The Early Modern in South Asia
Querying Modernity, Periodization, and History

This book investigates the nature of South Asia's own form of modernity – early modernity – before the emergence of European colonialism.

Meena Bhargava (Edited by), Pratyay Nath (Edited by)

9781009215374, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 5 January 2023

268 pages
23.6 x 15.9 x 2.1 cm, 0.48 kg

Did modernity arrive in South Asia with British colonialism? Or was South Asia already modern by then? What might have that modernity looked like? The Early Modern in South Asia engages with these questions. It brings together ten chapters, which collectively trace the contours of South Asia's early modernity between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. They do this by examining the nature of historical change in various domains, including philosophy, warfare, law, environment, politics, violence, religion, and society. The chapters argue that in all these fields, there were noticeable developments during this period, marking a shift from the medieval to the early modern. The introductory chapter contextualizes this by analysing the politics of periodization in history-writing across the world. It discusses the meanings of the relatively new concept of early modernity and the implications of its use for how we understand historical change and continuity in South Asia.

Acknowledgements
1. Introduction: History and the Politics of Periodization Meena Bhargava and Pratyay Nath
Part I. Religion, Ideology, Identity: 2. Locating the Early Modern in South Asian Sufism Kashshaf Ghani
3. Beginnings of Modernity in South Asia: Natural Philosophy in Persianate Islam Charles Ramsey
4. Contestations and Negotiations: Early Modern Individualism in Jain Heterodoxy, c. 1470–c. 1770 Shalin Jain
Part II. Economy, Environment, Society: 5. Early Modernity and South Asian Economic History: Problematic, Periodization, Processes, and Possibilities Rajat Datta
6. Markers of the Early Modern: Ecology, State, and Society in Rajasthan Mayank Kumar
7. Through the Prism of Environmental History: Defining the Early Modern in South Asia Meena Bhargava
8. The Early Modern Conundrum: Peninsular India and the Idea of Periodization in a 'Regional' Perspective Ranjeeta Datta
Part III. Politics, Law, War: 9. Fidalgoes, Soldados, Arrenegados: Portuguese Adventurers in Hugli and Early Modern Politics Radhika Chadha
10. Law, Empire, and the New Julfan Armenians: The Early Modern in the Indian Ocean World Santanu Sengupta
11. Was Mughal Warfare Early Modern? Pratyay Nath
Index.

Subject Areas: Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], Asian history [HBJF], History: theory & methods [HBA], History [HB]