# The Great Question of History: India, Britain, and the Fates of Nations | Live at the British Academy

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/on-humans-5714769/the-great-question-of-history-india-britain-and-the-fates-of-nations-live-at-the-british-academy
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/on-humans-5714769/the-great-question-of-history-india-britain-and-the-fates-of-nations-live-at-the-british-academy.md
Podcast: [On Humans](https://stenobird.com/podcast/on-humans-5714769)
Published: 2025-08-16T14:11:10+00:00
Episode link: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ilari-makela/episodes/The-Great-Question-of-History-India--Britain--and-the-Fates-of-Nations--Live-at-the-British-Academy-e36u49u
Audio file: https://anchor.fm/s/b6269808/podcast/play/106942206/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2025-7-16%2F4d82ca95-876c-d757-05cc-235e89af18ec.mp3
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/on-humans-5714769/episodes/the-great-question-of-history-india-britain-and-the-fates-of-nations-live-at-the-british-academy
Duration seconds: 1585

## Resource

Why did the great powers of Asia stagnate whilst Europe was rising? This question—often called the Great Divergence—is one of the most defining questions of modern history. Few case studies illuminate this question as well as the contrast between Britain and India. Did colonialism make Britain rich and India poor? Or was Britain’s rise already underway before conquest? And what does all this tell us about the everyday experiences of the people of on two sides of the divide? This episode is a live recording from the British Academy, where I was invited to speak at the launch of Bishnupriya Gupta’s An Economic History of India . I was honoured to give this talk on this exceptionally rich topic, speaking after some of the leading experts of India's history. How did I do? Share your thoughts in the comments at OnHumans.Substack.com. Enjoy! DIG DEEPER Read : See my article on the ⁠"Origins of Modern India⁠⁠ ". Complement with "Origins of Modern China" from last fall. Listen : Check out the two-part " ⁠What About India?⁠ " series from this February. Complement with the episode with Professor Tirthankar Roy this July. SUPPORT THE SHOW You can pledge your support at ⁠⁠⁠Patreon.com/OnHumans⁠⁠⁠⁠ KEYWORDS Big history | Economic History | Why the West | Gunpowder empires | Mughals | Colonialism | Imperialism | British East India Company | European colonialism | History of Colonialism | Geographical Determinism | Environmental Determinism | Political History | Fiscal History | Great Divergence | Western Dominance | Early Modern History | Kenneth Pomerantz | Steven Broadberry

## Actions

- request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/on-humans-5714769/episodes/the-great-question-of-history-india-britain-and-the-fates-of-nations-live-at-the-british-academy/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
- read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/on-humans-5714769/the-great-question-of-history-india-britain-and-the-fates-of-nations-live-at-the-british-academy.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed.

## Transcript

Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.