Capitalist form of Production in South Asia (Consequences of British Policies)

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The capitalist form of production imposed by the British on the South Asian economy has produced various negative characteristics in the socio-economic structure of South Asia which tend to persist even after the dawn of independence in the region.

The papers in the volume relate to either basic peculiarities of the colonial production system in India or to the national, regional and local peculiarities of specific economic sectors or groups of population in other South Asian countries.

The issues addressed are The Colonial Socio-economic Structure in India; Land Grabbing in Sri Lanka under the British Raj; Tea Policy in Sri Lanka; Urban Transformation in the Indus Basin; Women's Work and Rural Development in North India and the Case of Sericulture in Bengal.

The volume does not claim to be exhaustive. It, however, provides an accurate description of different socio-economic aspects and problems of South Asia and aims to stimulate further investigations and makes a substantial contribution towards a meaningful discourse on the subject.

A book that provides fresh insights on issues relating to socio-economic structures in South Asia.

The papers published in this volume were presented at the panel Consequences of the Capitalist Form of Production Imposed on South Asian Economy by the British of the 10th European Conference on Modern South Asian Studies, held in Venice in 1988. The capitalist form of production imposed by the British has produced various negative characteristics in the socio-economic structure of South Asia, which tend to persist even after the attainment of political independence. The papers contributed to this volume deal: (a) either generally with the basic peculiarities of the colonial production system in the largest country of South Asia (i.e., India) in the post-independence period (Oleg V. Malyarov: The Colonial Socio-Economic Structure and its Transformation in India); or (b) with the national, regional and local peculiarities of specific economic sectors, settlements or groups of the population in a single country. The analysis of these peculiarities, which mostly concern the problematic primary sector, has been made either predominantly through the reconstruction of the historical situation (Eric Meyer: Land Grabbing in Sri Lanka: High land Appropriation during the British Raj under the Impact of Plantation Demand; Joachim Betz: Tea Policy in Sri Lanka since Independence; Vyacheslav Ya. Belokrenitsky: Urban Transformation in Colonial Time: A Note on Urban Localities in the Indus Basin) or the accurate outline of the present structural frame of a specific problem (Roger Jeffery, Patricia Jeffery, and Andrew Lyon: Taking Dung-Work Seriously: Women's Work and Rural Development in North India; Willem van Schendel: Rural Industry and Peasant Economy: The Case of Sericulture in Bengal). The volume is obviously not exhaustive. It provides, however, an accurate description of different socio-economic aspects and problems of South Asia, and we hope that it will serve as a stimulus for a further investigation.