ABSTRACT
This volume seeks to unravel and contextualize the so-called dichotomy of ‘old’ and ‘new’ India and what binds them together. To understand this complex process, it attempts to apply a long-term historical perspective, a different conception of the economy and cross-disciplinary approaches.
The exceptional feature of this volume is the large historical canvas of essays and its sensitivity to the regional dimension in a country as large and diverse as India. They deal with issues ranging from land and agriculture, entrepreneurship, industry and demographic trends to a critical anatomy of modern Indian economic historiography. Together these essays contribute in providing significantly new and enriching insights into the complex process of transition from colonial to post-colonial economic development. There has been a conscious effort in most cases to capture the influence of the colonial economic structures and processes in shaping the trajectory of growth and development in the post-independence period. Drawing upon a large amount of extremely rich and varied data and information on the socio-economic trends, the book is lucid, well-crafted and reader-friendly.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part I|105 pages
Land and Agriculture
chapter Chapter 2|21 pages
Structural Changes in Land Distribution and Their Implications for Improving Access to Land
chapter Chapter 4|16 pages
Population Pressure and Labour Intensification: An Indian Historical Perspective
part II|107 pages
Entrepreneurship and Industry
chapter Chapter 6|20 pages
Revisiting Indian Capitalists in Colonial India: Some Critical Reflections
chapter Chapter 7|33 pages
From Merchants to Multi-national Enterprises: European Trading Firms in South India’s Plantation Sector
chapter Chapter 8|24 pages
Fiat or Trust? A Story of Indian Banking (1857–2007) with a Regional Perspective
chapter Chapter 9|26 pages
Six Decades of Industrial Development: Growth of the Manufacturing Sector in India from the 1940s
part III|87 pages
Demographic Trends
chapter Chapter 11|29 pages
Mortality Trends and Patterns in India: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives*
chapter Chapter 12|25 pages
A Long Haul: Revisiting International Migration from India during the 19th and 20th Centuries
part IV|27 pages
A Critical Theoretical Perspective