This book investigates the roots of rapid economic growth of India in recent decades, by exploring historical processes from the late colonial period. Based upon decades-long archival and field research, this book deals with the period from the late nineteenth century to 2013 and offers an integral viewpoint of the economic history of India. While critiquing the conventional understanding that links recent economic growth only with the development of high-tech, export-oriented service sectors under the liberalised economy, the book suggests deeper and wider roots of development that had a cumulative effect in three stages. First, the agrarian development and rural socio-economic changes from the end of the nineteenth century. Second, the state-led import-substitution industrialisation since 1950 that established the industrial foundations for future economic growth. Third, the economic reforms since 1991 that helped technology-intensive industries find new markets with improved quality of production. For the first time available in English, this book by the late Professor Haruka Yanagisawa, who was a leading figure in the South Asia studies collective in Japan, is an important contribution to the academic tradition of economic history of India. It will be of interest to researchers in the field of social and economic history, sociology, anthropology and economies of South Asia.

This book describes and analyzes the transformation of Indian economy taking into account historical changes and present dynamics of the rural-urban nexus. India has recently experienced a period as a high-performing economy, with the great improvement of indices of human development, including literacy rates, life expectancy, child mortality rates and others. In contrast to this bright outlook, features such as the retarded growth of women's average height, the noticeable gap between male and female population, the overwhelming proportion of informal employment in the manufacturing sector, or increasing pollution overshadow India's future, in some cases pose a threat to lifestyle and environment. Examining the rural-urban nexus where the new transformative dynamics of Indian socio-economy is most conspicuous, the contributors to this book shed light on the actual changes taking place at the bottom of Indian society through regional comparisons and spatial differentiation. The book offers unique perspectives on the topic produced mostly by Japanese scholars, including analysis of original data, that have hitherto been unavailable and inaccessible to an international audience. As the first book published on the rural-urban nexus in India, this book will be of interest to researchers studying South Asian History, Economics, Politics, Geography, Sociology and Anthropology, Development Studies and Economic History.

This book explores and interrogates the food-water-energy nexus, arguably the most crucial factor in sustaining India's economic development. The book sheds light on different experiences faced in states across India, including the consequences of electricity tariff reforms and related policies on irrigated agriculture. A comprehensive examination of various important issues related to South Asian agricultural development in the past and in the present, this book will be a valuable reference for researchers of Asian development, sustainable development, environmental policy, South Asian Studies and Development Studies.

This book explores and interrogates the food-water-energy nexus, arguably the most crucial factor in sustaining India's economic development. The book sheds light on different experiences faced in states across India, including the consequences of electricity tariff reforms and related policies on irrigated agriculture. A comprehensive examination of various important issues related to South Asian agricultural development in the past and in the present, this book will be a valuable reference for researchers of Asian development, sustainable development, environmental policy, South Asian Studies and Development Studies.