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commercialization of agriculture
TATA INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

Commercialization of Agriculture,
Great Depression and Famine in
Colonial India
25th September, 2014

Submitted by: Vibha Ashok Bhirud
M2013DS046
Submitted to: Prof. Aparajita Bakshi
Prof. Gaurang Sahay

School of Development Studies

Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Industrialization

in

Europe

and

Commercialization

of

Agriculture in India
3. Impact of Commercialization on Indian Agriculture
4. Great Depression and Indian Agriculture
5. Famine: Indian Agriculture strained by commercialization and
Great Depression
6. Conclusion
7. References

Introduction
The British rule had pronounced and profound economic impact on India. The various economic policies followed by the British led to the rapid transformation of India 's economy into a colonial economy whose nature and structure were determined by needs of the British economy. One important aspect of British economic policy was commercialization of agriculture.
Commercialization of agriculture which can be defined as a process where peasants start producing primarily for sale in distant markets, rather than to meet their own need for food or to sell in local markets, (Roy, 2007) has taken place at different times in response to different stimuli. In the Indian context though a number of commercial crops such as cotton, tobacco and sugarcane were grown fairly extensively even before the advent of British rule (Habib, 1982), since land revenue had to be paid mostly in cash and the prices of these crops were much higher at that time relative to the prices of foodgrains, however, commercialization of agriculture at that time corresponded only to the requirements of traditional ‗revenue economy‘ in which the main form of revenue payable happened to be an indistinguishable mix of tax, tribute and rent (Raj,
1985).
No doubt the need to pay revenue in cash was the initial compelling force for the marketing of
agricultural



References: editors et. al. K.N.Raj, 163-83. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1985. Bardhan, Pranab K. Land, Labor, and Rural Poverty: Essays in Development Economics. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1984. Bhatia, B.M. Famines in India, 1860-1965. New York (1967) Beaud, Michel Bernanke, B.S. Essays on the Great Depression. Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2000 Bharadwaj, Krishna of Capitalism." The Journal of Peasant Studies 12, no. 4 (1985): 7-25. Dutt, R. C. Economic History of India in the Victorian Age, 1837-1901. London (1906). Greenough, Paul R. Prosperity and Misery in Modern Bengal: The Famine of 1943-1944. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982. Habib, Irfan (ed.), The Cambridge Economic History of India, Vol. 1, c.1200-c.1757 New Delhi: Orient Longman (1982). (1988): 493-520. Critical Scholarship, Editor Pauline Kolenda, pp.151-70. Madras: New Era Publications and the American Institute of Indian Studies, 1985. Ludden, David (editor). Agricultural Production and Indian History. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1994. Manikumar, K. A. A Colonial Economy in the Great Depression, Madras (1929–1937). Orient Blackswan (1982). Mokyr, Joel editor. The British Industrial Revolution: An Economic Perspective. Boulder: Westview Press, 1993. http://www.historydiscussion.net/british-india/expansion-and-commercialization-ofagriculture-during-the-british-rule-in-india/640 (accessed on September 4th, 2014) Raj, K.N Commercialization of Agriculture in India. Delhi: Oxford University Press, (1985), p. Rajasekhar, D. "Commercialization of Agriculture and Changes in Distribution of Land Ownership in Kurnool District of Andhra 9C.1900-1950)." The South Indian Economy: Agrarian Change, Industrial Structure, and State Policy, C1914-1947, 78-119. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1991. Social History Review 25, no. (3) (1988): pp. 263-318. Roy, Tirthankar. The Economic History of India, 1857-1947. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, second edition (2007), p Satyananarayana A., Expansion of Commodity Production and Agrarian Market. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, second edition (2005), p Sen, Amartya K. Poverty and Famines: An Essay in Entitlement and Deprivation. New York: Oxford University Press, 1981. Rotberg and Theodore K. Rabb, 135-52. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983. http://srch.slav.hokudai.ac.jp/rp/publications/no10/10-06_Wakimura.pdf (accessed on September 6th, 2014) Studies 28, no. 1 (1994): 129-64.

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