Eighteenth Century India: Another view

Factor markets and the narrative of economic change in India, 1750–1950

“…Burton Stein calls such moves, in the context of the dry uplands of Vijayanagar in an earlier era, 'developmental investment '. 8 Strategies to raise land yield were not unknown. For example, C. A. Bayly shows how Muslim military or service gentry in North Indian villages often made land-saving investments to reduce the risks of excessive dependence on taxation rights.…”

“…Stein classified precolonial property rights on land into three classes : ' prebendal ' or state-issued rights, private property rights and communal rights. 10 None of these rights was easily saleable, for each was a contingent right, contingent on loyalty, merit or membership of a community, respectively. Nearly all other rights with respect to land were use rights.…”

“…In turn, this process could lead to 'growing intensity of conflicts between rights ', as tax farmers tried to convert rights acquired from the state into something like private property rights, often in conflict with communal rights. 14 In the course of this transition, merchants and bankers participated more often in the eighteenth-century land market. Merchants had always played a critical role in running the fiscal system, in converting grain revenues into cash, for example.…”

Conjugality and Capital: Gender, Families, and Property under Colonial Law in India

“…As she demonstrates, colonial and indigenous patriarchies colluded to deny women's customary rights and to exclude women from new forms of property ownership and control. Scholars have demonstrated that the eighteenth century witnessed the rise of scribal and merchant groups that developed forms of mercantile capital that were distinct from the property relations of the landed classes (Chatterjee 1996;Stein 1989;Subramaniam 1996;Washbrook 1988). 9 Within this context, it is perhaps not surprising to note that during at least some periods of medieval and early modern history, some women in southern India had greater rights to control property than would be subsequently granted to them under colonial law (Mukund 1992(Mukund , 1999Orr 2000).…”

“…precolonial period onward. Scholars have demonstrated that the eighteenth century witnessed the rise of scribal and merchant groups that developed forms of mercantile capital that were distinct from the property relations of the landed classes (Chatterjee 1996;Stein 1989;Subramaniam 1996;Washbrook 1988). 10 Coming into prominence as administrators, revenue collectors, and bankers within early modern regimes of "military fiscalism," these new classes increased their power vis-à-vis landed groups by expanding the realms of personal (though not necessarily individual) property rights at the expense of communitarian usage (Washbrook 1988, 70).…”