Papers > By author > Baksi Sandipan

Maximization of land revenue was the fulcrum of the agricultural policy framework throughout the British
colonial rule in India. Some of the early measures shaped certainly by this framework led to a series of
experiments with regard to land revenue settlements. At the same time, however, there was a severe lack in
official effort towards the application of modern science to the practice of cultivation, in the first hundred
years of colonial rule.

The last quarter of the nineteenth century witnessed a significant shift in the colonial
understanding of agricultural modernization, especially in the aftermath of a series of recurring famines
followed by scathing observations in the reports of various Famine Commissions. The last few decades of
the nineteenth century saw the beginnings of an active involvement by the colonial administration towards
advancement of productive forces in agriculture. The notion of agricultural improvement, through the
application of modern science and technology, had by now become a part of the colonial conception of
agrarian transformation.

This was also the period which witnessed the emergence of a class of Indian intelligentsia. This class
played a significant role in the rise and growth of economic nationalism and was the first to articulate a
response to colonial policy with regard to economy and society. The attitudes and perceptions of this class
shaped the discourse of the Indian response to modernization, including agrarian modernization, and
played an instrumental role in the evolution of the idea.

The paper is an attempt to inquire into the evolving meaning of agricultural modernization in India during
the late colonial period, with a particular focus on the United Provinces. It is a study of the colonial
attitude as well as the perceptions of different sections of Indians towards agrarian change, especially with
respect to the interrelationship between the techniques and methods of agricultural production on the one
hand, and the socio-economic aspects of agricultural production on the other. While reflecting on this, it
will also throw some light on the evolution of a particular viewpoint on agrarian issues that has become a
part of received wisdom in post-independent India. The paper will thus trace the historical trajectory of
the contemporary understanding of agrarian transformation in India.

The study will analyze various official and non-official writings on agriculture. It will also investigate
sources like Reports of the Native Press and Legislative Council Debates that give a reflection of the
attitude of different sections of Indians towards agricultural modernization. Vernacular sources, especially
contemporary Hindi periodicals, would constitute an important and unique source for this study, as they
tend to provide an interesting view of the evolutionary character of the Indian response to the
introduction of modern agricultural knowledge.