The Development of Modern Industries in Bengal: Reindustrialisation, 1858-1914

ISBN-13: 9781138500679 / Angielski / Twarda / 2018 / 276 str.

Indrajit Ray

Opis

This book explores the effects that the British Industrial Revolution had on Bengal’s traditional industries in the first half of the nineteenth century. Although colonial ambivalence is often cited as an explanation, this study also shows that a series of new industries emerged during this period.

The book reappraises the thesis of India’s de-industrialisation, and discusses the development status of those traditional industries in the early nineteenth century, examines their technology, employment opportunities and marketing, and finally, analyses the underlying reasons for their decay. It offers a study of how traditional industries transcended to modern enterprises in a British colony, and contributes to the broader discussion on the global history of industrialisation.

Spis treści

1 Introduction. 2 Economic slowdown in the early modern age: alternative explanations under the ‘great divergence’ hypothesis. 3 Coal mining: dissemination of mineralogical knowledge and railway networking. 4 Iron smelting and its downstreams: conflicts in the core–periphery relationship. 5 Jute processing: triumph against Dundee. 6 Paper making: the changing attitude of colonial governance. 7 Tea plantations: British capital, tribal labour and wastelands in the Himalayas. 8 Major industries in 1858–1914: a summary. 9 Deindustrialisation in the nineteenth century: a myth or a reality?

O autorze

Indrajit Ray is Professor in the Department of Commerce at the University of North Bengal, India.