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This book examines the effect of Classical political economy - the economic and monetary writings of Adam Smith, Ricardo, Malthus, the Mills and others - on the policy-making of the British government in India in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Professor Ambirajan shows how the economic doctrines of laissez-faire individualism and the freedom of market forces were instilled into the British administrative class. The East India Company's college at Haileybury was the most obvious agent but it is clear that a whole nexus of taught and unconscious attitudes predisposed the administrators to accept the ideas and ideologies of the economists.
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Cambridge South Asian Studies CLASSICAL POLITICAL ECONOMY AND BRITISH POLICY IN INDIA
CAMBRIDGE
SOUTH
ASIAN
STUDIES
These monographs are published by the Syndics of Cambridge Univeristy Press in association with the Cambridge University Centre for South Asian Studies. The following books have been published in this series: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
S. Gopal: British Policy in India, 1858-1905 (out of print) J. A. B. Palmer: The Mutiny Outbreak at Meerut in 1857 A. Das Gupta: Malabar in Asian Trade, 1740-1800 G. Obeyesekere: Land Tenure in a Village in Ceylon: a Sociological and Historical Study H. L. Erdman: The Swatantra Party and Indian Conservatism (out of print) S. N. Mukherjee: Sir William Jones: a Study in Eighteenth-Century British Attitudes to India Abdul Majed Khan: The Transition in Bengal, 1756—1775: A Study of Saiyid Muhammed Reza Khan Radhe Shyam Rungta: Rise of Business Corporations in India, 1851— 1900
9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21.
Pamela Nightingale: Trade and Empire in Western India, 1786-1806 Amiya Kumar Bagchi: Private Investment in India, 1900—1939 Judith M. Brown: Gandhi's Rise to Power: Indian Politics, 1915—1922 Mary C. Carras: The Dynamics of Indian Political Factions: A Study of District Councils in the State ofMaharashtra P. Hardy: The Muslims ofBritish India Gordon Johnson: Provincial Politics and Indian Nationalism: Bombay and the Indian National Congress, 1880—1915 Marguerite S. Robinson: Political Structure in a Changing Sinhalese Village Francis Robinson: Separatism among Indian Muslims: The Politics of the United Provinces' Muslims, i860—1923 Christopher John Baker: The Politics of South India, 1920-1937 David Washbrook: The Emergence of Provincial Politics: The Madras Presidency, 1870-1920 Deepak Nayyar: India's Exports and Export Policies in the 1960s Mark Holmstrom: South Indian Factory Workers: Their Life and Their World S. Ambirajan: Classical Political Economy and British Policy in India
CLASSICAL POLITICAL ECONOMY AND BRITISH POLICY IN INDIA S. AMBIRAJAN ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF ECONOMIC HISTORY UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS CAMBRIDGE LONDON • NEW YORK • MELBOURNE
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, Sao Paulo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www. Cambridge. org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521214155 © Cambridge University Press 1978 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 1978 This digitally printed version 2008 A catalogue recordfor this publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data Ambirajan, S. Classical political economy and British policy in India. (Cambridge South Asian studies; no. 21) Bibliography: p. 1. India - Economic policy