ABSTRACT
The early debate over the economic impact of European imperialism on the Afro-Asian world centered largely upon the roles played by the European rulers. Historians and other social scientists, drawing on hitherto neglected sources and applying new techniques of analysis, have undertaken a thoroughgoing reappraisal of the economic effects of European imperialism. Indigenous groups and non-European immigrants not only served in the armies of conquest and staffed colonial bureaucracies; they also performed economic functions which the Europeans themselves were either unwilling or unable to provide. The Chettiars of Tamilnad in South India provide one of the most important and illustrative examples of the involvement of Asian immigrant minorities in the development of European colonial economies. In terms of the Chettiars’ involvement in the Delta economy, one of the most important changes effected by the British after 1852 was the introduction of a new system of land tenure.
