De-industrialization and Industrialization in India during Colonial Period: An Appraisal of Theoretical Implications, Conventional Approaches and Alternative Perspective

Abstract

This paper explores the context of different models of de-industrialization and industrialization, which connected to social structural change, by going through existing narratives, whether Marxist or functionalist, derived largely from the complex historical experiences of Western Europe, especially Britain, which is seated in our historical consciousness as a lens to examine various narratives of different geographical location in different set of time to set universal postulates. On closer examination of the Indian economy, this essay sets out shared assumptions, common to Marxism and functionalism with new recent research about the character of economic development as a social process, by unfurling the dynamism and complexities of socio-economic nature of the Indian economy, which offers some alternative perspective.