India in the World Economy: From Antiquity to the Present

by Tirthankar Roy

Overview

Cross-cultural exchange has characterized the economic life of India since antiquity. Its long coastline has afforded convenient access to Asia and Africa, and trading partnerships formed in the exchange of commodities ranging from textiles to military technology and opium to indigo. In a journey across 2,000 years, this enthralling book written by a leading South Asian historian, describes the ties of trade, migration, and investment between India and the rest of the world, showing how changing patterns of globalization reverberated on economic policy, politics, and political ideology within India. Along the way, the book asks three major questions. Is this a particularly Indian story? When did the big turning points happen? And is it possible to distinguish the modern from the pre-modern pattern of exchange? These questions invite a new approach to the study of Indian history by placing the region squarely at the center of the narrative. This is global history written on India's terms and, as such, the book invites South Asian, Indian, and global historians to rethink both their history and their methodologies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781107009103
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	06/18/2012
Series:	New Approaches to Asian History , #10
Pages:	298
Product dimensions:	6.22(w) x 9.29(h) x 0.79(d)

About the Author

Tirthankar Roy is a Professor of Economic History at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His publications include The Economic History of India 1857–1947, Third Edition (2011), Towards a History of Consumption in South Asia, co-edited with Douglas Haynes, Abigail McGowan, and Haruka Yanagisawa (2010), Company of Kinsmen: Enterprise and Community in South Asian History 1700–1940 (2010), and Traditional Industry in the Economy of Colonial India (1999).

Table of Contents

Preface; 1. Introduction: India and global history; 2. Ports and hinterlands to 1200; 3. Receding land frontiers, 1200–1700; 4. The Indian Ocean trade, 1500–1800; 5. Trade, migration, and investment, 1800–50; 6. Trade, migration, and investment, 1850–1920; 7. Colonialism and development, 1860–1920; 8. Depression and decolonization, 1920–50; 9. From trade to aid, 1950–80; 10. Return to market, 1980–2010; 11 Conclusion: A new India?

Editorial Reviews

"… this book … represents an unprecedented effort that must be the foundation for further advances in our understanding of the long history of India as a global entity."
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies

From the Publisher