This book offers a major new economic history of India from the reign of Akbar in the sixteenth century to India''s post-independence integration into the global economy. Using concepts and theories from economics and economic history alongside extensive new data, Bishnupriya Gupta builds a new framework for understanding the economic impacts and legacies of British rule. She charts India's transition from precolonial economy to colonial rule and evaluates its economic performance from a comparative perspective, particularly in the context of the Great Divergence between Europe and Asia.