490/

by their claim that even if such a project were to arise, the (world historical) circum-
stances are now distinct. It is puzzling why they did not take the works in the ICPR-
sponsored volumes on the Project on Indian Science, Philosophy and Culture into
account, but they no doubt have good reasons for their decision. It is, to repeat, a
very important volume that the editors have placed before us, however much ground
they provide for disagreement, and we are grateful to them for their effort.

Nasir Tyabji
Nehru Memorial Museum and Library
New Delhi

MEENA BHARGAVA, State, Society and Ecology: Gorakhpur in Transition,1750-1830,

Delhi, Manohar, 1999,pp. 279.

The book outlines an economic history ofGorakhpur during its transition to British
rule. Gorakhpur was part of Awadh until 1801, when it was ceded to the East India
Company. The book deals with agricultural expansion, forests, property rights and,
briefly, with trade and industry. One purpose of the book is to illustrate the argument
that the eighteenth century in northern India saw ’flourishing agriculture, powerful
and prosperous merchants and the proliferation of markets’ (p. 17). While most of
the earlier studies on economic changes in the eighteenth century have been ’macro-
regional’ in their approach, the present work takes a close look at a relatively small
region.
The descriptive part of the book is well written, and the result of honest hard-
working research. The agricultural-ecological regions are distinguished and agri-
cultural practices and cropping patterns described in valuable detail. From revenue
records, a picture is drawn of ’unusual agricultural expansion’ in the period,
when forests were cleared, revenue collection increased, new types of cultivators
were settled, and peasants and landlords were given incentives to expand cultiva-

tion. What kind of economic conditions drove this growth is not very clear from the
book. Also, more quantitative evidence on the process was needed. But the existence
of an agrarian expansion is clear enough. Reclamation of forests and cultivable
wastes played a major role in the expansion. To encourage reclamation, the Company
gave low-tax leases that led some previously non-peasant groups to migrate and
settle as peasants. Most lands that were brought into cultivation by 1830 were the
more easily accessible and less heavily forested wastelands. After 1830, a lucrative
timber trade led to the exploitation of more distant and thickly forested areas.
The Company’s attempts to collect more revenue involved several steps. It graded
lands for assessment purposes, curbed the extortionate revenue collecting agents
appointed during the Awadh nawab’s regime, outlawed the landlord’s rights to
impose and collect taxes from peasants, and resumed a large number of tax-free or
low-tax tenures. It strengthened the property rights of zamindars and ta’alluqdars,
those among the rural magnates who already possessed sufficient and well-

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acknowledged control over land produce. Their power had grown as central authority
steadily weakened during the nawab’s regime, leading to conflicts between various
types of intermediaries in the eighteenth century. The Company tried to contain
these conflicts and to curb the zamindar’s political power. The peasants consisted
of occupancy tenants with more or less secure customary rights as well as non-
occupancy tenants. In practice, many peasants combined both these features. How
tenancy changed in the course of the agrarian expansion is an issue that needed
more discussion.
The analytical part of the book is rather simplistic. The opening paragraph states
that the book attempts to ’redefine economic history’. This is a misleading claim.
There are two general theses proposed here. First, there was agrarian expansion in
Gorakhpur, as against ’the suggestions of some scholars who paint a dismal picture
of the economy and society in view of the declining Mughal empire’ (p. 256).
Second, the philosophy of the East India Company was to make ’oriental knowledge
the basic premise for all its creations and innovations’ in trying to govern this part
of India (p. 259). The Company tried to maintain continuity, but it was often mistaken
about what it thought were old customs, which resulted in ’a clash of opinions
between the Company and the people’.
Neither thesis is refreshingly new. Moreover, the book merely repeats them, and
does not re-examine them in the light of new material. This leads to some inconsis-
tencies and some open ends. There may have been growth in the eighteenth century.
But there was also weakening central authority and occasional regression into
anarchy in this region. The politics may not have produced stagnation, but it surely
influenced the scale and nature of growth. One needed to know how. Further, the
Company may have followed what it thought were old precedents, but it also made
daring new innovations that had nothing to do with custom. Reading this account
on Gorakhpur, one gets the sense that where rural magnates were concerned, more
old rights were curbed and destroyed in the early nineteenth century than preserved.
It is not credible that all this was done with a naive belief in continuity.
These limitations of the book can be ignored, for its descriptive part is indeed
quite rich. Essentially it is a competently researched pioneering study of Gorakhpur
and, as such, a valuable addition to the economic history of early British rule in
northern India.

Tirthankar Roy
Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research
Mumbai

ARTHUR KLEINMAN, VEENA DAS and MARGARET LOCK, eds, Social Suffering, Delhi,
Oxford University Press, 1998, pp. 404.

What does the suffering of the survivor of a riot or a pogrom-in which neighbours
are motivated to kill neighbours-have in common with the debilitation of a patient

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