Varieties of Empire: Famine and the Political Economy of Colonial Rule in India

Thu 23 January

Homerton College

Abstract: Across the social sciences, empires – despite their different characteristics – are consistently defined in terms of their commonalities across time and place. In this paper, I ask what we can learn about the varieties of empire by examining the ways in which famine was addressed during the period of British colonial rule in India. I argue for more attention to be given to the colonial histories constitutive of European overseas empires as developing a distinct type of empire; what I call ‘empires of extraction’ in contrast to ‘empires of incorporation’. One key difference in the way in which famine is approached is that under the logic of ‘incorporation’, foodstuffs are moved within empire from areas of surplus to areas of deprivation, whereas under the logic of ‘extraction’ they are moved from areas of deprivation to the geographically distant metropole. In this paper, I move from the different treatment of famine to construct a sociological understanding of the distinctiveness of modern European empire.

Cost: Free