The Economic History Of India

This compact synthesis describes the economic history of India from the Moghul invasions, through the East India Company and colonialism to the twentieth century. Much has been written on the Indian economy, but this is the first major attempt to present India's economic history as a process. Rothermund places the development of agriculture and industry in political context and discusses currency and monetary policies, which are of central importance in all periods of Indian history.In this paperback edition the chapters covering the 'Green Revolution' and the Industrial Recession, and Population Growth and Economic Development, have been rewritten to bring the book totally up-to-date.

The economic history of early India is a rich and diverse area of study, covering agricultural developments, trade, markets, occupation and professional groups, urbanization and the institutions that govern the economy. Recent research has expanded our understanding of the processes of transformation of the economy in different temporal contexts within the Indian sub-continent. They have particularly led us to explore connected histories given the trans-continental trading networks and movements of people from very early times. This volume seeks to draw attention to this vast and unexplored terrain in the economic history of early India, by bringing together essays on a new and rich historiography. Essays in the volume cover neglected regions, economic processes and structures. Scholars have looked at questions of settlements, crops that were cultivated and market orientation. Essays cover material culture and provide insights into how early Indians lived, what kinds of activities they were engaged in, and how they organised their production activities within and outside domestic spaces. Further the volume bring new insights on hierarchy of settlement types, nature of exchange, and the significance of a nodal site in exchange networks. Maritime history as well as the understanding of trade in its varied forms and manifestations are covered in several essays.

First Published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

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.

Much has been written on the Indian economy but this is the first major attempt to present India's economic history as a continuous process, and to place the development of agriculture, industry and currency in a political and historical context.

This book is a text for undergraduate students of economics. It is a balanced reference that reexamines the broad questions that drive the scholarship of colonial Indian history.