New Cambridge History of India
Series · 17
books · 1988-2009
Books in series
#1.1
The New Cambridge History of India, Volume 1, Part 1
1988
The Portuguese were the first European imperial power in Asia. Dr. Pearson's volume of the History is a clear account of their activities in India and the Indian Ocean from the sixteenth century onwards that is written squarely from an Indian point of view. Laying particular stress on social, economic, and religious interaction between Portuguese and Indians, the author argues that the Portuguese had a more limited impact on everyday life in India than is sometimes supposed. Their imperial effort was characterized more by reciprocity and interaction than by an unilateral imposition of Portuguese mores and political structures.
#1.2
The New Cambridge History of India, Volume 1, Part 2
Vijayanagara
1989
The Vijayanagara rajas ruled a substantial part of the southern peninsula of India for over three hundred years, beginning in the mid-fourteenth century. During this epoch the region was transformed from its medieval past toward a modern colonial future. Concentrating on the later sixteenth- and seventeenth-century history of Vijayanagara, this book details the pattern of rule established in this important and long-lived Hindu kingdom that was followed by other, often smaller kingdoms of peninsular India until the onset of colonialism. Through an analysis of the politics, society, and economy of Vijayanagara, the author addresses the central question of the extent to which Vijayanagara, as a medieval Hindu kingdom, can be viewed as a prototype of the polities and societies confronted by the British in the late eighteenth century. The book thus presents an understanding and appreciation of one of the great medieval kingdoms of India as well as a more general assessment of the nature of the state, society, and culture on the eve of European colonial rule.
#1.3
The New Cambridge History of India, Volume 1, Part 3
Mughal and Rajput Painting
1992
The Mughals seized political power in north India in 1526 and became the most important artistically active Muslim dynasty on the subcontinent. In this richly illustrated work, Dr. Milo Beach shows how Mughal patronage of the arts was radically innovative for the Indian context and profoundly altered the character of painting in the Rajput Hindu areas of north India. He reveals the different styles and subjects of Mughal and Rajput painting and the interplay of the two traditions. Beach also explores the tolerance each showed toward outside influence and change, demonstrating a uniquely Indian attitude towards the arts.
#1.4
The New Cambridge History of India, Volume 1, Part 4
Architecture of Mughal India
1992
This book traces the development and spread of architecture under the Mughal emperors. Professor Asher considers the entire scope of architecture built under the auspices of the imperial Mughals and their subjects. She looks in particular at the role of political and cultural ideology, the relationship between construction in the major cities and in the provinces and the continuing Mughal fascination with paradisical imagery that culminated in the construction of the Taj Mahal.
#1.5
The Mughal Empire
1993
The Mughal empire was one of the largest centralized states in the premodern world and this volume traces the history of this magnificent empire from its creation in 1526 to its breakup in 1720. Richards stresses the dynamic quality of Mughal territorial expansion, their institutional innovations in land revenue, coinage and military organization, ideological change and the relationship between the emperors and Islam. He also analyzes institutions particular to the Mughal empire, such as the jagir system, and explores Mughal India's links with the early modern world.
#1.8
The New Cambridge History of India, Volume 1, Part 8
A Social History of the Deccan, 1300-1761: Eight Indian Lives
2005
In this fascinating account of one of the least known parts of South Asia, Richard Eaton recounts the history of the Deccan plateau in southern India from the fourteenth century to the rise of European colonialism. He does so, vividly, through the lives of eight Indians who lived at different times during this period, and who each represented something particular about the Deccan. Their stories are woven together into a rich narrative tapestry, which illuminates the most important social processes of the Deccan across four centuries and provides a much-needed book by the most highly regarded scholar in the field.
#2.1
Indian Society and the Making of the British Empire
1988
This volume provides a synthesis of some of the most important themes to emerge from the recent proliferation of specialized scholarship on the period of India's transition to colonialism and seeks to reassess the role of Indians in the politics and economics of early colonialism. It discusses new views of the "decline of the Mughals" and the role of the Indian capitalists in the expansion of the English East India Company's trade and urban settlements. It considers the reasons for the inability of indigenous states to withstand the British, but also highlights the relative failure of the Company to transform India into a quiescent and profitable colony. Finally it deals with changes in India's ecology, social organization, and ideologies in the early nineteenth century, and the nature of Indian resistance to colonialism, including the Rebellion of 1857.
#2.2
Bengal, The British Bridgehead
Eastern India 1740-1828
1988
The aim of British Bridgehead is to explain how, in the eighteenth century, Britain established her rule in eastern India, the first part of the sub-continent to be incorporated into the British Empire. Professor Marshall begins his analysis with the reign of Alivardi Khan, the last effective Mughal ruler of eastern India. He then explores the social, cultural, and economic ihanges that followed the imposition of foreign rule and seeks to assess the consequences for the peoples of the region; emphasis is given throughout as much to continuities rooted deep in the history of Bengal, as to the more obvious effects of British domination. The volume closes with British rule firmly established, the arrival of Lord William Bentinck, and the failure of the great Agency Houses.
#2.3
The New Cambridge History of India, Volume 2, Part 3
1991
This important new contribution to the New Cambridge History of India examines chronologically the entire span of Sikh history from prehistoric times to the present day. In an introductory chapter, Professor Grewal surveys the changing pattern of human settlements in the Punjab until the fifteenth century and the emergence of the Punjabi language as the basis of regional articulation. Subsequent chapters explore the life and beliefs of Guru Nanak—the founder of Sikhism; the extension and modification of his ideas by his successors; the increasing number and composition of their followers and the development of Sikh self identity. Professor Grewal also analyzes the emergence of Sikhism in relation to the changing historical situation of Turko-Afghan rule, the Mughal empire and its disintegration, British rule and independence.
#2.4
The New Cambridge History of India, Volume 2, Part 4
The Marathas, 1600-1818
1993
In this book, Dr. Stewart Gordon presents the first comprehensive history of the Maratha polity, which was an important regional kingdom in the seventeenth century and the largest political entity of eighteenth century India. He focuses on the origins of the elite families, problems of legitimacy and loyalty, military organization and change, and the development of administration, tax collection and religious patronage. Through the use of a vast array of documents, the author also gives a picture of everyday life in the Maratha polity.
#3.3
The Economy of Modern India
From 1860 to the Twenty-First Century
1993
This is the first comprehensive and interpretative account of the history of economic growth and change in colonial and post-colonial India. Dr. Tomlinson draws together and expands on the specialist literature dealing with imperialism, development and underdevelopment, the historical processes of change in agriculture, trade and manufacture, and the relations among business, the economy and the state. What emerges is a picture of an economy in which some output growth and technical change occurred both before and after 1947, but in which a broadly based process of development has been constrained by structural and market imperfections. Tomlinson argues that India has thus had an underdeveloped economy, with weak market structures and underdeveloped institutions, which has since 1860 profoundly influenced the social, political and ecological history of South Asia.
#3.4
The New Cambridge History of India, Volume 3, Part 4
Ideologies of the Raj
1995
Thomas Metcalf's fascinating study examines the ways the British sought to legitimate their rule over India. He demonstrates that the principles the British devised incorporated contradictory visions of India, yet together they made the authority of the Raj lawful. Students of modern India and the British Empire will find this book relevant and accessible.
#4.1
The Politics of India since Independence
1990
The Politics of India since Independence provides a concise but comprehensive analytical study of the major political, cultural, and economic changes and crises in India during the past forty-five years. The organizing focus is on the consequences of the centralizing drives and tendencies of the national leadership of the country to create a strong state, a unified nation, and a dynamic economy, all of which have been placed in serious doubt in recent years.
#4.2
The New Cambridge History of India, Volume 4, Part 2
Women in Modern India
1996
The author traces the history of Indian women from the nineteenth century under colonial rule, to the twentieth century after Independence. She begins with the reform movement, established by men to educate women, and demonstrates how education changed their lives, enabling them to take part in public life. Through the women's own accounts, the author has compiled an accessible and immediate record of their achievements over the past two centuries, which will be of interest to students of South Asia and to anyone concerned with women and their history.
#4.3
The New Cambridge History of India, Volume 4, Part 3
1999
The phenomenon of caste has probably aroused more controversy than any other aspect of Indian life. This volume explores the emergence of ideas and practices that gave rise to the so-called "caste-society." Using a historical and anthropological approach, the author frames her analysis in the context of India's economic and social order, interpreting caste as a contingent and variable response to changes in India's political landscape through the colonial conquest. The book's wide-ranging analysis offers one of the most powerful statements ever written on caste in South Asia.
#24
The New Cambridge History of India
Islam in South Asia
2008
#25
Indian Sufism Islamic World
2009
Not yet released
Authors
Thomas R Metcalf
Author · 3 books
Thomas R. Metcalf is the Emeritus Sarah Kailath Professor of India Studies and Professor of History at the University of California.
Peter James Marshall
Author · 5 books
Peter James Marshall CBE, FBA (born 1933) is a British historian known for his work on the British empire, particularly the activities of British East India Company servants in 18th-century Bengal, and also the history of British involvement in North America during the same period.
C.A. Bayly
Author · 11 books
Christopher Alan Bayly was a British historian specializing in British Imperial, Indian, and global history. A graduate of the University of Oxford, he was the Vere Harmsworth Professor of Imperial and Naval History at the University of Cambridge. He was knighted in 2007 for achievements as a historian.
Richard M. Eaton
Author · 6 books
Richard Eaton is Professor of History at the University of Arizona. His research interests focus on the social and cultural history of pre-modern India (1000-1800), and especially on the range of historical interactions between Iran and India, and on Islam in South Asia.
