ECONOMIC HISTORY OF INDIA (1857-1947)


Course Description

This course analyses key aspects of Indian economic development during the second half of British colonial rule. In doing so, it investigates the place of the Indian economy in the wider colonial context, and the mechanisms that linked economic development in India to the compulsions of colonial rule. This course links directly to the course on India‘s economic development after independence in 1947.

Course Outline

1. Introduction: Colonial India: Background and Introduction
Overview of colonial economy

2. Macro Trends
National Income; population; occupational structure.

3. Agriculture
Agrarian structure and land relations; agricultural markets and institutions – credit,
commerce and technology; trends in performance and productivity; famines.

4. Railways and Industry
Railways; the de-industrialisation debate; evolution of entrepreneurial and industrial
structure; nature of industrialisation in the interwar period; constraints to industrial breakthrough; labor relations.

5. Economy and State in the Imperial Context
The imperial priorities and the Indian economy; drain of wealth; international trade,
capital flows and the colonial economy – changes and continuities; government and fiscal policy.


THIS SECTION COMPRISES PREVIOUS YEAR PAPERS OF ECONOMIC HISTORY OF INDIA (1857-1947)




Readings:

1. Lakshmi Subramanian, “History of India 1707-1857”, Orient Blackswan, 2010, Chapter 4.

2. Sumit Guha, 1991, Mortality decline in early 20th century India‘, Indian Economic and Social History Review (IESHR), pp 371-74 and 385-87.

3. Tirthankar Roy, The Economic History of India 1857-1947, Oxford University
Press, 3rd edition, 2011.

4. J. Krishnamurty, Occupational Structure, Dharma Kumar (editor), The Cambridge
Economic History of India, Vol. II, (henceforth referred to as CEHI), 2005, Chapter

5. Irfan Habib, Indian Economy 1858-1914, A People‘s History of India, Vol.28, Tulika, 2006.

6. Ira Klein, 1984, ―When Rains Fail: Famine relief and mortality in British India‖,
IESHR 21.

7. Jean Dreze, Famine Prevention in India in Dreze and Sen (eds.) Political
Economy of Hunger, WIDER Studies in Development Economics, 1990, pp.13-
35.

8. John Hurd, Railways, CEHI, Chapter 8, pp.737-761.

9. Rajat Ray (ed.), Entrepreneurship and Industry in India, 1994.

10. AK Bagchi, ―Deindustrialization in India in the nineteenth century: Some theoretical implications‖, Journal of Development Studies, 1976.

11. MD Morris, Emergence of an Industrial Labour Force in India, OUP 1965, Chapter 11, Summary and Conclusions.

12. K.N. Chaudhuri, Foreign Trade and Balance of Payments, CEHI, Chapter 10.

13. B.R. Tomlison, 1975, India and the British Empire 1880-1935, IESHR, Vol.XII.

14. Dharma Kumar, The Fiscal System, CEHI, Chapter 12.

15. Basudev Chatterjee, Trade, Tariffs and Empire, OUP 1992, Epilogue. 

Background reading for students:
Irfan Habib, Indian Economy 1858-1914 (A People‘s History of India), Vol.28, Tulika
2006.

Daniel Thorner, Agrarian Prospect in India, 1977.

L. Visaria and P. Visaria, Population. CEHI, Chapter 5.

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