Peasants and Imperial Rule
Agriculture and Agrarian Society in the Bombay Presidency 1850–1935

A regional study of the impact of British rule on the Indian peasantry.

Neil Charlesworth (Author)

9780521526401, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 4 July 2002

336 pages
21.6 x 14 x 2.3 cm, 0.473 kg

This book is a detailed historical study of agriculture and agrarian society in a major province of British India, the Bombay presidency. Its objective is to examine the impact of British rule on the Indian peasantry, and the changes it brought. Among the specific issues discussed by the author are the development of the British land revenue system, the pattern of expansion in commercial agriculture and the consequences in terms of ownership and organisation of land and agrarian social structure. Dr Charlesworth goes on to look at the role of government policy, the nature of peasant protest movements and the effects of the interwar depression. He concludes that significant long-term economic and social change did occur but that the highly 'differential' pattern to commercialisation prevented any structural transformation in the peasant economy and society.

List of maps and tables
Preface
Note on technical terms and references
Maps
1. Introduction: the peasant in India and Bombay presidency
2. The village in 1850: land tenure, social structure and revenue policy
3. The village in 1850: land and agriculture
4. Indebtedness and the Deccan Riots of 1875
5. Continuity and change in the rural economy, 1850–1900
6. The Bombay peasantry, 1850–1900: social stability or social stratification?
7. The agricultural economy, 1900–1935: the critical watershed?
8. The impact of government policy, 1880–1935
9. The peasant and politics in the early twentieth century
10. Conclusions: the problem of differential commercialisation
Glossary
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: General & world history [HBG]