Book contents
- The Cambridge Economic History of Modern South Asia
- The Cambridge Economic History of Modern South Asia
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors to Part 1
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction to Part 1
- 2 Regions, States and Economies in Transition, 1750–1850
- 3 The Colonial Origins of India’s Service Sector Advantage
- 4 Agriculture
- 5 Industry
- 6 Small-Scale Industries
- 7 Trade and Finance
- 8 Business History
- 9 Regional Patterns of Economic Change
- 10 Regional Patterns of Economic Change
- 11 Regional Patterns of Economic Change
- 12 Regional Patterns of Economic Change
- 13 Political Economy
- 14 Law and the Economy
- 15 Infrastructure
- 16 Infrastructure
- 17 Population and Health
- 18 Education
- 19 Women, Wives and Workers
- 20 Labour
- 21 Internal Migration, c. 1850–2020
- 22 Colonial Cities and Urbanization
- 23 The Environment and the Economy
- 24 Princely States
- Transition to Part 2
- Index
- References
9 - Regional Patterns of Economic Change
North India
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 February 2026
By
Book contents
- The Cambridge Economic History of Modern South Asia
- The Cambridge Economic History of Modern South Asia
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors to Part 1
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction to Part 1
- 2 Regions, States and Economies in Transition, 1750–1850
- 3 The Colonial Origins of India’s Service Sector Advantage
- 4 Agriculture
- 5 Industry
- 6 Small-Scale Industries
- 7 Trade and Finance
- 8 Business History
- 9 Regional Patterns of Economic Change
- 10 Regional Patterns of Economic Change
- 11 Regional Patterns of Economic Change
- 12 Regional Patterns of Economic Change
- 13 Political Economy
- 14 Law and the Economy
- 15 Infrastructure
- 16 Infrastructure
- 17 Population and Health
- 18 Education
- 19 Women, Wives and Workers
- 20 Labour
- 21 Internal Migration, c. 1850–2020
- 22 Colonial Cities and Urbanization
- 23 The Environment and the Economy
- 24 Princely States
- Transition to Part 2
- Index
- References
Summary
With a study of the Punjab, which experienced phenomenal agricultural growth from the late nineteenth century thanks to the vast canal colonies, the chapter cautions against reading Indian economic history through averages. Even within regions, patterns of economic change were often a mixture of expansion and contraction. The emergence of the largest canal irrigation system in the world sharpened inequality between areas reliant on irrigated versus rain-fed agriculture. Based on its pattern of exports and imports, Punjab was a colony of Britain until the First World War and then of the rest of India. As the province exported grain to food-deficit zones in the rest of India and cotton to western India, major industrial centres such as Bombay partly deindustrialized the region. The capacity of the provincial government to redress inequalities and promote growth fell as inflation eroded the value of the land revenue. Yet standards of living and consumption rose and interdependence developed between the transport business and agriculture. The chapter suggests parallels between Punjab and other areas of northern India where commercial agriculture advanced in the colonial period.
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- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge Economic History of Modern South Asia , pp. 176 - 200Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2026
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