Debasing Indigenous Statehood: Sovereign Monies, Markets and Imperial Power in the Indian Subcontinent, c.1893–1905.

The article focuses on the transformation of currency sovereignty in the Indian subcontinent during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, highlighting how the demonetization of silver in British India in 1893 and the subsequent adoption of the gold standard by the colonial rupee precipitated a dramatic reconfiguration of native statehood and British imperial power. Prior to 1893, multiple subcontinental states issued their own silver-based currencies that circulated widely across territories, including British India, supported by indigenous banking networks and markets. The colonial government's unilateral move to demonetize silver disrupted this system, provoking resistance from native bankers and states, and leading to currency instability exacerbated by the famines of 1896–1902, which strained native states' finances and forced most to abandon their currencies in favor of the British rupee. This shift consolidated British monetary dominance, extended imperial sovereignty through financial markets, and reflected broader global monetary realignments favoring gold and London's financial influence, with lasting implications for the nature of sovereignty and economic integration in colonial Asia.