Talk:Economic history of India

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Contents 1 LOC Country Study 2 POV Flag 3 wrong interpretation of maddison's work 3.1 Precolonial Period Improvements 4 Economic history under the Raj 5 A very uneven treatment 6 Fair use rationale for Image:Time cove june 26 2006 1101060626 400 1.jpg 7 Thoughts on article 8 Selective Use of Maddison's Statistics

[edit] LOC Country Study

I used content from the Economy section of the India profile at the Library of Congress Country Studies page to fill in some gaps here. I didn't use the liberalization and 1990s section since there was already content. Maybe someone who knows more about the subject would want to expand the section using the LOC study.--Bkwillwm 19:33, 7 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] POV Flag

The Part of the Colonial Section not discussing the Rupee has a blatant Atlantacist bias. I'll try to neutralize it a bit tomorow. Bluethroat 05:36, 20 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] wrong interpretation of maddison's work

Although Maddison's work relating to the world economy leaves much to be desired (no one knows how you can judge GDP on ancient countries when you have absolutely no records in those countries on GDP at all...), the interpretation of Maddison's work is currently not correct. First of all, before 1500, Maddison meant the geographic regions of India and China when he titled them India and China. As we well know, both regions had various countries within them during the pre1500 era. further, you can't assume that if at the timepoint 1AD and at 1100AD, the geogrphic region of south asia (or india as represented by maddison) had the world's largest GDP, that it is a straight line... as we all know, GDP fluctuates... if you look at maddison's work after 1500 (which is slightly more accurate) various countries flip flop on who is the number one GDP country and who is number two depending on the decade... All you can state with his work is that at the time points 1AD and 1100AD, that the indian subcontinent had the largest share of GDP.... and at 1500AD it had the number 2 share... you can't state anything beyond that...

[edit] Precolonial Period Improvements

 Although I do appreciate the efforts of contributors to this section, it appears that the precolonial section appears to be rather simplified. The aim here is not to glorify India's economic history, but to present an accurate picture of her achievements and importance. That appears to be lacking. First and foremost, commerce from the indus valley to the late mughal period was a cornerstone of india. The impression one receives from this section was that the primary commercial centers of india throughout her history were religious towns. Whether it be Lothal, Pataliputra, Tampralipti, Bhriggukaccha, Mammalapuram, Vijayanagar, or Ahmedabad, there are numerous cities in ancient and medieval india that became commercial centers due to their strategic locations and economic policies rather than their religious significance. Moreover, superstitions on foreign travel were more a function of the middle and late medieval periods. As noted in A.L. Basham's The Wonder that was India, shipbuilding was a major industry in the Satavahana Empire, and maritime commerce(driven by seafaring indian merchants) continued into the middle ages, especially with South East Asia. Many other points are left unmentioned, such as the high demand of raw and manufctured indian goods (from ivory and spices to steel and textiles), the favorable balance of trade leading into the colonial period, and her involvement in trade with the far reaches of the world. 
 Accordingly, Basham goes on to note in The wonder that was India that the formal guilds did exist in India, known as sreni.  In India: A History, Keay singles out the 99 Swamis of Ayyavole as emblematic of the large trading and credit providing institutions that financed many Chola expeditions in the South East. Lastly, basic factories did emerge in at least the late Mughal period in the form of the karkhana. A potential improvement here would be to further divide the Pre-colonial period. After all, Indian civilization was already between 4000 years old (if not older) by the time the British became contenders on the subcontinent. Although the AIT's validity is contested, if not completely rejected, one could commence with the Indus Valley economy, progress to vedic and classical ancient periods, continue into the medieval period (potentially divide into delhi sultanate and mughal empire). This would serve to better assign trends, factors, and superstitions to their proper periods.
 Another point to be noted is that while a great many improvements did occur during the colonial period, the british empire did implement a systematic policy of destroying the indian textile industry. This was not a small factor in causing the shrinking of Indian GDP and served to eliminate competition for british textiles and to provide an enormous market for british textile goods. The indian economy was pushed back as much as western europe surged forward. 
 I will do my best to collect formal citations to include; however, I did want to bring these to the attention of other contributors. Please let me know what you think.

Regards,

Devanampriya

[edit] Economic history under the Raj

I feel that this part of the article is not only extremely biased against the British rule of India and intentionally worded to glorify India's economic accomplishments post-1947, but simply incorrect. British rule did not "ruin" India economically, nor did it use the colony specifically to exploit its natural resources. Compare Britain's economic treatment of India to Spain's treatment of South America, or France's to its African possessions. After Partition, India was left with a significant base of homegrown industry which the British had some hand in helping construct. On what evidence is the author drawing the conclusion that India would have been better off economically without Imperial rule? The truth of the matter is much more complicated than the author gives on, and should be changed (I'd be willing to do this, when I get a mo.) —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 80.5.144.82 (talk) 00:22, 30 March 2007 (UTC).

I agree. All this rhetoric about deliberate underdevelopment of India by the British is find until facts get in the way: the British started an oil industry in Bengal which by 1901 produced 633,000 galleons of oil; the coal industry was started by scratch and by 1914 that produced 16 million tons of coal by 1914; the Jute industry was vastly expanded; the cotton industry grew from 1900-1947; the vast irrigation boosted agricultural production; and the Tata steel industries were founded by the British. Overall British rule of India was bad for India economically, but it is hard to prove intent.

---

What nonsense is this?. you are saying that Britishers traveled halfway across the world and stayed in India for 250 years to help Indians???. A century earlier, when Tata founder Jamsetji Tata suggested making steel for the colonial railway system, a British administrator dismissed the idea with barely concealed contempt. Earlier this year, Tata paid almost $14 billion to buy Corus, British Steel's successor.http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1694653,00.html they did not help indian industries but in fact eliminated Indian cotton cloth industry. Bengal never had significant amount of oil. Bengal famine of 1943 was British made, caused by a combination of war and mismanagement, that claimed between one and two million lives in Bengal in 1943. Urgently beseeched by Amery and the Indian viceroy to release food stocks for India, Churchill responded with a telegram asking why Gandhi hadn’t died yet. It was Indian soldiers, civilian laborers and businessmen who made possible the victory of 1945.http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2007/08/13/070813crbo_books_mishra?currentPage=3 What coal industry? you are not manufacturing anything. Just dig and sell. Unifaction of India and Railway were only two positive effects. But china got those with minimal outside help. Britishers did not leave on their own. they left because of The Royal Indian Navy Mutiny. British Indian Armed forces could no longer be universally relied upon for support in crisis, and even more it was more likely itself to be the source of the sparks that would ignite trouble in a country fast slipping out of the scenario of political settlement.

But I must add that Britishers were not as bad as french or spanish conquistadors. Also they were secular.Preetikapoor0 (talk) 06:50, 31 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] A very uneven treatment

Please look at the following issues: (1) Economic activity as evidenced in archaelogical records and estimates about the early river valley city-states or trade/commerce networks has not been discussed (2) The role of the Budhdist Sanghas in trade and commerce (3) Economic activity as reported by foreigners and Arthasastra in the Mauryan period (4) Foreign trade both by land and sea from 1st millenium BCE until the 1st millenium CE (5) The caste system appears to have taken up a significant portion of the economic highlights of the subcontinent. But just as a reader comments that there are no good records of past GDP's, it can be easily established that there are also no good demographic records from which we can gauge actual impact or the importance of the caste system. (i.e., what part of the society was organized into castes? was its definition the same over all periods?) (6) Impact of slavery in the 1st millenium CE, changes of patterns of feudal developments in land use (7) Role of the Sultanate and its taxation policies (8) Mughal impact, particularly that of slavery, if nothing more than but as a transfer of labour to central Asia, and role of the Mughal system in the development or suppression of capitalist forms of production (Irfan Habib himself has a monograph on this topic, and his father Muhammad Habib has a lot to say about (7,8) in general). (9) There is a lot of data on direct transfer of capital from India in the early part of British presence under East India Company, and through both direct and indirect methods under the Empire. I do not find important refrences by the two Dutts, R.P., and R.C. about this process, being mentioned. There are substantial studies of fiscal and direct intervention in the development of dependent forms of industrial activity, and that too unevenly over the subcontinent.

This very important topic should be covered at much greater depth, and at a much more critical analytical depth, otherwise it can create a very incomplete and perhaps wrong impression about actual processes that took place.

Dikgaj 18:16, 10 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Fair use rationale for Image:Time cove june 26 2006 1101060626 400 1.jpg

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BetacommandBot (talk) 19:43, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

I think this entire article is entire non-sense and made to glorify Chinese and Indian economic achievement - very pro-Asian and anti-European stance. I think the entire page should be deleted or at least written by someone with at least some knowledge of the topic. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.176.97.11 (talk) 17:46, 11 March 2008 (UTC) I think it's clear the person who wrote this is a Indian who is very bitter about the past. A more neutral stance is required. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.176.97.11 (talk) 17:55, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Thoughts on article

I feel that this article ought to split up. I agree with the NPOV tag, since the bias agaisnt the Raj is palpable. In India, if not in other places, the British seemed to have meant well, although their abandonment of the subcontinent at the end was absolutely a shambles, this article is not a reliable source for much of anything. I feel, that without sources, it ought to be restarted...

What do you guys think?

V. Joe (talk) 21:37, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

I meant to say "without good sources"... or at least some semblance of neutrality. V. Joe (talk) 21:38, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Selective Use of Maddison's Statistics

Currently, the article notes only India's decline in GDP relative to that of the rest of the world, relying on Angus Maddison's statistics of about 25% of world GDP circa 1700 and about 2% by 1900. This is a selective use of Maddison's data. On Maddion's website Maddison supplies data illustrating that India's GDP per capita was virtually stagnant for well over one thousand years before the dawning of the Raj. The GDP per capita made a slight decline before picking up after the Mutiny. India's stagnation cannot, be blamed merely on British control, for stagnation was broken under the Raj. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.112.1.199 (talk) 21:13, 8 May 2008 (UTC)