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Inequality in colonial India

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  • Roy, Tirthankar

Abstract

A view popular in Indian economic history scholarship claims that the institutional and commercial policy of British India made the rich Indians richer and the poor poorer during colonial rule. The paper shows that the evidence to support the conjecture is weak. Missing data on peasant income makes it hard to generalize on aggregate trends in inequality. But the evidence does question the role of state policy behind trends in inequality. An alternative account starts from the distinction between land-dependent and trade-dependent occupations. The open economy of the nineteenth century affected these two spheres differently. Low and stagnant land-productivity limited the average return that accrued to land-dependent occupations. Occupations directly or indirectly dependent on trading could escape the constraint partially.

Suggested Citation

  • Roy, Tirthankar, 2018. "Inequality in colonial India," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 90409, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:90409
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    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/90409/
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Shilpi Kapur & Sukkoo Kim, 2006. "British Colonial Institutions and Economic Development in India," NBER Working Papers 12613, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Vegard Iversen & Richard Palmer-Jones & Kunal Sen, 2013. "On the Colonial Origins of Agricultural Development in India: A Re-examination of Banerjee and Iyer, 'History, Institutions and Economic Performance'," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(12), pages 1631-1646, December.
    3. Abhijit Banerjee & Lakshmi Iyer, 2005. "History, Institutions, and Economic Performance: The Legacy of Colonial Land Tenure Systems in India," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(4), pages 1190-1213, September.
    4. C. A. Bayly, 1985. "State and Economy in India over Seven Hundred Years," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 38(4), pages 583-596, November.
    5. Lakshmi Iyer, 2010. "Direct versus Indirect Colonial Rule in India: Long-Term Consequences," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 92(4), pages 693-713, November.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    colonialism; inequality; British Empire; South Asia;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • N15 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations - - - Asia including Middle East
    • N3 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy

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