A Concise History of IndiaIn a challenging new history of modern India, the authors explore the imaginative and institutional structures that have changed and sustained the country. While previous histories have been composed as handmaids of British nationalism or as products of emerging nationalist identities, this book challenges the notion that a continuous meaning can be applied to social categories such as "caste," "Hindu," "Muslim," or even "India,". An initial chapter focuses on the period of Muslim dynasties that preceded colonial conquest, while the final chapter analyzes the dramatic recent events of the 1990s, including economic change, religious nationalism and India's emergence as a nuclear power. Illustrations and quotations from historical sources are integral to the narrative. Thomas R. Metcalf is Professor of History, University of California, Berkeley. His previous books inlcude An Imperial Vision (California, 1989) and Ideologies of the Raj (Cambridge, 1997). Barbara Metcalf is Professor of History at the University of California, Davis. She is the editor of Making Muslim Space in North America (University of California Press, 1996). |
Contents
Sultans Mughals and precolonial Indian society | 1 |
Mughal twilight the emergence of regional states and the East India Company | 28 |
The East India Company Raj 17721850 | 55 |
Revolt the modern state and colonized subjects 18481885 | 91 |
Civil society colonial constraints 18851919 | 123 |
The crisis of the colonial order reform disillusionment division 19191939 | 165 |
The 1940s triumph and tragedy | 200 |
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agricultural areas army Aurangzeb Awadh Bengal Bihar Bombay Brahman Britain British Calcutta caste cent central centre century civil colonial Company Company's Congress Party countryside court cultural decades Delhi dominated East India economic election electoral elites emerged empire English European favour Gandhi Gandhian groups Gujarat Hinduism historian history of India imperial increasingly independence Islamic Jinnah Kashmir land landlords language leaders liberal Lord Madras major Maratha ment military minister modern movement Mughal Mughal Empire Muslim League nation nationalist nawab Nehru non-cooperation organization Pakistan peasant period Persian Plate political population princes provinces Punjab railway Rajiv Rajput reform regional religious revenue revolt role rule rulers Sabha Sanskrit secure Shah Shah Bano shape shared Sikh social society sought subcontinent sufi Sultanate Thomas Metcalf tion took trade tradition Urdu viceroy village Western women zamindars