A Global History of Pre-Modern Warfare

A Global History of Pre-Modern Warfare

Author: Kaushik Roy

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-09-14

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 1000432122

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This book examines the military histories of the regions beyond Western Europe in the pre-modern era. Existing works on global military history mainly focus on the western part of Eurasia after 1500 CE. As regards the ancient period, such works concentrate exclusively on Greece and Rome. So, ‘global’ military history is actually the triumphal story of the West from Classical Greece onwards. This volume focuses not only on the eastern part of Eurasia but also on South America, Africa and Australasia and seeks to explain the history and varied trajectories of warfare in non-Western regions in the pre-modern era. Further, it evaluates whether warfare in non-Western regions should be considered primitive or inferior when compared with Western warfare. The book notes that Western Europe became militarily significant only in the early modern era and argues that the military divergence that occurred during the early modern era is not unique – it had also occurred in the Bronze Age, the Classical era and in the medieval period. This was due to the dynamism and innovativeness of non-Western militaries and the interconnectedness that existed in parts of the Eurasian landmass. Further, those polities which were able to construct a balanced military force by synthesising diverse elements were not only able to survive but also became capable of projecting power across continents. This book will be of much interest to students of military history, strategic studies and world history.


Warfare in Pre-British India – 1500BCE to 1740CE

Warfare in Pre-British India – 1500BCE to 1740CE

Author: Kaushik Roy

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-06-03

Total Pages: 279

ISBN-13: 1317586921

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This book presents a comprehensive survey of warfare in India up to the point where the British began to dominate the sub-continent. It discusses issues such as how far was the relatively bloodless nature of pre-British Indian warfare the product of stateless Indian society? How far did technology determine the dynamics of warfare in India? Did warfare in this period have a particular Indian nature and was it ritualistic? The book considers land warfare including sieges, naval warfare, the impact of horses, elephants and gunpowder, and the differences made by the arrival of Muslim rulers and by the influx of other foreign influences and techniques. The book concludes by arguing that the presence of standing professional armies supported by centralised bureaucratic states have been underemphasised in the history of India.


The Mughals and the North-East

The Mughals and the North-East

Author: Sajal Nag

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-07-17

Total Pages: 407

ISBN-13: 100090525X

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There is a perception that the region of north-east India maintained its ‘splendid isolation’ and remained outside the reach of the Mughals and did not have a pre-colonial past. The present book is an attempt to decenter and demolish the said perceptions and asserts that north-east India had a ‘medieval’ past through linkage with the dominant central power in India – the Mughals. The eastern frontier of this Mughal Empire was constituted by a number of states like Bengal, Koch Bihar, Assam, Manipur, Dimasa, Jaintia, Cachar, Tripura, Khasi confederation, Chittagong, Lushai and the Nagas. Of these, some areas like Bengal were an integral part of the Mughal Empire, while others like Koch Bihar and Assam were in and out of the empire. Tripura, Manipur, Jaintia and Cachar were frequently overrun by the Mughals whenever the State was short of revenue and withdrew soon without incorporating them in the state. Despite not being a formal part of the Mughal Empire, the society, economy, polity and culture of the north-east India, however, had been majorly impacted by the Mughal presence. The brief, but effective advent of the Mughals had supplanted certain political and revenue institutions in various states. It generated trade and commerce, which linked it to the rest of India. A number of wondering Sufi saints, Islamic missionaries, imprisoned Mughal soldiers and officers were settled in various states, which resulted in a substantial Muslim population growth in the region. Besides the population, there are numerous Islamic and syncretic institutions, cultures, and shrines which dot the entire region.


Violent Gods

Violent Gods

Author: Angana P. Chatterji

Publisher:

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 492

ISBN-13:

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This book is an erudite and elegiac exploration of Hindu nationalism in India today. It offers a revealing account of Hindu militant mobilizations as an authoritarian movement manifest throughout culture, polity, and economy, religion and law, class and caste, on gender, body, land, and memory. Tracing the continuities between Hindutva and Hindu cultural dominance, this book maps the architectures of civic and despotic governmentalities contouring Hindu nationalism in public, domestic, and everyday life. In chronicling concerted action against Christians and Muslims, Adivasis and Dalits, through spectacles, events, public executions, the riots in Kandhamal of December 2007 and August-September 2008, the planned, methodical politics of terror unfolds in its multiple registers. At the intersections of Anthropology, Postcolonial, Subaltern, and South Asia Studies, Angana P. Chatterji asks critical questions of nation making, cultural nationalism, and subaltern disenfranchisement. As a Foucauldian history of the present, this text asserts the role of ethical knowledge production as counter-memory.