India
The Definitive History
August 2007
Trade Paperback · 512 Pages
$60.00 U.S. · $69.00 CAN · £32.99 U.K. · €42.99 E.U.
ISBN 9780813343525
Westview Press
Trade Paperback · 512 Pages
$60.00 U.S. · $69.00 CAN · £32.99 U.K. · €42.99 E.U.
ISBN 9780813343525
Westview Press
Recommended for These Courses
- Area Studies: Asian Studies
- Asian Studies: General
- Asian Studies: India and South Asia
- History: Asian
- History: General
- History: India and South Asia
- International Relations: General
- Political Science: General
- Political Science: International Relations
Description
For several years now, India has been receiving considerable global attention thanks to its spectacular economic growth at over seven percent for a decade. Along with China, these two ancient civilizations, responsible for one-third of the human race, are poised to become the third and fourth largest economies in the world. With apprehensions about China’s growing military strength, democratic India is regarded by the West as a likely counterbalance to the Communist giant.
D. R. SarDesai presents the history of India in its entire civilizational depth. Using an Indiacentric approach (as opposed to the Eurocentric or Anglocentric), the book covers the process of change in India through the centuries affecting different segments of the society, including the subalterns. He deals with the sweep of traditional Indian history as well as with the postindependence events, judicially balancing narrative and analysis in the conceptual framework of postcolonial and postmodernist approaches. This is the first major survey which deals with the entire Indian history along the lines of tradition and modernity instead of the old and largely inapplicable divisions of ancient, medieval, and modern timeframes. In adopting such a periodization, the book supports what is followed by most instructors in their courses on India.
D. R. SarDesai presents the history of India in its entire civilizational depth. Using an Indiacentric approach (as opposed to the Eurocentric or Anglocentric), the book covers the process of change in India through the centuries affecting different segments of the society, including the subalterns. He deals with the sweep of traditional Indian history as well as with the postindependence events, judicially balancing narrative and analysis in the conceptual framework of postcolonial and postmodernist approaches. This is the first major survey which deals with the entire Indian history along the lines of tradition and modernity instead of the old and largely inapplicable divisions of ancient, medieval, and modern timeframes. In adopting such a periodization, the book supports what is followed by most instructors in their courses on India.
About the Author
D. R. SarDesai is former Chairperson of South and Southeast Asian Studies and the first holder of the Doshi Chair in Indian History at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is the author of Southeast Asia: Past and Present 5th Edition (Westview Press, 2003). He is also the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Yadunandan Center for India Studies for his caring and distinguished work in South and Southeast Asian studies.