Tilling the Land: Agricultural Knowledge and Practices in Colonial India

This volume sheds light on systems of agricultural knowledge, inherited agricultural practices and allied activities, adoption of new knowledge as well as attempts at modernization, and the involvement and perception of the key historical players and agricultural pioneers who initiated the process of transformation of the system of agrarian production and the creation of a new agrarian knowledge base against the backdrop of burgeoning Western scientific knowledge. Going beyond the scope of work of those who have written agrarian histories of colonial India focussing primarily on issues related to control over land, organization of agrarian production, agrarian relations, rural credit and agrarian commercial network, this volume attempts to examine the productionist discourse in the colonial period as well as throws new light on hitherto unexplored issues related to the colonial impact on indigenous agrarian systems.

Deepak Kumar is Professor of History of Science and Education, Zakir Hussain Centre for Educational Studies, School of] Social Sciences; and Concurrent Professor, Centre for Media Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

Bipasha Raha is Professor and Head, Department of History, Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan.