Landholdings, Production and Rural Trade in India, 1760-1930 : A comparative study of Indian and Japanese economic history

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1. The project aims to clarify the changes in the local agrarian society in India under British rule, particularly focussing on identification of internal forces of change in agriculture.In July 1992, we presented eight papers at the SOAS South Asia Project Workshop at the Univ. of London, organized by the counterpart of our research project, the Center for South Asian Studies, SOAS, Univ. of London. Related source materials were also collected at the archives and libraries in London and India.In the second year of the project, some again visited India and Britain to further collect materials. In November, with two members invited from UK, we held a workshop in Tokyo. The outcome of the project is : P.Robb, K.Sugihara and H.Yanagisawa eds., Local Agrarian Societies in Colonial India : Japanese Perspectives, 1994.2.The main findings are as follows : (1) In south India, the unit of reproduction comprising some 10 villages was in the process of disintegration as a result of the growth of influential individuals in the 18th century. Our research reveals a growth of rich farmers in Bengal and emergence of low-caste farmers in Tamilnadu. Thus internal forces of change in agriculture existed in India as well as in Japan.(2) Our research highlighted the importance of the introduction of the labor intensive technology by small production units. The examination of Indian indigenous sugar industry and the agrarian development of south India points to this.(3) The rural structure in Malabar was much more complicated than that in Meiji Japan. An India-centered comparative framework should be built.