The Prosperity of Agriculture and the Development of Industry in British India during the Inter-War Period : The Views of Indian Tariff Boards of 1926 and 1932 Natsuko KITANI This paper aims to re-consider the balance or correlation between the prosperity of agriculture and the development of industry in British India during the Inter-War Period. In achieving the above aim, this paper pays attention to the question of Indian raw cotton, and explores the views of Indian Tariff Boards of 1926 and 1932 about what policies of Indian raw cotton should be executed in connection with the protection and development of Indian cotton industry. The main aim of both Tariff Boards was to examine the conditions of Indian cotton industry and make the necessary recommendations. About the question of Indian raw cotton, both Tariff Boards argued that the export duty should not be imposed on Indian raw cotton, and that the import duty should be imposed on foreign raw cotton. The reasons were two: one was that India did not want to antagonize Japan, in other words, did not want to lose the important export market of Indian raw cotton; the other was that the Tariff Boards intended to protect the interests of Indian cotton cultivators. However, the recommendations of the Boards were not necessarily compatible with the protection of the Indian cotton industrial interests. Why did the Tariff Boards try to protect the interests of the cotton cultivators? The three reasons can be given. The first reason is that the cotton cultivators were also the consumers of Indian cotton goods. The second one is that, if the Indian government ignored the interests of the mass cultivators, they might complain of the Raj and their complaint might cause social unrest. Then, the third one is British India offset her deficit with Britain through her trade surplus with other countries by the export of primary products such as raw cotton. During the inter-war period, British India mostly attached the greatest importance to the stabilization of the exchange rate and to the acquirement of trade surplus through the export of primary goods. In such a structure, British India tried to balance the prosperity of agriculture and the development of industry, although both interests were sometimes incompatible with each other. In that sense, the interests of Indian cotton industrialists were not always the top priority in considering the question of the development of Indian cotton industry.