Articles by Sumit Guha

As culture and religion often overlap, they can and do become central forces in shaping politics and society. A seminar in Calcutta on Cultural and Religious Pluralism in India and the US brought that out as a cross-cultural insight for the study of the two countries.

Some Findings This paper seeks to provide a long-term perspective on changes in labour intensity in Indian agriculture. It uses farm-level data from four periods commencing with the 1880s in order to study the variations in labour used for different crops. The evidence suggests that agriculturally progressive areas showed declines in labour intensity by the 1950s, while increases are observable elsewhere. Decreases predominate in the next two decades.

Maharashtra, 1800-1950 Sumit Guha A particular structure of commodity production arose as a consequence of tax-demands in late eighteenth century Maharashtra and generated a need for credit without which production and, consequently, both the productive and the unproductive classes would suffer. A flow of credit did result as a result. The real change came when another market came into operation; that in land. Now an additional, and tangible, security was available, and the moneylender could reduce his costs and extend his operations by relying on it.