India & Cambridge - Cambridge University Press India

HISTORYState and Locality inMughal India: PowerRelations in Western India,c. 1572-1730Farhat HasanThis book presents an exploratorystudy of the Mughal state and itsnegotiation with local powerrelations. By studying the statefrom the perspective of thelocalities and not from that of theMughal Court, it shifts the focusfrom the imperial grid to the local arenas, and moresignificantly, from ‘form’ to ‘process’. As a result, the bookoffers a new interpretation of the system of rule based onan appreciation of the local experience of imperialsovereignty, and the inter-connections between the stateand the local power relations. The book knits together thesystems- and action-theoretic approaches to power, andpresents the Mughal state as a dynamic structure inconstant change and conflict. The study, based on hithertounexamined local evidence, highlights the extent to whichthe interactions between state and society helped to shapethe rule structure, the normative system and ‘the moraleconomy of the state’.Farhat Hasan is Reader in History at the Centre forAdvanced Study, Department of History, Aligarh MuslimUniversity.9788175963313 160pp HB ` 495.00Domesticity and Power inthe Early Mughal WorldRuby LalIn a fascinating and innovativestudy, Ruby Lal explores domesticlife and the place of women in theMughal court of the sixteenthcentury. Challenging traditional,orientalist interpretations of theharam that have portrayed adomestic world of seclusion andsexual exploitation, the authorreveals a complex society wherenoble men and women negotiated their everyday life andpublic-political affairs in the 'inner' chambers as well as the'outer' courts. Using Ottoman and Safavid histories as acounterpoint, she demonstrates the richness, ambiguity andparticularity of the Mughal haram, which was pivotal in thetransition to institutionalisation and imperial excellence.Ruby Lal is Assistant Professor in the Department of MiddleEastern and South Asian Studies at Emory University,Atlanta. Her research and writing have focused on issues ofgender relations in Islamic societies in the pre-colonialworld.6 B&W illustrations9780521145541 260pp PB ` 795.00The Sikhs of the PunjabJ.S. GrewalIn a revised edition of his originalbook, J. S. Grewal traces the historyof the Sikhs from the time of GuruNanak, the founder of Sikhism, tothe present. Against thebackground of the Punjab, thebook explores the life and beliefsof Guru Nanak and the growth ofhis following.J.S. Grewal is Director of theInstitute of PunjabStudies in Chandigarh.1 half-tone 9 maps9788175960701 302pp PB ` 295.00(The New Cambridge History of India)India’s Labouring Poor :Historical Studiesc. 1600–c.2000Rana P. Behal &Marcel van der Linden (eds)Recent years have witnessed arenewed interest in the historicalstudies of labour in India and otherparts of the world. Apart from thestudy of the industrial workforce,labour history has been enrichedby the scholarly attention tomigratory, mobile labour, lives ofartisans, women and peasant immigrants to plantationswithin India and overseas. Earlier the major emphasis oflabour history research was on the core countries such asUS, Canada, Europe and Japan. Now research on the labourhistory of the capitalist peripheries is growing and isincreasingly attracting international scholarship.An urgent need is felt for reconstituting the olderframeworks which had revolved around fixed binaries ofspace, time and social relations. Labour historians have toincreasingly contend with the existing notions of “premodern”and modern, free/unfree, formal/informal forms oflabour relations and traditional spatial divisions such as thefactory and the field, urban and rural etc.Rana P. Behal, Department of History, Deshbandhu College,University of Delhi, Delhi.Marcel van der Linden, Research Director, InternationalInstitute of Social History, Amsterdam and Professor, SocialMovement History, University of Amsterdam, TheNetherlands.9788175964969 292pp HB ` 795.008 order online at www.cambridgeindia.org