Chapter 7 - A Closing Agrarian Frontier

Summary

During the colonial period industrial exports declined and agrarian exports expanded. Driven by extensive capital investments, export crops – such as indigo and later jute – transformed the agrarian economy. Cultivators, who often had to support several layers of landlords, were unable to introduce new technology such as improved seeds, commercial fertilisers, irrigation or better implements. They opted for high fertility, leading to population growth. The result was a ‘horizontal’ expansion: agrarian production grew because cultivators brought more and more land under the plough. They began to migrate out of Bengal. The agrarian system collapsed during a large man-made famine during the Second World War.