The special status of Berar as a prime cotton producing region within the British colonial empire in the nineteenth century in itself reveals its importance to the contemporary world economy. The dramatic takeover of the region and its linkup to the world market with the consequent socio-economic change the region underwent is a story which has waited long to be told. This work retrieves Berar from the colonial docu­ments of the nineteenth century and critically places it in the historio­graphy of South Asia.

The book examines the forceful impact of the industrial revolution on the material condition of the masses and how it changed social relations in the Berar society as a whole. It also studies the activities of the col­onial state in Berar in the context of a world economy driven by the cotton crisis before and after the American Civil War. The great social and economic transformation which this region underwent is syste­matically analysed in relation to the broader framework of colonialism and imperialism. The study also addresses the critical issue of the deep and underlying connection between cotton, British imperialism and famine in Berar.

This book should be of great interest to students of agrarian, environ­mental, economic and social history, political economy, coloni­alism, imperialism and popular culture.