Eastern India in the Late Nineteenth Century: Part I: 1860-1870

The Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) has recently revived its Major Project on the collection and collation of important documents pertaining to the economic history of British rule in India covering the period 1858-1947. Economic history is taken here in the widest possible meaning of the term, covering data and developments judged significant from the economic, social, cultural ecological history of the country. The present volume is concerned with a wide range of economic documents for Eastern India covered by the Bengal Presidency of British India in the late nineteenth century. The volume is divided into two parts, Part I (1860s-1870s) and Part II (1880s-1890s). The Part I has been published in 2009. The Part II contains documents on economic history of the region in the last two decades of the nineteenth century when the mark of the new administration of the British Raj was felt by the people in myriad ways. These documents do reflect on the economic conditions of the people in diverse fields, often culminated by the more dramatic presence of scarcity or famines.Accordingly, data are collected from a wide spectrum of human activity reflected in diverse fields such as agriculture, forestry, population, public health, education and sanitation. A considerable part of these documents is presented in statistical forms, particularly connected with Public Health, Agricultural prices and ExportImport trade. In minute details, these documents touch on a wide variety data on agricultural operations, agricultural appliances, material conditions of agricultural classes, population change, health and mortality, literacy and primary education, value of livestock and cattle diseases, production and export of cash crops, production and supply of food grains, distribution of waste lands, forests and reclamation of jungle lands, tenural disputes, and scarcity and famines. The work is expected to be an important source for students of the history of economic and human development in India.