His research also covered the socio-political and economic structures of South India of this period including social history of capitalism in the region.
[10] He would further develop these themes and topics in his essays including 'Land and labour in late eighteenth century South India: the golden age of the pariah,' in which he explored colonial capitalism and laws with a focus on land and property rights.
Despite being offered a chair after a year-long sojourn at Harvard, Washbrook returned to Warwick where he pioneered the teaching of India outside of specialist centres.
[10] He served as a guide to many historians and doctoral students during this time as they built on his ideas around studying the history of the region through a socio-political lens.
He also drew from the integration between the ecology and agriculture of the region, making a distinction between 'wet' and 'dry' districts as means to study the local politics.
Working with Christopher Bayly and Frank Perlin, two other noted historians of this time, he brought a new energy to the study of this period, triggering many debates on the origins of British rule and the prevailing conditions including the pre-colonial Indian order.
"[10] He observed that British colonial rule in the southern part of India had exposed the local elites to European ideas enabling cross-cultural dialogue and yielding net positive cultural outcomes, specifically calling out the Maratha court in Thanjavur.