The merchant world represents a relatively neglected area in South Asian history. Merchants were important actors in the economic, political, social, and cultural life of India, and deserve more attention than they have been given. This book therefore bridges a gap by bringing together a number of issues which deal with the Indian mercantile world in colonial India, and its relationship with politics and society. Three major themes are taken up: the relationship between the business world and...

In this pioneering history of modern India, Claude Markovits offers a new interpretation of events of world importance, focusing on the multiplicity of connections between India and the world. Beginning with an examination of India's evolving role in the world economy, he deals successively with the movement of people out of and into India, the role played by Indian soldiers in a series of conflicts from the mid-eighteenth to the late twentieth century, the place of India in the global cir...

This book explores the lives and social histories of Indians soldiers who fought in the First World War. It focuses on their motivations, experiences, and lives after returning from service in Europe, Mesopotamia, East Africa, and Palestine, to present a more complete picture of Indian participation in the war.The book looks at the Indian support to the war for political concessions from the British government and its repercussions through the perspective of the role played by more...

In India Divided, environmental, human rights, and antiglobalization activist Vandana Shiva chronicles the internal battles of a nation that is both the world's largest democracy and a leading nuclear power. Shiva describes a society where traditional cultures collide with the new economy of globalization, and charts the course of India's war of fundamentalisms in the age of terror. From the IT centers of Bangalore to the villages of Uttar Pradesh, from the massacre at Gujarat and the popu...

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 countr...

Since its hard-won independence from Pakistan, Bangladesh has been ravaged by economic and environmental disasters. Only recently has the country begun to emerge as a fragile, but functioning, parliamentary democracy. The story of Bangladesh, told through the pages of this concise and readable book, is a truly remarkable one. By delving into its past, and through an analysis of the economic, political and social changes that have taken place over the last twenty years, the book explains ho...

A nation of 1.25 billion, India is the world's most diverse democracy. Drawing on his extensive fieldwork and experience of Indian politics, Sumantra Bose tells the story of democracy's evolution in India since the 1950s and describes the challenges it faces today: from poverty and inequality to Maoist revolutionaries and Kashmir secessionists.

India today looms large globally, where it hardly loomed at all twenty years ago. It is likely to be a key global actor throughout the twenty-first century and could well emerge soon as one of the top five global powers. Does the Elephant Dance? seeks to survey the main features of Indian foreign policy. It identifies elements of Indian history relevant to the topic; examines the role therein of domestic politics and internal and external security challenges, and of domestic and internatio...

Post Independence, the state of Andhra Pradesh was created by merging the Telangana region, a part of the princely state of Hyderabad, with the coastal region of Andhra and Rayalaseema—both parts of the erstwhile Madras state. With Madras, the major source of income of the state, allocated to Tamil Nadu, it was necessary to include the revenue-surplus Telangana to create a financially viable entity.However, there had always been doubts about the long-term feasibility of such an arrangement. J...

Twenty years ago India was still generally thought of as an archetypal developing country, home to the largest number of poor people of any country in the world, and beset by problems of low economic growth, casteism and violent religious conflict. Now India is being feted as an economic power-house which might well become the second largest economy in the world before the middle of this century. Its democratic traditions, moreover, remain broadly intact.How and why has this histor...

This book in general focuses on unfolding this paradox of the Development-Conflict-Violence-Composite Factors nexus. It aims to contribute both to the understanding of this complex Development-Conflict-Violence-Composite Factors nexus and our ability to envision and construct a political and development process to unfold and unearth the paradox and resolve it.

India is becoming an increasingly visible, powerful and influential state within the global system. As this rise to prominence continues, better appreciating the interests and principles that structure the international interactions of South Asia’s largest state has never been so important. Keen to embrace an expectant future as a great power, India’s transitional journey has been characterised by astounding diplomatic achievements and significant strategic failures.In this robust ...