ABSTRACT
As I indicated earlier, the economic condition of the Indian subcontinent was marked by self-subsistence not only from the realm of agriculture but also from a variety of traditional industries that prevailed during the pre-colonial period; however, it deteriorated during the colonial period. According to Stein,
The crucial transitional criteria have to do with the distress of most of the peasantry arising from famines and the decline of prices between 1800 and 1850. Several famines occurred in 1799-1800, 1804-07, 1811-12, 1824 and 1833-4. In the next two decades the most serious agrarian problem was a secular decline in commodity prices.2
