Breaching the nadu

Lordship and economic development in pre-colonial South India

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2159172
AutoresVivek Chibber (University of Wisconsin–Madison, autor correspondente)
Ano1998
Volume26
Fascículo1
Páginas1-42
Data de publicação1998-10-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoThe Journal of Peasant Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0306-6150 • E-ISSN: 1743-9361
EditoraInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/03066159808438693
OpenAlexW2036234655
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas7
Referências citadas39

In this article I present a new framework for the analysis of the South Indian economy over the medieval and early modern epochs, centred on the effects of social property relations. I argue that the overall pattern was one of steady economic development, but with a marked increase in trade and commodity development in the early modern era. This is explained through a transformation of intra-class relations that followed the fall of the Vijayanagara Empire. Whereas in the medieval period, economic growth had been subject to the constraints imposed by effective lordly cohesion, which squeezed peasant income and limited trade, this cohesiveness gave way under the hammer blows dealt to it by Vijayanagara rulers. As the South entered the early modern era, lords found themselves without the traditional mechanisms of class organisation, and producers were able to capitalise on their weakness for economic gain. Nevertheless, production still remained peasant based, and, pace some of the more ambitious claims of recent historiography, was oriented toward the minimisation of risk, and not the maximisation of profit. Hence, though there was an increase in the circulation of commodities, this was an artifact of a change within a pre-capitalist regime, and not a harbinger of a transition to capitalism

Ancient history · Capitalism · Colonialism · Dominance (genetics · Economic history · Economics · Economy · Empire · Historiography · Market economy · Middle class · Peasant · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Relations of production · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Historical Economic and Social Studies · History · Law · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies