Bharat and India: A Lesson From Economic History
Niranjan Rajadhyaksha -
Monday, May 18, 2009 6:46 PM
As the new UPA government prepares to start work, we can expect a fresh round of debates on urban versus rural growth.
This paragraph from a recent essay by Robert C Allen, professor of economic history at Oxford University, provides food for thought. He is writing about the Industrial Revolution in Europe.
"... the growth of cities and the high wage economy stimulated agriculture. The strong demand for food and particularly meat, butter, and cheese led to the conversion of arable to pasture, convertible husbandry, and the production of fodder crops (beans, clover, turnips), most of which raised soil nitrogen levels and pushed up the yields of wheat and barley. The urban demand for labour led to the amalgamation of small holdings into large farms, which employed fewer people per acre, a development also entailed by the conversion of ploughed land to grass. Agriculture was revolutionised because cities expanded, rather than the reverse as historians have often maintained."
That last line is critical.
Whether you agree with it or not will define where you stand on the India versus Bharat debate.
I had earlier written in an earlier blog post on reverse migration in China that our future is urban. Don't miss the comments that came in.