South Asia History Bibliography

The age returns in the British-administered Census of India between 1871 and 1931 were problematic. Owing to low levels of numeracy and poor records of births and deaths in India, census officials resorted to a number of technical innovations to generate useful statistical regularities out of the imperfect data. In the process, they came to realize that even so putatively a "universal" category as age might be impossible to determine accurately in a culture that lacked certain assumptions about time, and in a state that lacked the resources to tabulate when people began and ended their lives. [From Author]

It is a hundred years since Ronald Ross of the Indian Medical Service discovered the role of anopheles mosquitoes in the transmission of malaria. His research, carried out in Secunderabad and Calcutta in 1896-98, won Ross international acclaim, earned him the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1902, and helped to establish India as a leading site for the investigation of tropical diseases. The opportunity to study such diseases in their native habitat became one of the principal attractions offered to prospective candidates for the Indian Medical Service, and the research agenda of medical science in India was for decades dominated by malaria, kala-azar, plague, relapsing fever, cholera, and other diseases brought together (appropriately or not) under the rubric of 'tropical diseases'. As Ross was well aware, malaria was still widespread in southern Europe in the 1900s, but he regarded it as pre-eminently a tropical disease, and India, with more than a million malaria deaths a year, as the country most afflicted. [From Author]

This 20th-century volume considers many aspects of the ‘imperial experience’ in the final years of the British Empire, culminating in the mid-century's rapid processes of decolonization. It seeks to understand the men who managed the empire, their priorities and vision, and the mechanisms of control and connection that held the empire together. There are chapters on imperial centres, on the geographical ‘periphery’ of empire, and on all its connecting mechanisms, including institutions and the flow of people, money, goods, and services. The volume also explores the experience of ‘imperial subjects’ in terms of culture, politics, and economics; an experience which culminated in the growth of vibrant, often new, national identities and movements and, ultimately, new nation-states. It concludes with the processes of decolonization, which reshaped the political map of the late 20th-century world. [From Publisher]

The Australia South Asia Research Centre (ASARC) was established as an initiative of the The Arndt-Corden Department of Economics through the Strategic Development Fund of the Institute of Advanced Studies, and with financial assistance from the Department of Employment, Education and Training. It was inaugurated in April 1994 by a past-President of India, His Excellency Dr K R Narayanan. Countries in South Asia comprise India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, and the Maldives. The Centre is dedicated to research on the economics and politics of development in the South Asia region. Dr Richard Shand was the first Executive Director of the Centre. [From Website]

The history of sport is only in its infancy in Indian academia. To establish its credibility as a viable academic discipline has proved something of a struggle for those Indian historians engaged in its research for the past few years. The struggle is overcome elsewhere in the world. To overcome it in India, the teaching of sports history within the broader discipline of history must go hand in hand with serious research. This book, which compromises a collection of essays and book reviews by the author published in national and international journals over the past five years, using sport as a lens, considers some relevant themes of social history, and brings forth some important issues of contemporary history. [From Publisher]

Much research has been done on Western warfare and state building but very little on the military effectiveness of states, until now. Using South Asia as a case study, The State at War in South Asia examines how the state, from prehistory to modern times, has managed to wage war. The State at War in South Asia is the first book to cover such a vast period of South Asian military history—more than three thousand years. In doing so, Pradeep P. Barua explores the state's military effectiveness and moves beyond the western and nonwestern dichotomy characterized by most military analysis to date. He leads the reader through a selective study of significant battles, campaigns, and wars fought on the subcontinent. [From Publisher]

Subalterns and Raj presents a unique introductory history of India with an account that begins before the period of British rule, and pursues the continuities within that history up to the present day. Its coverage ranges from Mughal India to post-independence Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, with a focus on the ‘ordinary’ people of India and South Asia. Subalterns and Raj examines overlooked issues in Indian social history and highlights controversies between historians. Taking an iconoclastic approach to the elites of South Asia since independence, it is critical of the colonial regime that went before them. This book is a stimulating and controversial read and, with a detailed guide to further reading and end-of-chapter bibliographies, it is an excellent guide for all students of the Indian subcontinent. [From Publisher]

Roy Foster remarks in Paddy and Mr Punch that a nodding acquaintance with Irish history, which one of his English commentators claimed to have, is 'the most dangerous type of acquaintance.' My own growing alarm at attempting to reinvent the wheel for the purpose of this conference has been allayed only slightly by reading a remark of John Stuart Mill: 'Those Englishmen who know something about India, are even now those who understand Ireland best." I hope at least that the dangerous exercise on which I am about to embark is justified by a useful academic agenda. For in the last ten years, 'connective' and 'comparative' histories have become fashionable and some historians now talk of the need for global social history to replace traditional types of history. A number of developments, ranging from the influence of post-modernist literary criticism to the decline of high marxist historiography have contributed to this change of mood. But the main impulse behind it has been the intellectual crisis of national history in the West and of area studies in the extra-European world. Outside the United States and perhaps Australia, introverted national history has everywhere taken a hammering. British identity, for instance, has been portrayed as a recent and friable construct by self-serving elites in the context of world crisis. Revisionism has unsettled the old Irish national history of 'Faith and Fatherland'. Similar fractures spread across other European national historiographies. [From Author]

The Diverse World of Indian Painting is a stimulative and perceptive survey of different aspects of Indian painting. Authorities of Indian painting in India and aborad have contributed essays to this volume in honour of Dr. V.C. Ohri, the first curator of Bhuri Singh Museum, Chamba who was also the founding curator of the Himachal State Museum, Shimla. The publication covers a range of subjects and their various aspects relating to the tradition of Indian painting both chronologically and school-wise. Mughal, Rajasthani, Pahari, Deccani, Malwa ? the famed school of Central India and Buddhist manuscript painting have been included. There are also essays on murals of Mattancherry Palace, Chamba rumal embroidery, the craft of wood carving & preservation. These articles which reflect the diverse world of Indian painting are a befitting tribute to Dr. Ohri whose contribution to the cause of documenting and preserving Indian painting is second to none. Perceptive, insightful and selective, the book is an indispensable reference tool. The unusual variety of the subject and notable richness of illustrations combine to make this a work of endless fascination. The strikingly illustrated book is a significant contribution to the field of Indian painting and is valuable for students and scholars alike. [From Publisher]

A collection of studies of Indian and East Indian art and iconography assemblage of essays. It deals with selected stories relating to iconographic and archaeological art. It touches upon a range of Indian art history and salient periods of East Asia. [From Publisher]

It was the original intention to produce this work on Indian Architecture in one volume, and the letterpress with the material as a whole was prepared accordingly. In the course of publication however it was found expedient to modify this plan, and to bring the work out not only in two separate volumes but in the form of two independent books. The first of these confines itself to the early and Brahmanical aspect of the subject, and is therefore entitled "INDIAN ARCHITECTURE, BUDDHIST AND HINDU", while the second deals with the development of Moslem architecture in India up to modern times, and is entitled "INDIAN ARCHITECTURE, THE ISLAMIC PERIOD". It is believed that the issue of the work in this manner will enable it to be more conveniently studied, and handled more easily than if it were produced in one rather bulky volume. [From Author]

It thematically and analytically discusses the emergence of India as one of the world's largest democracies and one of the most stable of the states to emerge from the experience of colonialism. The foundations of this rare phenomenon in either Asia or Africa are seen in India's society, the ideas and beliefs of her people, and the institutions of government and politics which have developed on the subcontinent, in a process of interaction between what was indigenous to India and the many external influences brought to bear on the country by economic, political, and ideological contact with the Western world.
Modern scholarship has shown how diverse and complex was India's socio-economic and political development; and this theme runs through the study which eschews any simple understanding of India's political development as a clash between "imperialism" and "nationalism", or the making of a new nation. The complexity reflects many of the continuing ambiguities and inequalities in the subcontinent's life and suggests why the structures of the state, and indeed the very nature of the Indian nation, are now being questioned, often with unprecedented public violence. India's dilemmas are not hers alone: they also raise economic, political, and social issues of profound significance throughout the contemporary world. [From Publisher]

This 20th-century volume considers many aspects of the ‘imperial experience’ in the final years of the British Empire, culminating in the mid-century's rapid processes of decolonization. It seeks to understand the men who managed the empire, their priorities and vision, and the mechanisms of control and connection that held the empire together. There are chapters on imperial centres, on the geographical ‘periphery’ of empire, and on all its connecting mechanisms, including institutions and the flow of people, money, goods, and services. The volume also explores the experience of ‘imperial subjects’ in terms of culture, politics, and economics; an experience which culminated in the growth of vibrant, often new, national identities and movements and, ultimately, new nation-states. It concludes with the processes of decolonization, which reshaped the political map of the late 20th-century world. [From Publisher]

In this spirit of online education, the University has also decided to open up free access to its digital collections. These would be accessible through the University website, https://www.culibrary.ac.in. There are two major reasons underlying our decision. The first is our responsibility to our students and our faculty, whose education and research have been obstructed by the prohibition on physical access to the library collections. The second is our responsibility, as a public institution, to the citizenry as well as the world at large. Education is a public good; and the necessity and value of academic research increases, more than ever, if our society is to recover from this crisis. As a public university, we feel that it is our responsibility to make our digital collections part of a global academic commons, to facilitate the pursuit of knowledge beyond borders. [From Website]

Published for the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery (Winter 1990-1) "The Raj: India and the British, 1600-1947", this catalogue examines the relationship between British and Indian society over the whole period of the British presence in India, from the founding of the East India Company in 1660 to the withdrawal of the British and Partition in 1947. It depicts the wealth, productivity and complex civilization of the India of the great Mughals and shows how Europeans, including the English, were drawn to its shores, seeking the privilege of trading in its fine muslins, printed cottons and spices. The English East India Company had long insisted on sovereignty within its commercial bases on Indian soil, and a significant body of opinion argued for more secure territorial holdings in the subcontinent. The catalogue attempts to illustrate and analyse the history of India and the British for over 300 years with more than 500 illustrations of the weapons, fabrics, coinage, books, drawings, paintings, prints, sculpture, manuscripts, miniatures, jewellery and maps featured in the exhibition. The book is an illustrated history of India and a contribution both to Indian history and to an understanding of the European experience of colonialism. [From Publisher]

The Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar bust is located in Lehman Social Sciences Library, on the 3rd floor of 420 West 118th Street (the School of International and Public Affairs building), New York, NY 10027. The bronze bust, sculpted by Vinay Brahmesh Wagh of Bombay, was presented by The Federation of Ambedkarite and Buddhist Organizations UK to the Southern Asian Institute of Columbia University on October 24, 1995. Visitors are welcome any time that Lehman Library is open. Non-Columbia affiliates interested in visiting the Dr. Ambedkar bust are encouraged to contact the South Asian Studies Librarian in advance to arrange access to Lehman Library. [From Website]

The spectre of a 'Malthusian' catastrophe engulfing the subcontinent commands less attention currently than in relatively recent times. This is largely attributable to the greater sense of confidence in the food-grain supply capacity of Indian agriculture in the wake of the Green Revolution. From the mid-Ig6os through to I980, output has maintained a growth rate in excess of 2.5% p.a., with yield increments rather than area increments accounting for the major part. Since I950, per capita net availability of foodgrains has increased by over 20%, while the real price of foodgrains has shown a steady downward trend since 1968. Current projections suggest that self-sufficiency in food production can be sustained through to the end of the century. Yet this remains partly contingent on climatic factors and a slackening trend of population growth. However, population growth rates currently exceed 2.2% p.a. and the relative stability of fertility rates means that a diminution is by no means assured. While supply shortfalls could be met through increased imports of food commodities, the possible emergence of India in the longer term as a food deficitary economy could have serious implications for the international grain market, given the current structure of supply for foodgrains and the growing dependence particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, on food imports. [From Author]

Because of the continuity of its civilization, its unique social system, and the tremendous diversity of cultures, races, languages, and religions that exist in its vast territory, India is like a history museum. Its diverse groups maintained their separate identities and never fully supplanted the culture and knowledge of their predecessors. Even today one may encounter in India primitive Stone Age people whose technology has remained at what is considered prehistoric levels. Thus Daniélou's examination of India reveals not only the diversity and historical events and trends of that country, but also the history of all mankind. Through Daniélou's history of India we learn from whence we came, what we have discovered over the years in the fields of science, arts, technology, social structures, religions, and philosophical concepts, and what the future may hold for us. [From Publisher]

Explores the Sinhalese - Buddhist histories of the Island and the threats to the Island's democracy.

Exploring the interaction between Ireland and the British Empire, chiefly in the period c.1850-1950.

This volume explores aspects of the experience of Ireland and Irish people within the British Empire and addresses a central concern of modern Irish scholarship. The paradox that Ireland was both 'imperial' and 'colonial' lies at the heart of this book. One of the themes which emerges from the studies in this book is the irrelevance of the Empire to some Irish concerns. Popular culture, sport and film are investigated, as well as business history and the military and political 'sinews of Empire'. [From Publisher]

In the nineteenth century, the British succeeded in deriving growing benefits from their Indian territories. With dominion firmly established, and the colonial connection beginning to take its modern shape, India came to fit less awkwardly with British economic interests. India now became Britain's best customer for her most important industry, a useful supplier of raw materials, a safe field for capital investment, a crucial element in her balance of payments and key to the multilateral system of settlements which sustained the continued expansion of her world trade. The pattern of trade and investment, which brought such signal benefits to Britain, depended upon dominion over India. Dominion had given Britain the levers of power to open up Indian markets to her trade, knock down the internal barriers to the free flow of her goods, and prevent the erection of external tariffs to protect the Indian product. Dominion enabled Britain to build, at Indian cost, a system of transport by rail and road which linked the ports, themselves the creation of British rule, to their hinterlands, and to tilt the advantage in favour of her own nationals who dominated India's foreign trade; it helped to give British shipping, banking and insurance a virtual monopoly over the invisibles of Indian trade and it imposed upon India a currency and banking system which protected the ratio of sterling to the rupee. But these balance-sheets of imperialism do not reveal the full importance of the Raj to the British world system. Just as India's growing foreign trade helped to push British influence into east and west Asia alike, so her growing military power underwrote that influence, whether formal or informal, in those regions. An oriental barracks, where half of Britain's world force was billeted free of charge, India was the battering ram of British power throughout the eastern arc of its expansion. Before the First World War, India seemed triumphantly to have justified the efforts of generations of empire-builders. [From Author]

This 1999 book reconstructs the history of forest communities in western India to explore questions relating to identity and the environment. It demonstrates how the ideology of indigenous cultures, developed out of the notion of a pure and untouched ethnicity, is rooted in racial and colonial anthropology. This penetrating critique will contribute significantly to the literature. [From Publisher]

An important part of the by now enormous literature on nationalism has focused on its conditions of possibility, on what we may call the processes of pre-formation that underlay the explosive rise of those "imagined communities" in the modem era. How indeed has modernity (however defined) impacted on the mechanisms by which identities-including national ones-are formed, felt and enacted? This question has frequently been addressed in recent decades, especially as studies of nationalism have broadened their ambit to take in the non-Western world. This expansion has certainly generated major works-most famously, of course, the first edition (1983) of Benedict Anderson's Imagined Communities which made the stimulating suggestion that print capitalism was a central pre-formative institution for incipient nations. [From Author]

Encompasses all the major temples on the Indian subcontinent, while also providing an overall understanding of temple architecture by featuring dozens of other beautiful, but lesser known works. Ranging across the core period of temple construction from the 6th to the 13th century. Featured temples include: Brihadeshvara Temple, Tanjavur; Kailasa, Ellora; Kailasanatha, Kanchipuram; Kandariya Mahadeva, Khajuraho; Lingaraja Temple, Bhuvaneshvara; Surya Temple at Modhera; Udayeshvara Temple, Udayapur; Virupaksha Temple, Pattadakal." Centres of power -- Temple, body and movement -- The emanating universe -- Placing the Gods -- The architect and unfolding traditions -- Early Indian architecture -- Later rock-cut architecture -- Plans and spaces -- Nagara shrines -- Dravida shrines -- Geometry -- Mouldings -- Pillars -- Ceilings -- Gavakshas -- Early Nagara Temples -- Latina and related Valabhi Temples -- Shekhari Temples -- Bhumija Temples -- Temples of Eastern India -- Early Dravida Temples -- The great 8th-century Dravida Temples -- Temples of the Cholas and their contemporaries -- The Karnata Dravida tradition continued -- What happened afterwards -- What next? [From Publisher]

The readings in this series are designed to cover important facets of Islam in South Asia, and to enhance our understanding of Islam Observed' and Islam Interpreted'. The volumes will cover India's encounter with the West; the search for an Islamic and secular identity in a colonial context; the intellectual struggle between the modernists and traditionalists for the Islamic heritage; the regional and social traditions that have enabled Muslims to develop a composite personality; and the rise of Muslim nationalism leading to the creation of Pakistan. Literature, music, drama and wit and humour will be covered as well to illuminate aspects of social history. Volume I reveals, with the aid of travellers, novelists, missionaries and administrators, how the notion of a distinct and exclusive Muslim identity came to be invented in the latter part of the nineteenth century. The second half of this volume, based on scholarly writings, provides a corrective to these images and representations. Mushirul Hasan, the editor, reiterates in his introduction: As a historian, my concern is to introduce, through this selection the unity and variety of a religion that has had a long career in the subcontinent. I am equally concerned to dispel certain misleading notions about Islam and its followers. Indeed, this is an academic exercise that is designed as it were, to set the record straight.' Islam in South Asia is an essential reference guide for scholars working on South Asia across cultures [From Publisher]

This monograph brings together essays on the marginal and elite social groups from early medieval times to the colonial period. It looks at tribal and agro-pastoral groups in Gujarat and Rajasthan such as the Bhils, Meenas and Bishnois in interactions with rural societies and their participation in the processes of state formation; their changing identities and self-perceptions, control of natural resources, environmental changes in the context of forests, agricultural expansion and water resources. Tribe-societal-state interactions meant long drawn-out negotiations involving alliances and conflicts leading to gradual marginalisation of tribal groups as limited peasantisation' and 'integration' went on. As a result, marginal communities reconstructed identities, made shifts in self-perceptions through adaptations from the Rajput/Brahmanical world and contested histories with ruling elite in the late medieval and early colonial times. The case studies of southern Rajasthan reveal that construction of water works in Jaisalmer area and control over environmental resources helped rural and ruling elite in maintaining a distinction for themselves in both early and late medieval times. On the other hand, common folk of the Thar desert, the Bishnoi agro-pastoralists carved out a special niche for themselves as Conservationists' by preaching a popular religion and socio-economic ethos of preserving the natural resources in an ecology of uncertainty'. [From Publisher]

This book is a compelling epic of cultures and conquest, colonization and independence. It vividly re-creates the turning points of Indian history and brings to life the leaders who shaped India’s evolution, from Ashoka, the “Caesar of Ancient India,” who ruled the vast Mauryan empire in the third century B.C., to twentieth-century figures such as Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. Along the way Keay provides fresh insights into the patterns of invasion and migration that have stirred the subcontinent’s cultures for centuries, from the “Aryan” invaders, to Alexander’s Macedonian armies, to the Islamic conquerors, to the coming of the East India Company and the establishment of the British Raj. He also profiles the rise of religions and philosophies that have profoundly shaped these cultures, including Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam. [From Publisher]

In a sense, cities were superfluous to the purposes of colonists. The Europeans who founded empires outside their own continent were primarily concerned with extracting those products which they could not acquire within Europe. These goods were largely agricultural, and grown most often in a climate not found within Europe. Even when, as in India before 1800, the major exports were manufactures, in general they were still made in the countryside rather than in the great cities. It was only on rare occasion when great mineral wealth was discovered that giant metropolises grew up around the site of extraction. Since their location was deter­ mined by geology, not economics, they might be in the most inaccessible and in­ convenient areas, but they too would draw labour off from the agricultural pursuits of the colony as a whole. From the point of view of the colonists, the cities were therefore in some respects necessary evils, as they were parasites on the rural producers, competing with the colonists in the process of surplus extraction. Nevertheless, the colonists could not do without cities. The requirements of colonisation demanded many unequivocally urban functions. Pre-eminent among these was of course the need for a port, to allow the export of colonial wares and the import of goods from Europe, or from other parts of the non-European world, in the country-trade as it was known around India. [From Publisher]

Asian Medical Systems provide fascinating opportunities to observe directly practices that continue ancient scientific modes of thought, and to analyse the historical processes that meditate their relationship to modern science and technology. Three great traditions of medical science evolved during antiquity in the Chinese, Indian, and Mediterranean civilizations, all based on humoral conceptions of health and illness. Folk curers throughout the world continue to practice humoral medicine, but in Asia along educated physicians maintain its learned traditions. Thus, in these societies the great and little traditions of humoral medicine coexist with cosmopolitan medicine, which draws upon modern science and modes of professional organization. This volume has been designed to show how research on Asian medicine opens a new field of scholarship, the comparative study of medical systems. Such a book requires the skills of authors with many kinds of training, and those who have contributed essays to this volume are trained in history, sociology, anthropology, public health, pharmacology, epidemiology, cosmopolitan medicine, and philosophy. [From Publisher]

Originally published in 1999, David Ludden's book offers a comprehensive historical framework for understanding the regional diversity of agrarian South Asia. Adopting a long-term view of history, it treats South Asia not as a single civilization territory, but rather as a patchwork of agrarian regions, each with their own social, cultural and political histories. The discussion begins during the first millennium, when farming communities displaced pastoral and tribal groups, and goes on to consider the development of territoriality from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. Subsequent chapters consider the emergence of agrarian capitalism in village societies under the British, and demonstrate how economic development in contemporary South Asia continues to reflect the influence of agrarian localism. As a comparative synthesis of the literature on agrarian regimes in South Asia, the book promises to be a valuable resource for students of agrarian and regional history as well as of comparative world history. [From Publisher]

v.1. The Vedic (6th ed.) -- v. 2. The age of imperial unity (7th ed.) -- v. 3. The classical age (5th ed.) -- v. 4. The age of imperial kanauj (4th ed.) -- v. 5. The struggle for empire (5th ed.) -- v. 6. The Delhi sultanate (4th ed.) -- v. 7. The Mughul empire (3rd ed.) --v. 8. The Maratha supremacy (2nd ed.) -- v. 9. British paramountcy and Indian renaissance, pt. 1 (4th ed.) -- v. 10. British paramountcy and Indian renaissance, pt. 2 (3rd ed.) -- v. 11. Struggle for freedom (3rd ed.). [Volume Details]

The Republic of India is the second most populous, the seventh largest by geographical area, and has the fourth largest economy in terms of purchasing power parity in the world. While it has always been an important country, it has often been neglected. Of late, however, there has been much talk of the 'new' India, one with greater economic dynamism, a more active foreign policy, and the emergence of a huge middle class. With over a hundred new cross-referenced dictionary entries-the majority of which pertain to the last decade-and updating others, the second edition of the Historical Dictionary of India illustrates the rapidly evolving situation without neglecting the country's ancient past. The chronology has been brought up to date, the introduction expanded, and the bibliography includes numerous new titles. [From Publisher]

This book is volume II of a series detailing the history of the British Empire and it examines the history of British worldwide expansion from the Glorious Revolution of 1689 to the end of the Napoleonic Wars, a crucial phase in the creation of the modern British Empire. This is the age of General Wolfe, Clive of India, and Captain Cook. Chapters trace and analyse the development and expansion of the British Empire over more than a century. They show how trade, warfare, and migration created an Empire, at first overwhelmingly in the Americas but later increasingly in Asia. Although the Empire was ruptured by the American Revolution, it survived and grew into an empire that was to dominate the world during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. [From Publisher]

Outlines the origins and development of British rule in India, evaluating the social, economic, and political consequences of colonial government and noting the conflicting historiographical interpretations of the subject. [From Author]

These addresses have been trying to explore the obvious paradox in eighteenth-century Britain's fortunes overseas: a North America empire, as I suggested last year, deeply rooted in the rich soil of a close-knit transatlantic community, was to come crashing down in the gale unleashed by the new imperial anxieties and ambitions of Britain's rulers. A British empire was, however, to be successfully planted in the unpromising terrain of alien Asian peoples. It is to the creation of this new Indian empire that I wish now to turn. [From Author]

How have the dominant histories of the Indian subcontinent been constructed and how do they deal with the subject of Muslims and Dalits or ‘Untouchables’? Taking a subaltern approach - the view from below - Muslims, Dalits, and the Fabrications of History explores a wide range of issues across history. The essays range across: the creation of the concept of ‘the Musalman’ through the work of Hindi writers and publicists in the late nineteenth century; how the re-imaginings of the Mappila peasant ‘uprisings’ in the early twentieth century constructed a popular image of the fanatic Musalman; Gandhi´s attempt to rethink political relations between Hindus and Muslims; the anomalous position of Kabir within the frameworks of caste and canonicity; the history, politics, and legal aspects of the case of the Dalit murdered on the steps of a Hanuman temple; how authority, property and matriliny in Malabar helped to shape colonial law-making; the rhetoric of the bardic tradition; the nationalist imagination. [From Publisher]

A Concise History of Modern India by Barbara D. Metcalf and Thomas R. Metcalf, has become a classic in the field since it was first published in 2001. As a fresh interpretation of Indian history from the Mughals to the present, it has informed students across the world. In the third edition of the book, a final chapter charts the dramatic developments of the last twenty years, from 1990 through the Congress electoral victory of 2009, to the rise of the Indian high-tech industry in a country still troubled by poverty and political unrest. The narrative focuses on the fundamentally political theme of the imaginative and institutional structures that have successively sustained and transformed India, first under British colonial rule and then, after 1947, as an independent country. Woven into the larger political narrative is an account of India's social and economic development and its rich cultural life. [From Publisher]

Recognizing the ongoing need to position itself for the digital future, Indian Culture is an initiative by the Ministry of Culture. A platform that hosts data of cultural relevance from various repositories and institutions all over India. [From Website]

This network unites academics and writers from around the world whose work focuses on the South Asian Diaspora. It nurtures joint research, teaching and public discussion by providing a platform for educational collaborations with the aim of mutually beneficial growth around and by the South Asian diaspora. [From Website]

Volume III covers the long nineteenth century, from the achievement of American independence in the 1780s to the eve of world war in 1914. This was the period of Britain's greatest expansion as both empire-builder and dominant world power. It is divided into two parts. The first contains thematic chapters, some focusing on Britain, others on areas at the imperial periphery, exploring those fundamental dynamics of British expansion that made imperial influence and rule possible. They also examine the economic, cultural, and institutional frameworks that gave shape to Britain's overseas empire. Part 2 is devoted to the principal areas of imperial activity overseas, including both white settler and tropical colonies. Chapters examine how British interests and imperial rule shaped individual regions' nineteenth century political and socio-economic history. Themes dealt with include the economics of empire, imperial institutions, defence, technology, imperial and colonial cultures, science and exploration. [From Publisher]

Until 1813 Britain’s trade with India was conducted by the monopolistic East India Company. Surely the most remarkable commercial organisation in history, the company was founded under charter from Elizabeth I. It sent to India the merchants from whose enterprise sprang a massive international and local trade. It also sent out the builders and administrators of a territorial empire that, by the time of the company’s demise in 1858, encompassed the entire subcontinent. Reconstructed after the shock of the 1857 Mutiny, the Indian empire remained the rock upon which Britain’s prosperity rested until the First World War. It was a secure market for her manufactures, a source of commodities, a safe field for investment, an arsenal for the preservation or extension of interests in Asia and Africa against other European predators. The whole edifice was charged to India’s revenues and, beneath a thin British façade, upheld through the agency of Indians themselves. [From Author]

Love may be a universal feeling, but culture and language play a crucial role in defining it. Idioms of love have a long history, and within every society there is always more than one discourse, be it prescriptive, religious, or gender-specific, available at any given time. This book explores the idioms of love that have developed in South Asia, those words, conceptual clusters, images and stories which have interlocked and grown into repertoires. Including essays by literary scholars, historians, anthropologists, film historians and political theorists, the collection unravels the interconnecting strands in the history of the concept (shringara, ‘ishq, prem and ‘love’) and maps their significance in literary, oral and visual traditions. Each essay examines a particular configuration and meaning of love on the basis of genre, tellers and audiences, and the substantial introduction sets out the main repertoires, presenting the student of South Asia with an important cultural history. [From Publisher]

Table of Contents:
Courtly love and the aristocratic household in early medieval India / Daud Ali -- If music be the food of love : masculinity and eroticism in the Mughal mehfil / Katherine Butler Brown -- The shifting sands of love / Christopher Shackle -- Love, passion and reason in Faizi's Nal-Daman / Muzaffar Alam and Sanjay Subrahmanyam -- To die at the hands of love : conflicting ideals of love in the Punjabi Mirza-Sahiban cycle / Jeevan S. Deol -- Tagore and transformations in the ideal of love / Sudipta Kaviraj -- The spaces of love and the passing of the seasons / Vasudha Dalmia -- Love in the time of Parsi Theatre / Anuradha Kapur -- Love letters / Francesca Orsini -- Love's repertoire : Qurratulain Hyder's River of fire / Kumkum Sangari -- Kiss or tell : declaring love in Hindi films / Rachel Dwyer -- Love's cup, love's thorn, love's end : the language of prem in Ghatiyali / Ann Grodzins Gold -- Kidnapping, elopement and abduction : an ethnography of love-marriage in Delhi / Perveez Mody.

The book deals with the religion, art, architecture of various religious places belonging to Jainism, Buddhism, Hindu temples of Vaishnavism, Saivism, Shaktism, etc., Churches, Mosques. It contains seven chapters. The Chapter first analyses a short note on the southern zone interlinked with history of art and architecture of Orissa. The Chapter II is devoted to religious places of Jainism, Jain heritages, Jain sculptures and monuments etc. In Chapter III precious Buddhist sculptures, Buddhist places etc. in details. In Chapter IV Brhamnical Hinduism is incorporated along with growth and developments of temple architecture iconography/sculptures of Vishnu, Jagannath, Krishna, Rama, Hanuman, Saiva, Sakta, Ganesh, Panchayatana sects are discussed with special references of icons. In Chapter V an out line of the Art heritage of Churches is dealt with all its branches. In Chapter VI is devoted to outstanding works on Mosques Anjumans, Idgahas are dealt. The last Chapter deals with conclusion where some typical notes are given to high light the subject. [From Author]

Written by a leading authority in the field, explores themes in ancient, medieval and especially modern India. Peter Robb's accessible study analyses India's civilizations, empires and regions through the ages. [From Publisher]

Table of Contents: Introduction, Political and Economic Structure 1885–1905, Social and Political Movements 1885–1905, Political and Social Movements 1905–1917, Mass Nationalism: Emergence and Problems 1917–1927,

The volume is a collection of papers on certain aspects of Indian history, historiography and culture. The papers are fundamental, insightful and path-breaking to some extent. Combining literary, archaeological, scientific and other perspectives, they cover a range of subjects stretching from ancient to modern India. The volume deals with the Greek historians, the Indian epic and Puranic tradition of historiography, colonial and cultural expansion of the Aryans, the early history of north-west India, society, trade and commerce in ancient India, economic, political and cultural contacts of India with other parts of Asia in ancient and medieval periods, and the 1857 War of Independence in India. It takes up some very interesting and new subjects like role of Brahmanas in the anti-Alexander movement in north-west India and the concept of national integration in ancient India. It explores the sources of history of Uttar Pradesh and the antiquity of Ayodhya and historicity of Rama in an interesting study. The volume will be of immense use to historians and scholars of philosophy. [From Publisher]

Table of Contents: Was Herodotus of Greece the father of history? --History and philosophy --History of history : from Vedic antiquity to modern times: an introduction --A new approach to the story of historical data in the epic and Purāṇic literature on ancient India --The Purāṇic tradition of historiography in India --The fundamental aspects of ancient Indian culture and civilization --Sources of the history of Uttar Pradesh (ancient period) --The Dionysiaka : a classical (Greek) source of history of ancient India --The colonial and cultural expansion of the Aryans outside India as gleaned from the Vedic literature --Antiquity of Ayodhyā and historicity of Rāma : literary, archaeological and scientific perspective --Veda Vyāsa, Manu and Kauṭilya : a comparative study of their national philosophy in historical perspective --The concepts of Varṇa and Jāti in the Jaina and Buddhist traditions --The role of the Brāhmaṇas in anti-Alexander movement in north-west India --The concept of national integration in ancient India --North-west India as described by the Greek and Assyrian travelers of the first century --Trade and commerce in ancient India in the light of Jaina and Buddhist traditions bearing on its economic and cultural contacts with the Asian countries --Politico-cultural relations of Tibet and Burma with Bihar and their impact : ancient and early Medieval period --Kālidāsa's description of Raghu's conquest of Prāgjyotiṣa : historical interpretations --History of Bilhaṇa's account of Vikramāditya's invasion of Kāmarūpa --Indian society and culture during medieval period --Trade and commerce in southern India : from the Persian, Arabic, Russian and Italian traveller's accounts of 13th to 15th centuries --Trade and commerce in northern and eastern India : from the narratives of 16th and 17th centuries travellers --The annals of tribal-Mughal conflicts in north-east India during the reign of Jehangir (1605-27) --The first Indian War of Independence 1857-1859.

Pt. 1. Ancient and Hindu India /
Pt. 2. India and the Muslim period /
Pt. 3. India in the British period

The best impressions of a city are often those recorded by outsiders. Shaped over three centuries, this most vibrant of cities has always held a special fascination for British visitors, and this collection recalls their impressions of Calcutta's people, history, buildings, culture, and daily routine from the days of Job Charnock to the present. Drawn from a wealth of letters, journals, poems, and other writings, this is an intriguing portrait of both the city and the English abroad. [From Publisher]

This work draws together all the strands of India's architectural history, from the Vedic and Native traditions of early India, through Hindu, Buddhist, Islamic and secular architecture, to the eclecticism of the British Raj. [From Publisher]

Table of Contents: Prologue - early India: India; the Indus valley civilization; the Vedic and native traditions; religious developments and the formula for sacred building; social developments; village, town and fort. Part 1 Fourth century BC - fifth century AD; introduction - religious developments; the pattern of patronage; the architectural background; Mauryan foundations; stupa and monastery - Hinayana works under the Mauryas' successors; innovations in the north; innovations in the south. Part 2 Fifth century - thirteenth century; introduction - religious developments; Hindu worship and the formula for sacred building; the pattern of patronage; the temple - early structures in Gupta domains; Mahayan, Hindu and Jaina excavations; structures of the early Chalukyas and their neighbours; regional variants; excavations of the Pallavas and their contemporaries; the Pallava rathas and structural temples; structures of the restored Chalukyas; the Cholas, the Pandayas and their contemporaries in the south; post-Gupta developments in the north; the Pratiharas; the Solankis; the Chandellas and their neighbours; the Paramaras and their neighbours; Orissa; the later Chalukyas and Hoysalas; the fort. Part 3 Thirteenth century - eighteenth century: introduction - the pattern of patronage; Islam and Muslim building; mosque, tomb and fort - the Delhi sultans; the Sultanate of Gujarat; the Sultanate of Bengal; the Sultanate of Kashmir; the Sharqi Sultans; the Sultanate of Malwa; the Deccani Sultanate - Gulbarga and Bidar; Deccani Sultanates - Golconda and Bijapur; temple and palace - Vijayanagar and its successors; Rajputs; Mughal achievement - the great palace; Imperial mosque and tomb. Part 4 Late India - sectarian division and colonial rivalry; the demise of the mughals and British India; the seats of secessionist powers; church and colonial state.

No other period in the entire history of India ever witnessed such momentous developments, affecting so profoundly the life of its people as the half century that followed the end of British colonialism. Business was one realm that experienced a great deal of upheavals. This book provides a comprehensive analysis of the making of modern business and the modern business class, covering the period from 1947 to the present times. Linking socio-economic and political changes to shifts in the business climate and policies of the country, it provides the first in-depth narrative of business in post-colonial India. [From Publisher]

"This rich, versatile, and significant contribution to the study of business history has the potential of emerging as a classic on the subject. It will be valuable for students and scholars of economic history, management, business studies, sociology, and economics. It will also be of great interest to professionals, managers, foreign investors, and general readers interested in the subject."---I.G. Patel, eminent economist and former Director, London School of Economics and Politics

India, in the cliched observation, is not merely a country but a continent. Its population, which is in excess of one billion and may soon exceed that of China, presents the most extraordinary contrasts. The people of this vast country speak nearly a thousand languages, follow several different faiths — including Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism, and Sikhism — and are congregated in hundreds of different ethnic and caste communities. But these are only conventional ways of describing the myriad forms of social organization found in India, for the country also has diverse social and ecological movements, women’s organizations, radical political parties, and various interest groups. India is, as is commonly recognized, the world’s largest electoral democracy, and its elections, scattered over a month, represent a triumph of organizational skill and will; at the same time, the country has several dozen communist parties, some of which operate outside formal politics and rely on armed struggle while others are very much part of the traditions of Indian parliamentary democracy. Politics is something of a passion, and perhaps nowhere in the world is democracy so fundamentally a living and contested thing as in India. Unlike in the United States, where political contestation has generally been reduced to choosing between indistinguishable candidates, and in fetishizing an absurd notion of ‘choice’, in India political parties and formations show much more variation, and there is a good deal more of street politics as well. Even the Indian Supreme Court has displayed admirable judicial activism at times. [From Website]

The South/Southeast Asia Library (S/SEAL) is the reference center for South and Southeast Asia social sciences and humanities on the UC Berkeley campus. The South/Southeast Asia Library includes an extensive reference collection of bibliographies, indexes, dictionaries, atlases, directories, statistical annuals, core works, and current high-use periodicals. [From Website]

The Digital South Asia Library provides digital materials for reference and research on South Asia to scholars, public officials, business leaders, and other users. This program builds upon a two-year pilot project funded by the Association of Research Libraries' Global Resources Program with support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Participants in the Digital South Asia Library include leading U.S. universities, the Center for Research Libraries, the South Asia Microform Project, the Committee on South Asian Libraries and Documentation, the Association for Asian Studies, the Library of Congress, the Asia Society, the British Library, the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, MOZHI in India, the Sundarayya Vignana Kendram in India, Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya in Nepal, and other institutions in South Asia. [From Website]

A revised edition of Watson's history of India, beginning in the 3rd millennium BC with the Indus Valley civilization and ending with a new chapter on India after Nehru. It includes the influx of pastoral nomads who established the Vedic religion, the Moghul incursions, and the British influence. [From Publisher]

Half a century of freedom has tripled India's population and more than quadrupled its gross domestic product. Its economy has been lifted to new heights, creating an India that is enjoying all the pleasures of modern Western life. For same, however, India's past remains a reality, its poverty a continuing presence, and its economic strides still, unable to create equality among the sexes. [From Publisher]

Gandhi Heritage Portal is a repository of authentic information about Mahatma Gandhi developed by the Sabarmati Ashram Preservation and Memorial trust, Ahmedabad. [From Website]