Please join us for an upcoming seminar on South Asian politics, co-hosted by the Saxena Center at Brown University, the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University, and the Mittal Institute at Harvard University. The seminar will feature Jennifer Bussell, Associate Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley and Faculty Director of the Center on Contemporary India.
Historical land ownership and taxation institutions have long shaped agricultural investment and productivity. But how have they influenced economic development beyond agriculture?
This talk examines how land tenure institutions established under British colonial rule continue to shape India’s non-agricultural economy. It argues that where colonial policies concentrated land ownership in the hands of a small number of landlords, local capital accumulation may have constrained opportunities for business growth and innovation. By contrast, more widely distributed land ownership may have supported the growth of larger businesses and the expansion of non-agricultural sectors over time. Drawing on data from the 1931 Indian Census and the 2013 Sixth Economic Census of India, the talk compares regions historically governed under landlord-based systems with those where cultivators retained greater control over their land. The findings show that areas formerly under landlord rule tend to have smaller enterprises, measured by number of employees, and a greater concentration of businesses in traditional handloom and handicraft sectors.
Speaker:
Jennifer Bussell, Associate Professor of Political Science and Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley and Faculty Director of the Center on Contemporary India
About the Speaker:
Jennifer Bussell is Associate Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and Faculty Director of the Center on Contemporary India. Her research focuses on the political economy of development, democratic politics, and governance, particularly in India. She is the author of several books, including Shocks and Politics: Understanding Disaster Preparedness (Cambridge University Press), Clients and Constituents: Political Responsiveness in Patronage Democracies (Oxford University Press), and Corruption and Reform in India: Public Services in the Digital Age (Cambridge University Press). She received her Ph.D. in Political Science from UC Berkeley.
