The Nature of the Debates

Abstract

INDIA’S economic history in the nineteenth century demands attention at two levels. At one, there are the developmental problems experienced historically by an important and populous less developed country, characterised in 1800 by typically low levels of output but possessing a tradition of high-quality handicraft production and merchant enterprise. However, India also presents the classic case study of the effects of formal imperialism on a non-Western economy and society. Not only did British imperial rule last longer here than in any other major territorial possession but its impact was apparently more intrusive. The nature of revenue raising, for example, in which land revenue, paid by landlord or peasant, provided the major source of government income throughout the nineteenth century demanded — unlike the colonial fiscal forms of Africa or the Dutch East Indies — detailed definition and continuous knowledge of the village social structure and patterns of landownership.