Town Building in North India, 1790-1830
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3606977 |
|---|---|
| Authors | C A Bayly (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1975 |
| Volume | 9 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 483-504 |
| Publication date | 1975-07-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Modern Asian Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0026-749X • E-ISSN: 1469-8099 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0026749x00012865 |
| OpenAlex | W2133636378 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 9 |
| References cited | 6 |
The fate of urban centres in eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century India has attracted attention far in excess of their supposed importance as population centres. It is assumed that flourishing towns are an indicator of economic development and change in their hinterlands. Muslim historians traditionally laid stress on the opulence of towns as a gauge of the wealth of divisions of the Moghul Empire. Recently, Indian historians of the Medieval period have returned to the theme, claiming for the Moghul cities large populations, developed 'industries' and sophisticated credit systems. Throughout these works there is an implicit paralled drawn with the point it is suggested that far from being mere administrative centers and entrepots for 'aristocratic' long-distance trade, these cities were exchange marts for wealthy hinterlands where agreculturalists exchanged thier products of 'urban industries'. It is but a short step to argue that these cities weakened by the anarchy of the eighteenth century, were finally ruined by the negligent commercial amorality of the East India Company. The claim by early British writers that the security of British rule encouraged the growth of urban communities in which merchants secured relief from the vexations of local potentates and innumerable minor transit duties is rejected This argument for town decline first revived by Professor Irfan Habib almost as a throwaway, has recently been followed by other younger Indian Marxist historians
Ancient history · Argument (complex analysis · Art · Economic history · Economics · Economy · Empire · Flourishing · Geography · Period (music · Political science · Population · Sociology · Theme (computing · Demography · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · Historical Economic and Social Studies · History · Islamic Studies and History
Small Town Capitalism in Western India
Market Formation in Assam
Twelve years on
Entering the Black Hole
Urban-rural relationships in India
Malthus and the Theory of 'Unequal Powers
Economic and Political Expansion
Rural Society and British Rule in Nineteenth Century India
"British Rule and Indian "Improvement
| Unique citing works | 9 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,18 |
| Citation span | 1975 - 2022 (48) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 9 |