Agrarian India Between the World Wars

This book by well-known Soviet Oriental expert Prof. Rostislav A. Ulyanovsky studies the evolution of the Indian countryside from the time when India was seized by the British to the eve of the Second World War. The author, who worked on his manuscript for almost 15 years, has made interesting generalisations and drawn interesting conclusion, their significance going far beyond the bounds of India only. On the basis of research into official material of the Royal Commission on Agriculture in India and the Banking Enquiry Committee for the Central Administrated Areas, which fills dozens of volumes, thousands of personal evidences, and a multitude of Soviet and other sources, the author formulates the concept of the colonial-feudal development course of Indian capitalism, burdened by a predominance of feudal survivals that were used by British capital for its own selfish purposes. This is the first ever attempt to consider the so-called American and the Prussian (junker-style) ways of capitalist development in the Indian countryside and their applicability to India. The book includes many statements by officials and ordinary people concerning the development of the agricultural productive forces and relations of production. This material is almost unique having not been included in virtually any of the literature that has come out over the last fifty years, especially since India gained her independence. It is of interest to economists and historians specialising in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Burma, which before the war constituted British India. It will also be read with interest by those engaged in studying the problems of the young states, since many aspects of India's agrarian evolution are now being observed to one degree or another in number of developing countries.