‘Rich India’ of Our Ancient Legends (India in the Russian Periodicals of the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century: Social and Economic Aspects)

Abstract

In comparison with other countries, India and especially its social and economic life could hardly be placed among the subjects which were regularly discussed by the Russian press. Nevertheless, these publications offer an idea about what the image of India was in Russia, what the Russian people knew and thought about India’s socio-economic and particularly agrarian problems, what was the range of questions they were interested in, and in what perspective and context these questions were being considered. Russian interest in India was determined by several governing factors, such as existence of certain common tendencies in the social and economic life of both the countries, perception of their own path of development as different from the West, confrontation of Britain and Russia in Central Asia and by pure economic considerations, among them, competition of Russian and Indian commodities in the world market, desire of the Russian commercial circles to start direct trade with India and borrowing English agricultural practice in India. Russian journals became the source for this article, both literary monthly (‘fat magazines’) and economics journals.