Featured Resource
Sources of Indian Traditions: Modern India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh by
For more than fifty years, students and teachers have made the two-volume resource Sources of Indian Traditions their top pick for an accessible yet thorough introduction to Indian and South Asian civilizations. Volume 2 contains an essential selection of primary readings on the social, intellectual, and religious history of India from the decline of Mughal rule in the eighteenth century to today. It details the advent of the East India Company, British colonization, the struggle for liberation, the partition of 1947, and the creation of Pakistan, Bangladesh, and contemporary India. This third edition now begins earlier than the first and second, featuring a new chapter on eighteenth-century intellectual and religious trends that set the stage for India's modern development. The editors have added material on Gandhi and his reception both nationally and abroad and include different perspectives on and approaches to Partition and its aftermath. They expand their portrait of post-1947 India and Pakistan and add perspectives on Bangladesh. The collection continues to be divided thematically, with a section devoted to the drafting of the Indian constitution, the rise of nationalism, the influence of Western thought, the conflict in Kashmir, nuclear proliferation, minority religions, secularism, and the role of the Indian political left. A phenomenal text, Sources of Indian Traditions is more indispensable than ever for courses in philosophy, religion, literature, and intellectual and cultural history.
Location: OnlinePublication Date: 2014
South Asian History
Browse books on:
A Concise History of Modern India by
A Concise History of Modern India by Barbara D. Metcalf and Thomas R. Metcalf, has become a classic in the field since it was first published in 2001. As a fresh interpretation of Indian history from the Mughals to the present, it has informed students across the world. In the third edition of the book, a final chapter charts the dramatic developments of the last twenty years, from 1990 through the Congress electoral victory of 2009, to the rise of the Indian high-tech industry in a country still troubled by poverty and political unrest. The narrative focuses on the fundamentally political theme of the imaginative and institutional structures that have successively sustained and transformed India, first under British colonial rule and then, after 1947, as an independent country. Woven into the larger political narrative is an account of India's social and economic development and its rich cultural life.
Location: OnlinePublication Date: 2012
Midnight's Descendants : a history of South Asia since partition by
Dispersed across India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, Midnight's Descendants-the generations born since the 1947 "midnight hour partition" of British India-are the world's fastest growing population. This vast region and its peoples wield an enormous influence over global economics and geopolitics, yet their impact is too often simplified by accounts that focus solely on one nation and ignore the intricate web of affiliations that shape relations among British India's successor states. Now, in Midnight Descendants, celebrated historian John Keay presents the first comprehensive history of this complex and interconnected region, delving deep into the events that have shaped its past and continue to guide its future. The 1947 partition was devastating to the larger of the newly created states, and it continues to haunt them to this day. Joined by their common origin and the fear of further partition, the five key nations of South Asia have progressed in tandem to a large degree. These countries have been forced to grapple with common challenges, from undeveloped economies and fractured societies to foreign interventions and the fraught legacy of imperialism, leaving them irrevocably intertwined. Combining authoritative historical analysis with vivid reportage, Keay masterfully charts South Asia's winding path toward modernization and democratization over the past sixty years. Along the way, he unravels the volatile India-Pakistan relationship; the rise of religious fundamentalism; the wars that raged in Kashmir and Sri Lanka; and the fortunes of millions of South Asia migrants dispersed throughout the world, creating a full and nuanced understanding of this dynamic region. Expansive and dramatic, Midnight's Descendants is a sweeping narrative of South Asia's recent history, from the aftermath of the 1947 partition to the region's present-day efforts to transcend its turbulent past and assume its rightful role in global politics.
Location: OnlinePublication Date: 2014
From the Colonial to the Postcolonial: India and Pakistan in transition by
This volume addresses some of the key issues marking the process of decolonization in India and Pakistan. It looks at decolonization as a long-term process and highlights some of the historical complications involved in nations born under the aegis of the colonial rule evolving intopostcolonial polities. The contributors include a range of distinguished scholars from North America, the United Kingdom, South Asia, and Australia. They approach the issue of decolonization in different but mutually reinforcing ways, through constitutionalism, sports, housing, genders, minorityissues, regionalism, and class formation.
Location: Mugar Stacks DS480.45 .F76 2007Publication Date: 2007
Perspectives on Modern South Asia : a reader in culture, history, and representation by
Perspectives on Modern South Asia presents an exciting core collection of essays drawn from anthropology, literary and cultural studies, history, sociology, economics, and political science to reveal the complexities of a region that is home to a fifth of humanity. Presents an interdisciplinary overview of the origins and development of the eight nations comprising modern South Asia: Afghanistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka Explores South Asia's common cultures, languages and religions and their relationship to its ethnic and national differences Features essays that provide understandings of the central dynamics of South Asia as an important cultural, political, and economic region of the world
Location: Mugar Stacks DS339 .P48 2011Publication Date: 2011
India's Islamic Traditions, 711-1750 by
This volume, part of the 'Themes in Indian History' series, contains 17 essays on various aspects of Islamic traditions in South Asia, spanning the course of 800 years, plus an Introduction by the editor, a well-known expert in this field. The essays cover a wide range of topics and provides a comprehensive summary of the rich diversity and cultural syncretism which are the hallmarks of the Islamic traditions in India. It will become a standard text on the subject of Indian Islam.
Location: Mugar Stacks DS427 .I59 2003Publication Date: 2003
Literary Cultures in History: reconstructions from South Asia by
A grand synthesis of unprecedented scope, Literary Cultures in History is the first comprehensive history of the rich literary traditions of South Asia. Together these traditions are unmatched in their combination of antiquity, continuity, and multicultural complexity, and are a unique resource for understanding the development of language and imagination over time. In this unparalleled volume, an international team of renowned scholars considers fifteen South Asian literary traditions--including Hindi, Indian-English, Persian, Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Urdu--in their full historical and cultural variety. The volume is united by a twofold theoretical aim: to understand South Asia by looking at it through the lens of its literary cultures and to rethink the practice of literary history by incorporating non-Western categories and processes. The questions these seventeen essays ask are accordingly broad, ranging from the character of cosmopolitan and vernacular traditions to the impact of colonialism and independence, indigenous literary and aesthetic theory, and modes of performance. A sophisticated assimilation of perspectives from experts in anthropology, political science, history, literary studies, and religion, the book makes a landmark contribution to historical cultural studies and to literary theory in addition to the new perspectives it offers on what literature has meant in South Asia. (Available in South Asia from Oxford University Press--India)
Location: Mugar Stacks PK2903 .L47 2003 and OnlinePublication Date: 2003
Gender Studies
Women and Girls in the Hindi Public Sphere by
The early 20th century in India witnessed the emergence of Hindi women's periodicals, which played a critical role in shaping a nationalist-feminist thought in India. Analysing the format and structure of Hindi women's periodicals, this volume investigates how women's periodicals became a medium for elite and middle-class women to think in new idioms and express themselves collectively in a period of social transition and political emancipation. In discussingtopics surrounding domesticity, political emancipation, and language politics, the book argues that women's periodicals were an instigator of change and not merely a witness thereof. Providing case studies of Hindi women's periodicals including Stri Darpan (Women's Mirror), Grihalakshmi (Lakshmi ofthe Home), and Arya Mahila (Arya Woman), the volume also takes into account Hindi girls' periodicals like Kumari Darpan and Kanya Manoranjan, and looks at the nationalist demand for home rule for women. Alongside a perceptive Introduction by the author setting the tone for the volume, the book includes an Index for cross-reference and a detailed Bibliography to help scholars for future research.
Location: OnlinePublication Date: 2013
Contesting Nation : gendered violence in South Asia : notes on the postcolonial present by
An innovative collection of essays on the turmoil spreading across South Asia, Contesting Nation sheds light on how violence--in wars of direct and indirect conquest--marks the present. Featuring contributions by distinguished South Asian women scholars, the book offers inspired, gendered, and contested histories of the present, exploring nation-making and its intersections with projects of militarization and cultural assertion, modernization, and globalization. The contributors to this volume consider such turbulent events as the Gujarat carnage of 2002, post-9/11 mobilizations, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, shedding light on the force with which brutal events encompass lives and disfigure communities. This powerful book examines the very borders such brutality maintains and its intimate and lasting effects on bodies and memories.
Location: Mugar Stacks HV6593.S64 C66 2012Publication Date: 2013
Women, Political Struggles and Gender Equality in South Asia by
A brutal gang-rape of a young woman in India in 2012 caused a global outcry against rising brutal violence against women. In response to the young woman's death and the protests that followed, the contributors analyze the position of women in South Asia, the issue of violence, women's political activism and gender inequalities.
Location: OnlinePublication Date: 2014
Librarian
Barbara Maratos
Contact:
Boston University Libraries
bkmarato@bu.edu
bkmarato@bu.edu
Subjects: Language & Linguistics, Literature