Curriculum India's Economic History to 1947
India's Economic History to 1947
Five thousand years of Indian economic life - Harappan trade, Roman gold, Chola merchants, the Mughal economy, the textile trade, the East India Company, colonial land revenue, the drain theory, railways, famines and the road to independence.
- The Harappan Economy How the cities of the Indus Valley Civilisation organised farming, crafts and long-distance trade more than 4,000 years ago. 📄 Read-aloud
- Roman Gold and Indian Pepper How trade between the Roman Empire and southern India flourished around 2,000 years ago, bringing Roman coins to India in exchange for spices and textiles. 📄 Read-aloud
- Chola Merchants and Temple Economies How the Chola kingdom, merchant guilds and wealthy temples organised trade, credit and irrigation in medieval South India. 📄 Read-aloud
- The Mughal Economy How the Mughal Empire raised revenue from land, managed a vast economy with silver coinage, and ranked among the world's largest economies. 📄 Read-aloud
- Indian Textiles and World Trade How Indian cotton cloth dominated global markets for centuries, why Britain restricted imports of calicoes, and how the trade reversed. 📄 Read-aloud
- The East India Company: From Traders to Rulers How a trading company chartered in London came to rule much of India, and what its control over revenue meant for the Indian economy. 📄 Read-aloud
- India's Economic History to 1947: Checkpoint 1 Quick checkpoint - five questions on Harappan trade, Roman trade, Chola temples, the Mughal economy and the East India Company. 5 questions
- Colonial Land Revenue Systems How British rule reorganised land taxes through the Permanent Settlement, ryotwari and mahalwari systems, and how these choices shaped Indian agriculture for generations. 📄 Read-aloud
- The Deindustrialisation Debate Whether and how colonial rule caused a decline in Indian crafts and industry in the 19th century, and how historians interpret the evidence. 📄 Read-aloud
- Dadabhai Naoroji and the Drain Theory How early Indian nationalists argued that colonial rule drained wealth from India to Britain, and how economists evaluate the argument today. 📄 Read-aloud
- Railways Under the Raj How India's railways were built, who paid for them and whom they served, and what modern research reveals about their economic effects. 📄 Read-aloud
- Famines and Famine Policy in Colonial India Why colonial India suffered repeated devastating famines, how famine codes developed, and what Amartya Sen's work revealed about their causes. 📄 Read-aloud
- Swadeshi, Planning and the Economy at Independence How economic nationalism grew from the Swadeshi movement to the Bombay Plan, what India's economy looked like in 1947, and a recap of the module. 📄 Read-aloud