Essays on Medieval Indian History

Essays on Medieval Indian History

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Author: Satish Chandra
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 2003
Language: English
Pages: 549
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0 195663365

Description

In this volume, one of India’s leading historians explores the interconnections between society, economy, religion, and state in medieval India. The author concludes with a thought-provoking discussion of the future of history and history writing in India.

Since the earliest of these essays was written in 1948, the shape and direction of history writing have undergone great change. The essays in this collection reflect –and have also been responsible for determining – new currents in history writing over the last five decades.

The essays, covering the period between the tenth and eighteenth centuries, range over a broad spectrum of subjects: the links between India and Asian societies during the pre-Sultanate and Sultanate periods and the effects of a hierarchical social system on state formation; the experiments with and growth of different types of Muslim states in medieval India-moderate, secularist, orthodox, and liberal – and the extent of their reach; more generally, the role played by religion in state formation in Indian history; and aspects of the Mughal economy.

Other topics include the Mughal alliance with the Rajputs, Mughal relations with the Deccan, and the rise of a Maratha principality in Western India. Professor Chandra’s path-breaking work on the subject of Jizyah, among his best known contributions to the study of later Mughal history, and his celebrated pieces on Aurangzeb, which offer a reassessment of the controversial Mughal ruler’s policies and motives, also appear in this collection.

By bringing together the various strands of a lifetime of work by a renowned medievalist, this volume will prove indispensable to students and scholars of Mughal and medieval Indian history.

Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

SOCIETY AND STATE

The Impact of Central Asian Institutions on the State and Society in Medieval India (Tenth to Fourteenth Centuries)

Society, Culture, and the State in Medieval India

The Eighteenth Century in India-
Its Economy and the Role of the Marathas,
the Jats, the Sikhs, and the Afghans

A Review of the Crisis of the Jagirdari System

The State and Economic Development under Timur,
with Special Reference to the Silk Road and the Great Asian Land Routes

SOCIETY AND COUNTRYSIDE

The Structure and Stratification in the Village Society in Eastern Rajasthan

Structure of Village Society in Northern India:
The Khud-kasht and Pahi-kasht

The Maratha Polity: Its Nature and Development

Social Background to the Rise of the Maratha
Movement during the Seventeenth Century

ECONOMY

The Commercial Activities of the Mughal
Emperors during the Seventeenth Century

Some Aspects of the Growth of a Money Economy
in India during the Seventeenth Century

The Role of the Local Community, the Zamindars,
and the State in Providing Capital Inputs for the Improvement
and Expansion of Cultivation

The Developmental Problematic in Medieval India

RELIGION AND STATE

The Historical Background to the Rise of the
Bhakti Movement in Northern India

Jizyah and the State in India during the Seventeenth Century

The Religious Policy of Aurangzeb during the
Later part of his Reign-Some Considerations

Jizyah in the Post-Aurangzeb Period

POLITICAL PROCESSES

Mughal Relations with the Rajput States of Rajasthan:
The Foundations

Mughal-Rajput Relations during the Seventeenth Century-
Problems of a Class Alliance

The Deccan Policy of the Mughals (I)- Up to Shah Jahan

The Deccan Policy of the Mughals (II)- Under Aurangzeb

Aurangzeb - A Critical Review

The Deccan, North India and Baji Rao I

HISTORIOGRAPHY

Decentring of History

Index