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  3. The Transition to a Colonial Economy
  • Cited by 71
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    • Publisher:
      Cambridge University Press
      Publication date:
      05 July 2009
      19 April 2001
      ISBN:
      9780511497414
      9780521570428
      9780521033107
      DOI:
      https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511497414
      Dimensions:
      (228 x 152 mm)
      Weight & Pages:
      0.44kg, 180 Pages
      Dimensions:
      (228 x 152 mm)
      Weight & Pages:
      0.277kg, 180 Pages
      • Series:
      Cambridge Studies in Indian History and Society (7)
      Subjects:
      Area Studies, South Asian History, Asian Studies, History, Regional History after 1500
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    • Selected: Digital
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    Series:
    Cambridge Studies in Indian History and Society (7)
    Subjects:
    Area Studies, South Asian History, Asian Studies, History, Regional History after 1500
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    Book description

    According to widespread belief, poverty and low standards of living have been characteristic of India for centuries. Challenging this view, Prasannan Parthasarathi demonstrates that, until the late eighteenth century, labouring groups in South India, those at the bottom of the social order, were in a powerful position, receiving incomes well above subsistence. The decline in their economic fortunes, the author asserts, was a process initiated towards the end of that century, with the rise of colonial rule. Building on revisionist interpretations, he examines the transformation of Indian society and its economy under British rule through the prism of the labouring classes, arguing that their treatment by the early colonial state had no precedent in the pre-colonial past and that poverty and low wages were a product of colonial rule. The book promises to make an important contribution to the economic history of the region, and to the study of colonialism.

    Reviews

    ‘… an excellently written well-researched narrative of weavers’ response to company power in south India.’

    Source: The Economic History Review

    ‘This book is a significant contribution to the literature on pre-colonial and colonial political-economic formations in India, particularly South India.’

    Source: Hira Singh

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