LOW LEVEL OF ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT UNDER THE COLONIAL RULE
India
had an independent economy before the advent of the British rule. Though
agriculture was the main source of livelihood for most people, yet, the
country’s economy was characterised by various kinds of manufacturing
activities. India was particularly well known for its handicraft industries in
the fields of cotton and silk textiles, metal and precious stone works etc.
These products enjoyed a worldwide market based on the reputation of the fine
quality of material used and the high standards of craftsmanship seen in all
imports from India The economic policies pursued by the colonial government in
India were concerned more with the protection and promotion of the economic
interests of their home country than with the development of the Indian
economy. Such policies brought about a fundamental change in the structure of
the Indian economy — transforming the country into supplier of raw materials
and consumer of finished industrial products from Britain. Obviously, the
colonial government never made any sincere attempt to estimate India’s national
and per capita income. Some individual attempts which were made to measure such
incomes yielded conflicting and inconsistent results. Among the notable
estimators — Dadabhai Naoroji, William Digby, Findlay Shirras, V.K.R.V. Rao and
R.C. Desai — it was Rao, whose estimates during the colonial period was
considered very significant. However, most studies did find that the country’s
growth of aggregate real output during the first half of the twentieth century
was less than two per cent coupled with a meagre half per cent growth in per
capita output per year.
