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Geography or politics? Regional inequality in colonial India

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  • Roy, Tirthankar

Abstract

Explaining regional inequality in the nineteenth-century world forms a major preoccupation of global history. A big country like India, being composed of regions that differed in geographical and political characteristics, raises a parallel set of issues to those debated in global economic history. With a new dataset, the paper attempts to tackle these issues, and finds evidence to suggest that regional differences, and divergence, were significantly influenced by geographical conditions.

Suggested Citation

  • Roy, Tirthankar, 2014. "Geography or politics? Regional inequality in colonial India," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 88845, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:88845
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    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/88845/
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    Cited by:

    1. Alvaredo, Facundo & Bergeron, Augustin & Cassan, Guilhem, 2017. "Income concentration in British India, 1885–1946," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 459-469.
    2. Fredriksson, Per G. & Gupta, Satyendra Kumar, 2022. "Land productivity and colonization," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    3. Tirthankar Roy, 2021. "Why geography matters to the economic history of India," Australian Economic History Review, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(3), pages 273-289, November.
    4. Jordi Caum‐Julio, 2024. "Can colonial institutions explain differences in labour returns? Evidence from rural colonial India," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 77(1), pages 288-316, February.
    5. Shree Saha, 2019. "Historical institutions and electoral outcomes the case of India after decolonization," Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai Working Papers 2019-033, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, India.

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