Japan as a Potential Counterfactual for India's Economic History
Japan is proposed as a suitable counterfactual for assessing what might have happened to India's economy without British rule. The basis for this comparison rests on two key points: first, Japan had a comparable level of poverty to India in 1600. Second, unlike India, Japan successfully resisted foreign domination. This independence allowed it to develop into a thriving capitalist economy from the late 19th century by adeptly adopting advanced technologies from Britain and other industrialized nations. Nevertheless, it remains uncertain if an independent India would have followed a similar developmental path.
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Japan as a Potential Counterfactual for India's Economic History
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