Overview
- Focuses on the question of whether the British were good or malign colonial rulers in India
- Examines how globalization and colonialism unfolded in India
- Investigates why peasants productivity rose but they remained poor
- Contrasts the experience of the princely states in India
Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Economic History (PEHS)
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About this book
This Palgrave Pivot revisits the topic of how British colonialism moulded work and life in India and what kind of legacy it left behind. Did British rule lead to India’s impoverishment, economic disruption and famine? Under British rule, evidence suggests there were beneficial improvements, with an eventual rise in life expectancy and an increase in wealth for some sectors of the population and economy, notably for much business and industry. Yet many poor people suffered badly, with agricultural stagnation and an underfunded government who were too small to effect general improvements. In this book Roy explains the paradoxical combination of wealth and poverty, looking at both sides of nineteenth century capitalism.
Between 1850 and 1930, India was engaged in a globalization process not unlike the one it has seen since the 1990s. The difference between these two times is that much of the region was under British colonial rule during the first episode, while it was an independent nation state during the second.
Roy's narrative has a contemporary relevance for emerging economies, where again globalization has unleashed extraordinary levels of capitalistic energy while leaving many livelihoods poor, stagnant, and discontented.
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Keywords
- Economic history of British rule in India
- Economic development in India
- Indian economic history
- British colonialism in India
- Globalization and India
- Nineteenth century globalization
- Indian agricultural history
- Indian manufacturing history
- Economic history of British India
- Indian merchant history
- Colonial India
- Trading economy
- Famine in British India
Table of contents (8 chapters)
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: How British Rule Changed India’s Economy
Book Subtitle: The Paradox of the Raj
Authors: Tirthankar Roy
Series Title: Palgrave Studies in Economic History
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17708-9
Publisher: Palgrave Pivot Cham
eBook Packages: Economics and Finance, Economics and Finance (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-17707-2Published: 30 May 2019
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-17708-9Published: 18 May 2019
Series ISSN: 2662-6497
Series E-ISSN: 2662-6500
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XV, 159
Number of Illustrations: 19 b/w illustrations, 6 illustrations in colour
Topics: Economic History, Imperialism and Colonialism, Asian Economics, Agricultural Economics, Development Economics, Economic Policy