New book throws light on different dimensions of poverty during colonial era

Retired SVU professor Devireddy Subramanyam Reddy sheds light on poverty in British India in his recent book.

Retired professor of History at Sri Venkateswara University (SVU), Tirupati, Devireddy Subramanyam Reddy, recently released his book ‘Loss and Gain in British India’, throwing light on unexplored areas and different dimensions of poverty during the colonial era.

The book, published in October 2024 by Serials Publications, New Delhi, was formally released at the Hyderabad Press Club recently by senior journalist Vardhelli Murali in the presence of Adapa Satyanarayana, a retired professor of History at Osmania University and Dyavanapalli Satyanarayana, curator of tribal museums at the Tribal Cultural Research and Training Institute, Hyderabad.

Speaking to The Hindu about his book, the author said that the colonial rule was based on principles of extraction, leaving India with widespread poverty and starvation deaths. “Poverty is not just lack of purchasing power, it is an injury and pain. It is embarrassing and shameful, killer of dreams, destroyer of capabilities and waster of human potential,” he said.

Referring to ‘modernity’ such as railway network, roadways, telegraphic lines, irrigation works, establishment of uniform postal system, printing presses, print media, agricultural research centres, schools, universities, banks and insurance companies, modern legal system, fixation of legal boundaries to India among others, which are hailed as ‘virtues’ of the British rule, Prof. Reddy termed them as having been ‘unconsciously brought about’ during the colonial period. On the contrary, technical education and modern manufacturing industry had been systematically neglected and destroyed, he opined.

The author referred to the renowned economists Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James Robinson, recipients of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, and hailed their thoughts in advancing the ‘understanding of differences in prosperity between nations’.

“While the Europeans colonised and settled in North America, which was ‘inclusive’ in nature, the inclement weather discouraged their settlement in South Asia (or India), where the policy turned out to be ‘extractive’. This is the prime attitudinal difference towards the two settlements,” Prof. Reddy explained.