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; la...