Table Of ContentAGRARIAN DEVELOPMENT IN
COLONIAL INDIA
This book looks at agriculture, development, poverty and British rule in
India, especially in the Patna Division in Bihar between c.1870–1920. It
traces the economic influence of British policies and maps the impact of
legal, administrative and scientific interventions on rural conditions and
norms.
The book discusses British theories and policies of ‘improvement’,
comparing them with Bihar’s agricultural practice and socio-economic
conditions to draw conclusions about rural impoverishment. Following on
from his earlier book, Ancient Rights and Future Comfort, on the Bengal
Tenancy Act of 1885, the author also presents case studies on famines,
debts, canal and village irrigation, flood protection and the cultivation
and production of indigo, opium and sugar. He analyses extensive archival
material to reflect on property law, scientific interventions, cropping patterns,
trade and intermediaries. He examines the economic role of governments,
Eurocentric development theories and the complex impact of development
policy on agriculture and society in Bihar.
The book will be of interest to academics and students of colonial history,
modern Indian history, agrarian studies, economic history, sociology and
development studies. It will also be useful to development practitioners and
researchers working on the history of agrarian conditions and public policy.
Peter Robb is Professor Emeritus (formerly Professor of the History of
India and Pro-Director) at SOAS University of London, and Fellow of the
Royal Asiatic and Royal Historical Societies. His book Ancient Rights and
Future Comfort (1997) is a precursor of this book. Also partly on Bihar
are Evolution of British Policy towards Indian Politics (1992), Liberalism,
Modernity and the Nation (2007), Peasants, Political Economy and Law
(2007), and Ideas Matter (2020). His other books include Government of
India and Reform (1976), History of India (2002; 2011), and, on early
Calcutta, Sex and Sensibility (2011), Sentiment and Self (2011) and Useful
Friendship (2014). He has also edited or co-edited ten collections concerning
Indo-British relations, protest, identity, ideologies, race, Dalit movements,
labour, rural South Asia, agriculture and development.
AGRARIAN
DEVELOPMENT IN
COLONIAL INDIA
The British and Bihar
Peter Robb
First published 2021
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CONTENTS
List of tables vii
Preface viii
Abbreviations used in the notes x
Introduction 1
1 States in development 3
2 Context and agenda 19
PART I
States and societies 35
3 State matters 37
4 Property through law 48
5 The land in question 64
PART II
Science and agriculture 79
6 Science and superiority 81
7 Benefit and loss 108
v
CONTENTS
PART III
Agrarian Bihar 125
8 Active government? Chaukidars and commerce 127
9 Famine, borrowing and debt 147
10 The Son canals and Nasriganj estate 170
11 Village irrigation and embankments 195
12 Interpreting agricultural production 210
13 Sugaring the pill? 228
14 Production, privilege, prejudice and poverty 246
Sources and references 269
Index 283
vi
TABLES
7.1 Lowland Rice Prices 112
9.1 Relief Works in Muzaffarpur in 1892 148
9.2 Famine Relief in Bihar, 1873–92 150
9.3 Unsecured Debts of Nawab Amir Ali of Patna 162
10.A.1 Eleven Villages of Nasriganj Estate, 1868–82 188
10.A.2 A Tahsildari Report: Harvests and Crops in a Nasriganj
Village in the 1880s 190
vii
PREFACE
A draft of parts of this book was written to complement my study of tenancy
law and its impact on Bihar (Ancient Rights and Future Comfort: Bihar, the
Bengal Tenancy Act of 1885 and British Rule in India, Curzon Press: Rich-
mond, Surrey 1997). Completion of a promised second volume was delayed
by academic responsibilities and further books and other publications. Two
books included aspects of my work on Bihar (Liberalism, Modernity, and
the Nation, and Peasants, Political Economy, and Law, both OUP: New
Delhi 2007), but three monographs were on quite different topics. I was
able to return to my Bihar project a few years ago. I began to reconsider,
refocus and rework the original draft chapters, while adding new material.
That led to the present book. It summarises some of my earlier discussions
to provide context but concentrates on interventions as the British tried to
improve agriculture and the rural economy. One question is what the British
thought, not so much systems of belief as particular ideas and their conse-
quences. Another concern is to understand Bihari society over time. Neither
interventions nor Bihar should be considered in isolation. While accepting
British rule was not all-pervasive, I will argue that Bihar was changed in
specific ways.
A book about government and economic development resonates with
more recent experience. I think of it partly as a test case contributing to
wider debates: current, more general questions about how development
efforts may be distorted and about what states and other agencies can and
cannot do. That the state in question was foreign and colonial but also sig-
nificantly indigenised arguably makes it a good example to be reconsidered
in an age of international aid agencies and increasingly global production
and trade. To ensure this example is generally accessible, broad contexts will
be explained.
A list of sources gives full references for all books and articles; short titles
are used in notes. For related discussions, see Peter Robb, Ideas Matter.
Debating the Impact of British Rule on India, Primus: New Delhi 2020.
I have included evidence and short passages from earlier publications (some
of them abridged versions of longer drafts revised for this book) in order
viii
PREFACE
to provide convenient single statements on some topics: from Peter Robb,
Empire, Identity, and India. Peasants, Political Economy, and Law, New
Delhi 2007 (pp. 25–32 on indigo, pp. 132–4 on opium and p. 135 on sugar),
and, in Chapter 9, extracts adapted from two articles: (1) ‘State, Peasant
and Moneylender in late Nineteenth-Century Bihar: Some Colonial Inputs’,
in Peter Robb, ed., Rural India. Land, Power and Society under British
Rule, London 1983, pp. 106–48; or 2nd edn, Delhi 1992, pp. 109–52; and
(2) ‘Bihar, the Colonial State and Agricultural Development in India, 1880–
1920’, Indian Economic & Social History Review xxv, 2 (1988), pp. 205–
35; reprinted in Binoy N. Verma (ed.), Agrarian Relations, Institutional
Change and Colonial Legacy. The Case of Eastern India, New Delhi 1993,
pp. 47–82.
Over many years, parts of the book have been presented as papers, nota-
bly in London, Cambridge and New Delhi, and also at the ADRI conference
in Patna in March 2017. I am grateful for comments, suggestions and ques-
tions. I have benefited from the knowledge and companionship of many of
the historians of Bihar cited in notes. My greatest scholarly debt is to Clive
Dewey’s generosity, encouragement and advice, especially for this book.
My thanks are due above all to my wife, Elizabeth. This book is dedicated
to her. I am glad to acknowledge that she assisted me enormously when
much of the material for this book was collected, long ago, in the National
Archives, New Delhi, and in what was then the Bihar state record office in
Patna. Liz did not pretend that she found all of it as interesting as I did, but
her efforts were essential to my work and this book.
Peter Robb, London 2020
ix
