Science and Modern India

CHAPTER 11

Poona Agricultural College: Catering to the ‘Colonial Food’ Requirement, 1908–47¹

Kishor D. Gaikwad

It is now an accepted truism that British rule in India was concerned about agriculture, land under cultivation and agricultural products. Revenue settlements, judicial administration and the expanding administrative machinery for revenue collection were the main efforts made by the British government in the nineteenth century to bring about a favourable economic scenario. Due to changes in the basic economic structure, the socio-economic scenario of western Maharashtra also changed phenomenally, especially in the second half of the nineteenth century. Rapid population growth occurred here between 1820 and 1850, but after this frequent ...