COLONIALISM and INDIAN ECONOMY AmiyaKumar Bagchi OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS nDS:YS:I 111\JIVS:D~ITV I IRD ADIi:«;. OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRBSS YMCA Library Building, Jai Singh Road, New Delhi 110 001 Oxfurd University Press is a deparnnent of the University of Oxfurd. 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JaiSingh iw.,d, .l')tcw Velhi 110 00 I J In grateful memory of Maurice Herbert Dobb (1900-76) and Joan Violet Robinson (1903-83) Contents List of Tables viii Preface xi Acknowledgements xiii Introduction ColonialRule as StructuralAdjustment: Expropriation,Agency, and Survival xv 1. An Estimate of the Gross Domestic Material Product of 1 Bengal and Bihar in 1794 from Colebrooke's Data 2. Reflections on Patterns of Regional Growth in India 13 under British Rule 3. De-industrialization in India in the Nineteenth Century: 57 Some Theoretical Implications 4. De-industrialization in Gangetic Bihar: 1809-1901 89 5. A Reply (to Dr Marika Vicziany) 106 6. Relation of Agriculture to Industry in the Context of 115 South Asia 7. Indian Demography and Economy in the Long 136 Fin-de-siecle.1876-1914 8. Land Tax, Property Rights, and Peasant Insecurity in 194 Colonial India 9. Markets, Market Failures, and the Transformation of 242 Authority, Property, and Bondage in Colonial India Bibliography 264 Index 293 Tables 1 Land Revenue of Different Presidencies of xxvii British India (in £s), 1792-1811 2 Proportion of Population Dependent on Secondary xl Industry in Four Districts of the Madras Presidency, in 1901 3 Population of Lucknow (1857-81) xl 2.1 Five-Yearly Averages of Total Exports of 18 Merchandise from the Four Major Regions oflndia 2.2 Five-Yearly Averages of Export Surplus 19 (Export minus Import of Merchan,dise) of Different Regions of India 2.3 Percentages of Provincial Trade Passing 20 Through Different Major Ports 2.4 Area Irrigated in Madras, Punjab, and the 39 United Provinces by Government Works, Annual Averages 2.5 Percentage Change in Acreage and Yield per Acre in 41 Different Regions of India 2.6 Acreage and yield of crops in Greater Bengal 44 2.7 Total Growth of Population in Three Provinces 49 3.1 Population Dependent on Secondary Industry in 62 Gangetic Bihar around 1809-13 3.2 Population Dependent on Secondary Industry in 1901 63 Tables ix 4.1 Numbers of Population, Spinners and Industrial 95 Workers other than Spinners, Buchanan's Survey Districts 1809-13 4.2 Family Size in the Survey Districts of Buchanan 96 1809-13 4.3 Industrial Population in Selected Bihar Districts 96 around 1809-13 4.4 Population Dependent on Industry in 1901 98 in Selected Bihar Districts 4.5 Industrial Population Dependent on Cotton 99 Weaving and Spinning 1809-13 4.6 Relative Weight of the Cotton Industry in the 100 Total Industrial Population in Selected Bihar Districts, 1901 5.1 Estimated Population and Population Dependent 111 on Secondary Industry in Gangetic Bihar, 1809-19 5.2 Total Population and Population Dependent 112 on Secondary Industry (Including Construction) in 1901 in Six Bihar Districts 7.1 Landed Cost of Jute per Maund in Calcutta, 145 1879-80 to 1882-3 7.2 Index Numbers of Retail Prices of Major Food 147 Crops in India, 1880-1 to 1900-01 7.3 Intercensal Percentage Changes in Population in 148 Major Provinces and States in India, 1872-1921 7.4 National Income and Foreign Disbursements, 150 India, 1900-05 7.5 Indian Jute Mills, 1879-80 to 1909-10 161 7.6 Exports of Raw Jute and Jute Manufacturers 162 from India, 1879-80 to 1909-10 7.7 Area under Tea and Av1::rageAnnual Production of Tea 164 in British India, 1886-1910 7.8 Average Annual Production, Exports, and Imports of 167 Coal in British India, 1886-1910 7.9 Annual Averages of Exports of Cotton Twist and 173 Yarn to Foreign Countries from India, 1871-89 7.10 Annual Averages oflmports of Cotton Twist and 174 Yarn into India, 1871-9 " X Tables 7.11 Annual Averages of Values oflmports of Cotton 174 Manufacturers (other than twist and yarn) into India, 1866-89 7.12 Net Imports of Cotton Piece-goods into Different 175 Provinces of India in 1888-9 7.13 Value oflmports of Cotton Twist and Yarn into 176 Different Provinces of India, 1888-9 7.14 Decadal Rates of Growth of Employment in 177 Indian Provinces: Cotton Mills, 1879-1910 7.15 Progress of Cotton Mills in Bombay and India 185 between 1880 and 1915 8.1 Tillage, Land Revenue, and Prices, Indapur Taluka, 208 1818-37 8.2 Dry-crop Tillage, Total Revenue Paid, 209 Revenue Unpaid, and Prices in Karmala Group of Villages, Sholapur, 1822--42 8.3 Tillage and Revenue in the Ropla Group of Villages, 210 Sholapur 1822--41 8.4 Bijapur: Tillage and Land Revenue in the 475 Villages 211 of Badami, Bagalkot, and Bijapur Segments, 1820--44 8.5 Tillage and Revenue, Ahmadnagar, ·1821-51 212 8.6 Tillage and Revenue in the Poona District, 213 1839--40 to 1882-3 8.7 Indapur, Tillage, 1838-59 214 8.8 Population of the Four Bombay Deccan Districts, 217 1872-1921 Preface rom the time I began to examine the phenomenon of the low standard Fof living of the vast majority of the Indian people, I was repeatedly forced to ask questions about how it came about. The answers almost always required delving into history. Very often that delving required me to throw away the false arguments that covered up the real reasons. Most of the papers that have been collected in this volume arose out of that quest for the basic reasons for the emergence and perdurance oflow human development in a country that gave rise to one of the ancient civilizations of the world. The papers have been written over a period covering a quarter of a century. Naturally, their writing has involved incurring a debt to very large numbers of economists and historians. Some of that debt has been acknowledged in specific cases. But I should record my debt to those institutions in particular which facilitated my researches. They include the Centre for Social Sciences, Calcutta; the State Bank of India and especially the team of researchers in the History Cell of the bank, ably led by Abhik Ray; the Maison des Sciences de !'Homme, Paris; and the Institute of Development Studies Kolkata (IDSK). Many friends helped stimulate my thinking and dispel cobwebs of confusion. They include Samir Amin, Maurice Aymard, Debdas Banerjee, Himani Bannerji, Sabyasachi Bhattacharya, Terry Byres, Nirmal Chandra, the late Pramit Chaudhuri, Amalendu Guha, Irfan Habib, John McGuire, the late John Martinussen, Saugata Mukherji, Prabhat Patnaik, Utsa Patnaik, Peter Reeves, Manoj Sanyal, Mark Selden, Amartya Sen, Sunanda Sen, Marika Vicziany, Immanuel Wallerstein, and David Washbrook. I am lucky that practically all the members of my immediate family, Barnita Bagchi, J asoclhara Bagchi, Tista Bagchi, andAditya Bhattacharjea xii Preface have, at various times, acted as sounding boards for my ideas. At the IDSK, Ramkrishna Chatterjee, Madhusri Ghosh, Sanchari Guha (Samanta) and Kakoli Banerjee and all members of the devoted non­ academic staff have helped in the production of the book. Juliet Yee of Monash Asia Institute helped find a critical reference. At the Oxford University Press, I would like to thank the team for their untiring effort to produce a presentable volume. Their perseverance in the belief that this selection would become an independent book was critical in producing it. None of the above-mentioned persons bear any responsibility for the blemishes of this offering. AMIYA KUMAR BAGCHI Acknowledgments join the publisher to gratefully acknowledge the publishers of the Ijournals and publications cited below for permission to publish the following articles in part or in full: BIBLIOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH CENTRE 'An Estimate of the Gross Domestic Material Product of Bengal and Bihar in 1794 from Colebrooke's data', Nineteenth Century Studies, No. 3, Indian Peasants,(Calcutta, 1973). BENGAL pAST AND PRESENT 'Reflections on Patterns of Regional Growth in India under the British Rule', Bengal Past and Present, XCV (1), January-June, pp. 247-89 (Calcutta, 1976). ROUTLEDGE 'De-industrialization in India in the Nineteenth Century: Some Theo­ retical Implications', Journal of Development Studies, Vol.