño-induced droughts and the famines that they spawned around the globe in the last third of the 19th century, Mike Davis discloses the intimate, baleful relationship between imperial arrogance and natural incident that combined to produce some of the worst tragedies in human history. Late Victorian Holocausts focuses on three zones of drought and subsequent famine: India, Northern China; and Northeastern Brazil. All were affected by the same global climatic factors that caused massive crop failures, and all experienced brutal famines that decimated local populations. But the effects of drought were magnified in each case because of singularly destructive policies promulgated by different ruling elites. Davis argues that the seeds of underdevelopment in what later became known as the Third World were sown in this era of High Imperialism, as the price for capitalist modernization was paid in the currency of millions of peasants' lives.
Download or read book Capital Shortage written by Maanik Nath and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2023-07-31 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The great majority of the population in colonial and postcolonial India lived in the countryside and were poor. Many were unable to find gainful work outside agriculture and remained dependent on a livelihood that provided only subsistence, and a precarious one. Seeking the roots of persistent poverty, Maanik Nath finds that the pervasive high cost and shortage of capital affected the peasant's ability to invest in land. The productivity of land, as a result, remained small and changed little. Bridging economic theory and historical evidence, Capital Shortage shows that climate, law, policy design, and interactions between these factors, perpetuated a stubborn cycle of low investment and widespread deprivation over several decades. These findings can be tested against credit and development in preceding and succeeding periods as well as positioned in comparative global context.
Download or read book The Economy of Modern India written by B. R. Tomlinson and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013-04-25 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A unique examination of the development of the modern Indian economy over the past 150 years.
Download or read book A Century of Protests written by Arupjyoti Saikia and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-08-12 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Addressing an important gap in the historiography of modern Assam, this book traces the relatively unexplored but profound transformations in the agrarian landscape of late- and post-colonial Assam that were instrumental in the making of modern Assamese peasantry and rural politics. It discusses the changing relations between various sections of peasantry, state, landed gentry, and politics of different ideological hues — nationalist, communist and socialist — and shows how a primarily agrarian question concerning peasantry came to occupy the centre stage in the nationalist politics of the state. It will especially interest scholars of history, agrarian and peasant studies, sociology, and contemporary politics, as also those concerned with Northeast India.
Download or read book The Economic History of India 1857 2010 written by Tirthankar Roy and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020-09-10 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the end of the eighteenth century, two distinct global processes began to transform livelihoods and living conditions in the South Asia region. These were the rise of British colonial rule and globalization, that is, the integration of the region in the emerging world markets for goods, capital, and labour services. Two hundred years later, India was the home to many of the world's poorest people as well as one of the fastest growing market economies in the world. Does a study of the past help to explain the paradox of growth amidst poverty? The Economic History of India: 1857–2010 claims that the roots of this paradox go back to India's colonial past, when internal factors like geography and external forces like globalization and imperial rule created prosperity in some areas and poverty in others. Looking at the recent scholarship in this area, this revised edition covers new subjects like environment and princely states. The author sets out the key questions that a study of long-run economic change in India should begin with and shows how historians have answered these questions and where the gaps remain.
Download or read book Peasant History of Late Pre colonial and Colonial India written by B. B. Chaudhuri and published by Pearson Education India. This book was released on 2008 with total page 988 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book An Agrarian History of South Asia written by David Ludden and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2011-02-17 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally published in 1999, David Ludden's book offers a comprehensive historical framework for understanding the regional diversity of agrarian South Asia. Adopting a long-term view of history, it treats South Asia not as a single civilization territory, but rather as a patchwork of agrarian regions, each with their own social, cultural and political histories. The discussion begins during the first millennium, when farming communities displaced pastoral and tribal groups, and goes on to consider the development of territoriality from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. Subsequent chapters consider the emergence of agrarian capitalism in village societies under the British, and demonstrate how economic development in contemporary South Asia continues to reflect the influence of agrarian localism. As a comparative synthesis of the literature on agrarian regimes in South Asia, the book promises to be a valuable resource for students of agrarian and regional history as well as of comparative world history.
Download or read book A History of India written by Peter Robb and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2017-09-16 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This fresh and up-to-date interpretation of India's rich and extraordinary history, written by a leading authority in the field, explores themes in ancient, medieval and especially modern India. Peter Robb's accessible study analyses India's civilizations, empires and regions through the ages, and now also evaluates present-day developments and opportunities. A History of India, Second Edition • examines the relationships between politics, religious belief, social order, environment and economic change • assesses, from c. 1860, British colonialism, Indian nationalism and nation-building, popular protest movements, religious revivals, and re-inventions of caste, community and gender • discusses long-term economic development, the impact of global trade, and the origins of rural poverty • has been revised in the light of the latest scholarship, and now features a Chronology as well as a fully reworked final chapter which brings the story up to the present day and carefully considers India's prospects and new roles in the world. Centred around clearly expressed and well argued topics, issues and explanations, A History of India remains the ideal introduction for all those who wish to understand the drama and vitality of India's past, its present situation and its future challenges.
Download or read book A New Economic History of Colonial India written by Latika Chaudhary and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-08-20 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New Economic History of Colonial India provides a new perspective on Indian economic history. Using economic theory and quantitative methods, it shows how the discipline is being redefined and how new scholarship on India is beginning to embrace and make use of concepts from the larger field of global economic history and economics. The book discusses the impact of property rights, the standard of living, the labour market and the aftermath of the Partition. It also addresses how education and work changed, and provides a rethinking of traditional topics including de-industrialization, industrialization, railways, balance of payments, and the East India Company. Written in an accessible way, the contributors – all leading experts in their fields – firmly place Indian history in the context of world history. An up-to-date critical survey and novel resource on Indian Economic History, this book will be useful for undergraduate and postgraduate courses on Economic History, Indian and South Asian Studies, Economics and Comparative and Global History.
Download or read book Law and the Economy in a Young Democracy written by Tirthankar Roy and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2022-02-08 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An essential history of India's economic growth since 1947, including the legal reforms that have shaped the country in the shadow of colonial rule. Economists have long lamented how the inefficiency of India's legal system undermines the country’s economic capacity. How has this come to be? The prevailing explanation is that the postcolonial legal system is understaffed and under-resourced, making adjudication and contract enforcement slow and costly. Taking this as given, Law and the Economy in a Young Democracy examines the contents and historical antecedents of these laws, including how they have stifled economic development. Economists Roy and Swamy argue that legal evolution in independent India has been shaped by three factors: the desire to reduce inequality and poverty; the suspicion that market activity, both domestic and international, can be detrimental to these goals; and the strengthening of Indian democracy over time, giving voice to a growing fraction of society, including the poor. Weaving the story of India's heralded economic transformation with its social and political history, Roy and Swamy show how inadequate legal infrastructure has been a key impediment to the country's economic growth during the last century. A stirring and authoritative history of a nation rife with contradictions, Law and the Economy in a Young Democracy is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand India's current crossroads—and the factors that may keep its dreams unrealized.
Download or read book Feeding the World written by Giovanni Federico and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2010-12-16 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the last two centuries, agriculture has been an outstanding, if somewhat neglected, success story. Agriculture has fed an ever-growing population with an increasing variety of products at falling prices, even as it has released a growing number of workers to the rest of the economy. This book, a comprehensive history of world agriculture during this period, explains how these feats were accomplished. Feeding the World synthesizes two hundred years of agricultural development throughout the world, providing all essential data and extensive references to the literature. It covers, systematically, all the factors that have affected agricultural performance: environment, accumulation of inputs, technical progress, institutional change, commercialization, agricultural policies, and more. The last chapter discusses the contribution of agriculture to modern economic growth. The book is global in its reach and analysis, and represents a grand synthesis of an enormous topic.
Download or read book Law and the Economy in Colonial India written by Tirthankar Roy and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2016-09-20 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By accessibly recounting and analyzing the unique experience of institutions in colonial India--which were influenced heavily by both British Common Law and indigenous Indian practices and traditions--Law and the Economy in Colonial India sheds new light on what exactly fosters the types of institutions that have been key to economic development throughout world history more generally. The culmination and years of research, the book goes through a range of examples, including textiles, opium, tea, indigo, tenancy, credit, and land mortgage, to show how economic laws in colonial India were shaped neither by imported European ideas about how colonies should be ruled nor indigenous institutions, but by the practice of producing and trading. The book is an essential addition to Indian history and to some of the most fundamental questions in economic history.
