Table of Contents

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.

Promotional Information

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

About the Author

Meena Bhargava teaches history at Indraprastha College for Women, University of Delhi, India. She is a historian of medieval and early modern South Asia. The areas of her research include Mughal history, environmental history, history of narcotics and drugs, agrarian history, and land rights in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century India. Her most recent publication is Understanding Mughal India: Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries (2019). Pratyay Nath teaches history at Ashoka University, India. He is a historian of early modern South Asia. The areas of his research include military history, environmental history, imperial history, and history of the historical discipline. His most recent publication is Climate of Conquest: War, Environment, and Empire in Mughal North India (2019).