Editorial Reviews
Review
'Lucid, comprehensive and up-to-date, this book will surely establish itself as essential reading for all undergraduate and graduate courses on South Asian history.' C. A. Bayly, Vere Harmsworth Professor of Imperial and Naval History, University of Cambridge
'The almost impossible task of writing a concise history of the subcontinent covering a period of four centuries is achieved by the Professors Metcalf ... This is a great introduction to the subject and the authors are to be congratulated on a most interesting book.' Open History
'[the authors'] account of the early Islamic state and popular misconceptions about religious conversion is so persuasively written that these few introductory pages could serve as an excellent model for secular history writing and should be circulated widely.' The Hindu
Book Description
In 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).
A Concise History of India
A Concise History of India,Barbara D. Metcalf,Thomas R. Metcalf,Cambridge University Press,0521639743,Asia - India,History,History - General History,History: World,India,Modern - General,Asian / Middle Eastern history,Asian studies,History / Renaissance,India--History,Modern period, c 1500 onwards
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