Land and Sovereignty in India
Agrarian Society and Politics under the Eighteenth-Century Maratha Svar?jya

This study introduces a set of concepts for the analysis of late Mughal rule.

André Wink (Author)

9780521051804, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 3 December 2007

440 pages
21.1 x 14 x 2.5 cm, 0.57 kg

This original contribution to Indian history, focusing on contemporary and largely indigenous documents, introduces a set of concepts for the analysis of late Mughal rule. More specifically it examines the origins and development of the Maratha svardjya or 'self-rule' within the context of declining Muslim power. It traces the expansion of Maratha dominion to a process of fitna, a policy of 'shifting alliances' which was recurrent in the wake of Muslim expansion throughout its history. The book gives an interesting perspective on Hindu-Muslim relationships in the pre-British period as well as on the nature of the Indo-Muslim state and its most important successor polity, on its capacity for change and development in the intermediate sections of society, the land-tenurial system, the monetization of the economy, and on the fiscal system.

List of maps and diagrams
Preface
List of abbreviations
Glossary
Introduction
Part I. Brahman, King and Emperor: 1. Sovereignty and universal dominion
2. Mughal expansion in the Deccan
3. The Maratha svar?jya in the eighteenth century
4. Conclusion and summary
Part II. The Co-Sharers of the Realm: 5. Sovereignty, vested rights and sedition
6. The king's co-sharers
7. Patrilineage and coparcenary
8. Grants of land
9. The grant of land as act of sovereignty
Part III. The King's Share: 10. Land and taxation
11. The standard assessment
12. Adjustments of the standard assessment
13. Tenancy relations
14. Conclusion
Part IV. Regulation and Repartition: 15. The brahman bureaucracy
16. Repartition and assignment of the king's share
17. Monetization and the cash-nexus
18. Revenue farming
19. Conclusion and summary
Epilogue
Key to selections of papers from the records at the East-India House
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: General & world history [HBG]