Explain with example the of road development in context of Regional imbalances.
Answers
I. Historical Trends
India has had a glorious past. Our cultural heritage is comparable to that of China or Egypt. We had great kings and kingdoms. Half of the major world religions had their origin in India. We had produced great thinkers and philosophers who contributed to several branches of knowledge.
But most of our history before 1500 AD is in oral traditions. Indians, by and large, were not good at record keeping. This is especially true about hard facts and data relating to various aspects of life. Even for the period 1500 to 1750 AD data are rudimentary. The historical trends discussed in this section, by and large, are based on Cambridge Economic History of India edited by Dharma Kumar with editorial assistance by Meghnad Desai and Tapan Raychaudhuri and Irfan Habib.¹
Mughal period (1500-1750)
India during Akbar’s time was considered as prosperous a country as the best in the world. Though mainly agrarian, India was a leading manufacturing nation at least at par with pre-industrial Europe. She lost her relative advantage only after Europe achieved a revolution in technology.
The economy was village-based. Though under Muslim rule for over 500 years, the society continued to be organised in Hindu traditions. Caste system was intact. The social disparity often added another dimension to economic exploitation. While the Jajmani system ensured social security, the caste system ensured social immobility.
However, flexibility of the Jajmani system ensured that the artisans working under it were not completely cut off from the market. They were free to sell outside the village the surplus goods left after the fulfillment of community obligations. The traditional economic system based on agriculture and small-scale industries was not disrupted either by the activity of native capital or by the penetration of the foreign merchant capital.
There is historical evidence to indicate that there were food surplus and deficit regions as trade in foodgrains between regions took place. This contradicts the postulate that a uniform pattern of self-sufficiency for the entire sub-continent existed. For example, rice was being purchased from Konkan coast to be transported through sea to Kerala. Similarly, Bengal rice was sent up the Ganges to Agra via Patna, to Coramandel and round the Cape to Kerala and the various port towns of the West Coast. The best mangoes in Delhi’s Mughal Court came from Bengal, Golconda and Goa. Salt to Bengal was imported from Rajputana.
Domestic trade was facilitated by a fairly developed road network. Sher Shah Suri during his short regime laid the foundation of a highway system in India. He alone had built 1700 sarais for the convenience of travellers, mainly traders, on the highways.
India exported common foods like rice and pulses, wheat and oil, for which there was considerable demand abroad. Bengal, Orissa and Kanara Coast north of Malabar were the major grain surplus regions. Besides, Bengal exported sugar and raw silk, Gujarat exported raw cotton, while Malabar sent out its pepper and other spices.
The Indian merchant lived in a keenly competitive world but he accepted important social limits to competition. Business was organized around the family with an occasional trading partner from the same social group.