The Transition to a Colonial Economy
Weavers, Merchants and Kings in South India, 1720–1800

The decline of the economic fortunes of the Indian labouring classes under the British.

Prasannan Parthasarathi (Author)

9780521033107, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 25 January 2007

180 pages, 7 tables
22.8 x 15.2 x 1.1 cm, 0.277 kg

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

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.

List of tables
Acknowledgements
Note on Indian words and place names
Note on money
List of abbreviations
Introduction
1. Weavers and merchants 1720–60
2. Agriculture and cotton textiles
3. Weaver distress 1765–1800
4. Weaver protest
5. Labourers, kings and colonialism
Glossary
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Economic history [KCZ], General & world history [HBG]