Author: Bipin Chandra
Publisher: Orient Longman
Year: 2000
Language: English
Pages: 366
ISBN/UPC (if available): 978-81-250-1610-6
Description
This collection of eight essays brings together Bipan Chandra's finest writings on colonialism and nationalism in India, spanning two decades.
While critically examining the colonial school of analysis, the author in these essays lucidly puts forth his understanding of the core elements of colonialism: the complex integration of the colony with the word capitalist system, in a subordinate position; a distinct historical stage which modernized colonial societies without initiating independent economic development; a system which displayed three distinct phases, each characterized by a unique pattern of domination and surplus extraction; a structure where the colonial state subordinated all the economic and social classes of the colony, while it served the interests of the metropolitan bourgeoisie.
Professor Chanda does not merely confine himself to the colonial period. Citing the performance of the pot-Independence Indian economy until 1986, he clearly demonstrates that pot-colonial societies can develop as independent economies even as they remain integrated with world capitalism. The presence of a strong indigenous capitalist class and an independent state that actively keeps out foreign capital are essential prerequisites.