EP09 - Colonialism and The Drain ft. Utsa Patnaik

Introduction to Political Economy

Pakistan was colonized by the British alongside the rest of the South Asian subcontinent. But the basic nature of colonialism is often misunderstood, especially by the former colonizers -- the British were here to extract wealth, and the nature and magnitude of this extraction needs to be understood. What did "the Drain" mean for living standards in colonial South Asia? Did we get anything back for what the British extracted from it? What role did the Drain play in the industrialization of Britain and other British settler-colonies? Did colonial extraction get in the way of our “catching up” with the European countries as far as the Great Divergence is concerned?

I'm joined by Dr. Utsa Patnaik, co-author of A Theory of Imperialism, to discuss these questions.

Music by Zobu.