Bøker av Irfan Habib

A persuasive redefinition of nationalism by one of the most eminent historians of India.   What makes a people living in a mere "geographical expression" a nation? From the French Revolution onwards, the word "nation" came to denote a people who wish to be collectively free. But free from what-colonial rule and inequality? Or religious and cultural diversity?   In this timely and succinct essay, Irfan Habib charts India's struggle to consolidate a nationalist identity, to identify what it sought to be free from. Even as the colonial regime denied the very possibility of nationalism in the subcontinent, opposition to British rule fomented just such a sentiment. But resistance against colonial exploitation alone could not unify the Indian people. Internal inequalities-caste, poverty, religious bigotry-remained (and still remain) to be tackled.

भारत के लोक इतिहास श्रृंखला के इस खंड का विषय 1500 ईसा पूर्व से 700 ईसा पूर्व के बीच का काल-खंड है जिसके तहत ऋग्वेद और उसके बाद के ग्रंथों को क्रमशः व्यवस्थित किया गया है और उस युग के भूगोल, प्रव्रजन, प्रौद्योगिकी, अर्थव्यवस्था और समाज के साथ-साथ धर्म और दर्शन आदि पहलुओं का अन्वेषण किया गया है लेखकों की कोशिश रही है कि उक्त आदिग्रंथों के माध्यम से तत्कालीन जन-जीवन की पुनर्रचना कर आम पाठकों के लिए उसे बोधगम्य बनाया जाए इस प्रक्रिया में लैंगिक और वर्ग-आधारित सामाजिक विभाजनों को खास तौर पर देखने की कोशिश की गई है पुस्तक के एक अध्याय में पुरातात्विक साक्ष्यों के आधार पर प्रमुख क्षेत्रीय संस्कृतियों का सावधानीपूर्वक अध्ययन किया गया है इतिहास में लोहे का आगमन एक महत्त्पूर्ण घटना है जो इसी युग में संपन्न हुई थी सो उसका वर्णन किंचित विस्तार से हुआ है साथ ही जाति व्यवस्था के आरम्भ पर भी इस पुस्तक में अपेक्षित प्रकाश डाला गया है मूल ग्रंथो के उद्धरणों, तार्किक व्याख्याओं और विश्लेषणों, अनेक प्रमाणिक चित्रों और नक्शों से समृद्ध यह पुस्तक न सिर्फ रुचिकर, बल्कि पाठकों को विचारोत्तेजक भी लगेगी

Reconstructed history of three villages separately studied (Vrindavan, Radhakund and Rajpur), Mathura District, Western Uttar Pradesh, India.

This volume takes up the story of the Indian National Movement from 1919 when the first nationalist struggle took place on an all-India scale. The work ends with August 1947 when India finally attained independence.

This volume explores the economic and social history of India from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century. It describes the agrarian order, urban economy, and trading world during the Delhi Sultanate, the subsequent period of political divisions, and conditions in the Vijayanagara Empire, which flourished during this period in south India.

This book considers the first phase of Indian popular resistance to colonial rule, including the Revolt of 1857¿58, its nature and legacy; the rise of national consciousness; the movement for social reform and political awakening among the middle classes, and, finally, Gandhiji¿s arrival and the agitations of 1917¿18.

This volume explores the economic and social history of India from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century. It describes the agrarian order, urban economy, and trading world during the Delhi Sultanate, the subsequent period of political divisions, and conditions in the Vijayanagara Empire, which flourished during this period in south India.

This volume consists of five essays on the National Movement that arose to overthrow British rule in India. Three of these essays are devoted to the two men, Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, whose divergent ideas dominated the National Movement and to different degrees influenced its course. A fourth essay studies in detail how ideas and practice enmeshed to produce the civil disobedience movement in its initial phase, 1930-31, being undoubtedly the most powerful mass agitation organized by the Congress. The final essay studies the contributions made by the Left, especially the Communists, to the National Movement, seeking to fill a gap quite often found in conventional histories.

Mauryan India, as part of the People's History of India series, covers the period from about 350 bc to about 185 bc, thereby encompassing the invasion of Alexander (327¿325 bc) and the history of the Mauryan Empire (c.324¿185 bc). There is a detailed account of the inscriptions of Ashoka and their significance. A picture of the economy, society and culture of the time follows, constructed out of the varied sources available, epigraphic, textual and archaeological. An effort is made throughout to keep the reader abreast of recent discoveries, and to share with him the reasons for all conclusions and inferences. There are special notes on Mauryan chronology, the date of the Arthashastra, the science of epigraphy, and the dialects of Ashokan Prakrit. As many as fifteen excerpts from Indian and Greek sources, including ten full edicts of Ashoka, are provided. There are nine maps (five of them exceptionally detailed) and twenty illustrations (black-and-white). The volume is addressed to both the general reader and the student, and attempts to cover all topics that conventional textbooks include besides much other material that a 'people's history' needs to be concerned with, such as economic life, technology, social structure, gender relations, modes of exploitation, language, varied aspects of culture, etc. It is hoped that it will be considered a readable addition to what has so far been written on the Mauryan Empire.

Religion has been, and is, an important element in Indian society and history. It is, however, rare for the subject to be discussed with the necessary degree of detachment. This volume was, therefore, planned with the object of providing a collection of studies that would deal with the role of religion in Indian history on the basis of a rigorous application of academic criteria. The results may surprise those who are more familiar with chauvinistic or apologetic interpretations. The editor's introduction and the fifteen chapters range over an extensive period, from prehistory to the present day, and take up specific problems of crucial significance in exploring the inter- relationship between religion and social change. This volume draws on new research and is meant for academics as well as general readers, who may find here much that is of relevance to their social and intellectual concerns.

State and Diplomacy under Tipu Sultan: Documents and Essays supplements Confronting Colonialism: Resistance and Modernization under Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan, which was published in 1999 by the Indian History Congress as part of the Srirangapatnam bicentennial. The main object of this volume is not only to add fresh contributions to the papers collected in Confronting Colonialism, but also to present documentary evidence that has not received its due in studies on Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan. It is hoped that the translations of texts, commentaries on documents, and interpretive essays contained here will mark a further stage of progress in the exploration and use of source material on Tipu Sultan in both Persian and French.