India: The Definitive History / Edition 1

by D. R. SarDesai

Overview

This book deals with the sweep of traditional Indian history as well as with the post-independence events, judicially balancing narrative and analysis in the conceptual framework of postcolonial and postmodernist approaches, covering the process of change in India through the centuries.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813343525
Publisher:	Westview Press
Publication date:	08/07/2007
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	512
Product dimensions:	6.88(w) x 9.69(h) x (d)

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.

Table of Contents

Preface — Land and the Human Fabric — India in Prehistoric Times — The Vedic Age, ca. 1200 BCE–600 BCE — Birth of Two Religions — State and Politics in Ancient India — The Era of Consolidation — Early Islam — Peninsular Kingdoms — The Great Mughals — The Rise of the Marathas and the Sikhs — The European Powers in India — Reaction to British Rule — The Indian Nationalist Movement, 1850–1919 — The Road to Freedom Through Partition — The March of Indian Democracy, Part I — The March of Indian Democracy, Part II — The Princely States and the Kashmir Question — Toward Economic Freedom — India’s Foreign Policy

Editorial Reviews

This comprehensive history of India does it all, covering geography, religion, politics, economics, times of Mughal rule and British colonialism, as well a chronicle of India since independence up to the present. SarDesai has created an indispensable resource for understanding the complexity of India, past, present, and future.”
—Christopher Key Chapple, Doshi Professor of Indic and Comparative Theology, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles

“SarDesai offers a comprehensive history of India based on a lifetime of intimate and deep study … An authoritative guide backed by SarDesai’s deep and exhaustive knowledge of the sources … the volume’s great strength is its comprehensiveness, its readability, and … it goes the extra step of explaining concepts and terms that make it a very valuable guide to those coming to this rich subject for the first time … This book is the most sophisticated and erudite history of India penned by an Indian scholar.”
—Roger D. Long, Professor of History, Eastern Michigan University

From the Publisher