The Early Modern in South Asia

Erscheinungsjahr 2024
ISBN: 978-1-009-21537-4
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 268 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 590 g

Did modernity arrive in South Asia with British colonialism? Or was South Asia already modern by then? What might have that modernity looked like? The Early Modern in South Asia engages with these questions. It brings together ten chapters, which collectively trace the contours of South Asia's early modernity between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. They do this by examining the nature of historical change in various domains, including philosophy, warfare, law, environment, politics, violence, religion, and society. The chapters argue that in all these fields, there were noticeable developments during this period, marking a shift from the medieval to the early modern. The introductory chapter contextualizes this by analysing the politics of periodization in history-writing across the world. It discusses the meanings of the relatively new concept of early modernity and the implications of its use for how we understand historical change and continuity in South Asia.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Bhargava, Meena

Nath, Pratyay

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Asiatische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtswissenschaft Allgemein Geschichtswissenschaft: Theorie und Methoden

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgements; 1. Introduction: History and the Politics of Periodization Meena Bhargava and Pratyay Nath; Part I. Religion, Ideology, Identity: 2. Locating the Early Modern in South Asian Sufism Kashshaf Ghani; 3. Beginnings of Modernity in South Asia: Natural Philosophy in Persianate Islam Charles Ramsey; 4. Contestations and Negotiations: Early Modern Individualism in Jain Heterodoxy, c. 1470–c. 1770 Shalin Jain; Part II. Economy, Environment, Society: 5. Early Modernity and South Asian Economic History: Problematic, Periodization, Processes, and Possibilities Rajat Datta; 6. Markers of the Early Modern: Ecology, State, and Society in Rajasthan Mayank Kumar; 7. Through the Prism of Environmental History: Defining the Early Modern in South Asia Meena Bhargava; 8. The Early Modern Conundrum: Peninsular India and the Idea of Periodization in a 'Regional' Perspective Ranjeeta Datta; Part III. Politics, Law, War: 9. Fidalgoes, Soldados, Arrenegados: Portuguese Adventurers in Hugli and Early Modern Politics Radhika Chadha; 10. Law, Empire, and the New Julfan Armenians: The Early Modern in the Indian Ocean World Santanu Sengupta; 11. Was Mughal Warfare Early Modern? Pratyay Nath; Index.

Über Autor(innen)

Nath, Pratyay
Pratyay Nath teaches history at Ashoka University, India. He is a historian of early modern South Asia. The areas of his research include military history, environmental history, imperial history, and history of the historical discipline. His most recent publication is Climate of Conquest: War, Environment, and Empire in Mughal North India (2019).

Bhargava, Meena
Meena Bhargava teaches history at Indraprastha College for Women, University of Delhi, India. She is a historian of medieval and early modern South Asia. The areas of her research include Mughal history, environmental history, history of narcotics and drugs, agrarian history, and land rights in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century India. Her most recent publication is Understanding Mughal India: Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries (2019).