V57.0559.001
Capitalism in South Asia
Andrew Sartori
On the one hand, South Asia has been characterized by a predominantly agrarian social
organization throughout the modern era, and has (until recently) been widely understood
in terms of “underdevelopment” and “backwardness.” On the other hand, South Asia has
been interconnected in systems of global trade for a very long time, was integrated at a
very deep level into global capitalism, and today exhibits dynamic growth. How then
should we understand the relationship of South Asia to capitalism? Is capitalism a set of
global arrangements superimposed upon a set of local cultures? Is capitalism a long-term
tendency in, or propensity of, South Asian societies? Or is capitalism something that has
entered into the very structure of South Asian social organization? We will explore these
questions through a series of topics including the pre-colonial Indian Ocean trading
world; arguments about the proto-industrial and commercial tendencies of Mughal India;
the role of the East India Company; debates about deindustrialization, peasantization and
traditionalization in the nineteenth century; the continuities and transformations in
peasant society in the colonial era; developmentalist theories and pro-industrialization
policies; nationalism, decolonization and political economy; and neo-liberalism.
Week 1
Amitav Ghosh, “The Slave of MS. H.6,” in Subaltern Studies VII.
Week 2
Immanuel Wallerstein, Historical Capitalism, selection.
AND
K.N. Chaudhuri, Trade and Civilization in the Indian Ocean, chapter 1.
Week 3
Sugata Bose (ed.), South Asia and World Capitalism, contributions of David Washbrook,
David Ludden and Immanuel Wallerstein.
Week 4
Frank Perlin, The Invisible City and Unbroken Landscapes, selections on “protoindustrialization” thesis.
Week 5
C.A. Bayly, Indian Society and the Making of the British Empire, chapters 1-3.
Week 6
William Bolts, Considerations on India Affairs, selections.
Week 7
Karl Marx, Karl Marx on Colonialism and Modernization, selections.
AND
Ranajit Guha, A Rule of Property for Bengal, 97-151.
Week 8
C.A. Bayly, Indian Society and the Making of the British Empire, chapters 4 and 5.
AND
Amiya Bagchi, “Deindustrialization in India in the Nineteenth Century,” Journal of
Development Studies (1976).
Week 9
Sugata Bose, Peasant Labor and Colonial Capital, chapters 2 and 3.
AND
Rajat Datta, Society, Economy and the Market, chapters 4 and 5.
Week 10
Shahid Amin, “Small Peasant Commodity Production and Rural Indebtedness,” in
Subaltern Studies I.
AND
Jairus Banaji, “Capitalist Domination and the Small Peasantry,” EPW (1977).
Week 11
Manu Goswami, Producing India, chapters 2 and 7.
Week 12
A.K. Bagchi, “European and Indian Entrepreneurship in India, 1900-1930,” in Rajat K.
Ray (ed.), Entrepreneurship and Industry in India.
AND
Clive Dewey, “The Government of India’s ‘New Industrial Policy,’ 1900-1925,” in
Chaudhuri and Dewey (eds.), Economy and Society.
Week 13
Dipesh Chakrabarty, Rethinking Working-Class History, selections.
AND
Rajnarayan Chandarvarkar, Imperial Power and Popular Politics, chapters 2 and 9.
Week 14
Vivek Chibber, Locked in Place, selections.
Week 15
Satish Deshpande, “Imagined Economies: Styles of Nation Building in Twentieth
Century India,” Journal of Arts and Ideas (1993).
AND
Prabhat Patnaik, “The Meaning of Contemporary Globalization,” in Mary John et al.
(eds.), Contested Transformations.