Pervez Tahir is President of the Council of Social Sciences, Pakistan. A PhD in Economics from Cambridge, he held the Joan Robinson Memorial Lectureship there in 1990 and Mahbub ulHaq Chair at GCU, Lahore. He served as Chief Economist of Planning Commission of Pakistan and Chairman, Bank of Punjab. 

Part I. In the Land of Princes.- 1. An Unseemly Memsaab.- 2. A Tale of Two Robinsons.- 3. Discovering a Book.- 4. Austin Carries the Day.- Part II. Thinking Development: Then and Later.- 5. Precolonial Underdevelopment.- 6. Colonial Development.- 7. Is There a Common Thread?.- Part III. Transfer of Resources from Princely India to British India.- 8. Net Resource Outflow.- 9. Liabilities of the States.- 10. Revenue Contributions.- Part IV. The Drain, Backwardness and the State.- 11. The Drain and Backwardness.- 12. Role of the State.