Buchanan, George Gunton and a Divergent View of the Great Divergence
George Gunton proposed a demand-centric theory to explain the root cause for the divergence between countries. Effectual demand that arises from social wants becomes the precondition for capital investment and growth in real wages. While social wants in the West and East were almost on par until the thirteenth century, the advent of free towns and in England, set into motion a transformation of social wants. Based on his reading of Francis Buchanan, Gunton argued that without a similar revolution, social wants remained static in the East. This stark observation and the possible reasons for its timelessness have so far received scant attention in the Great Divergence debate, which this article seeks to address.
Read more: hyperlink to:
Retracing Buchanan’s Journey
It is almost two decades now that we began retracing Francis Buchanan’s Journey. Although we are far from having completed the entire route, the experience so far has been fascinating, persuading us to study history in ways that we might have otherwise missed. In this lecture delivered at the Bangalore International Centre, Dr. Sashi Sivramkrishna of FAIR will share experiences and learnings from the retracing the Journey, accompanied with photographs and short clips from documentary films. Read More
A Long Morning
In February 1800, Dr. Francis Buchanan, on his survey of southern India
had visited Honnavar, a small coastal town in the present-day district of
Uttara Kannada in the state of Karnataka.
He had recorded the importance of fishing as a commercial activity but
had little to say about the lives and livelihoods of the fishers.
While retracing Francis Buchanan’s Journey we visited Honnavar to
see and record what Buchanan had not.
A Long Morning captures the mundane lives of small fishers on one
February morning in 2021 … more than 200 years after Buchanan had passed by
these very shores.
A Life at Sea
In February 1800, Dr. Francis Buchanan, on his survey of southern India
had visited Honnavar, a small coastal town in the present-day district of
Uttara Kannada in the state of Karnataka.
He had recorded the importance of fishing as a commercial activity but
had little to say about the lives and livelihoods of the fishers.
While retracing Francis Buchanan’s Journey we visited Honnavar to
see and record what Buchanan had not.A Life at Sea captures the mundane
lives of fishers aboard their motor boat on one February day and night in 2021
… more than 200 years after Buchanan had passed by these very shores.
A comparative study of the forests of Savandurga, Karnataka, between 1800-01 and the present
Research undertaken by Murali Sreenivasa Ecologist and Coordinator.
The primary goal of the project was to retrace Buchanan’s route in Magadi and surrounding environs to note and document the faunal characteristics and composition. You can read our report here
- Map
- Article
- Gallery
- Documentary
- Other
