Roots of agrarian crisis in interwar India

Agricultural growth declined in interwar India, intensifying poverty and weakening prospects for industrialisation. Historical scholarship explains poor agricultural growth mainly in terms of adverse institutions, a hypothesis that fails to account for the much better growth rates in pre-war India. A contemporary discourse suggesting the presence of environmental constraints on investment in agriculture, and sustainability of extensive growth, supplies a better account of economic history. It can also connect the past with the present, when sustainability concerns have returned.