The Great Depression And Agrarian Economy

An economic rout was started in the New York Stock Market on a ?Black Thursday on October 24, 1929 which changed the course of economic thinking all over the world. The depression of thirties was neither new nor the only such event of economic history. In fact, it comes in the series of economic crises that occurred in 1840 and 1890. It was, of course, unique in the sense that it gave birth to some practical economic programme of President Roosevelt of America and theoretic base to econometric studies of the spending hypothesis of J.M. Keynes. The Great Depression was a complex economic phenomenon whose devil design hardly spared any region of the individualistic economy of the world. The present work is an attempt to identify its impact on the agrarian economy of Bihar. It extensively deals with the origin of the Great Depression of 1929 in the USA and its world-wide effects. It extends its umbrella to review its impact on Indian Industry and agriculture. To provide a sound theoretical base, it throws light on the difference of opinion between the Indian businessmen and the British officials regarding the cause of depression of India. After reviewing the global and national economic effects of the Great Depression, it comes down to give a short account of the agrarian economy of Bihar between 1920 and 1930 and then an extensive treatment is given to analyse the impact of the Great Depression of on the agrarian economy of Bihar. This is a rare work on economic history which interlinks the regional economic situation with the global crisis of the world