3 Review(s)

Drawing on the newest and the most sophisticated historical research and scholarship in the field, Modern South Asia provides a challenging insight for those with an intellectual curiosity about the region. After sketching the pre-modern history of the subcontinent, the book concentrates on the last three centuries. Jointly authored by two leading Indian and Pakistani historians, it offers a rare depth of historical understanding of the politics, cultures and economics that shape the lives of more than a fifth of humanity. In this comprehensive study, the authors interpret and debate the striking developments in contemporary South Asian history and historical writing, covering an entire spectrum of the region's modern history-social, economic and political. The book provides new insights into the structure and the ideology of the British raj, the meaning of the subaltern resistance, the refashioning of social relations along the lines of caste, class, community and gender, the different strands of anti-colonial nationalism, and the dynamics of decolonization. This third edition brings the debate up to the present day, taking account of recent historical research and covering the closer integration of South Asia with the global economy, the impact of developments in Afghanistan on the region as a whole and the fresh challenges to South Asia's nation-states.