PhD Thesis
Title: Partition and the Un-Mixing of the British Indian Economy: 1945-1950
PhD Supervisor & Co-Supervisor: Carolyn Biltoft and Cyrus Schayegh
Expected completion date: August 2023
At the intersection of economic history, and partition and memory studies, my thesis examines the economic implications of decolonization of British India. The transition to the ‘national economy’ – the bedrock of post-war global economic order – entailed the un-mixing of an economy whose bureaucratic and economic intermediation had been integral to the British Empire. Independence/Partition resulted in a post-colonial order mediated by economic units far more constrained than British India’s expansive trade and monetary ties, with under-researched implications for British Indian companies. My methodology combines a microhistory of a late colonial financial publication with corporate and business archives, as well as national archives. The world history approach offers new perspectives on and illustrates the limits of state-centered narratives that take the establishment of the Dominions of India and Pakistan in 1947 as the end-point of decolonization.
Profile
Atiya Hussain brings a connected, world history approach to decolonization and state-making in British India with a view to contributing new perspectives on the violent and chaotic partition of British India beyond the state-centered narratives that have largely gripped the sub-continent.
Her particular focus is on the relatively understudied economic aspects of the transition from Empire.
Research Interests
- Comparative History
- Financial Geography
- Legal History
ACADEMIC WORK EXPERIENCE
Teaching Assistant
Panelist (Business, Firms and Cities in 20th Century India (Part II), Busines History Conference, April 2022
Extensive media experience
Relevant Publications and Works
Atiya Hussain, Revolutionary Indian Women: Re-reading Colonial Police Records in 2020, Fondation Pierre du Bois