Indian Society and the Making of the British Empire [Paperback]

This volume reassesses the role of Indians in the politics and economics of early colonialism.New views of the decline of the Mughals , expansion of the English East India Company's trade and urban settlements, and the role of the Indians in the politics and economics of early colonialism.New views of the decline of the Mughals , expansion of the English East India Company's trade and urban settlements, and the role of the Indians in the politics and economics of early colonialism.This volume provides a synthesis of some of the most important themes to emerge from the recent proliferation of specialized scholarship on the period of India's transition to colonialism and seeks to reassess the role of Indians in the politics and economics of early colonialism. It discusses new views of the decline of the Mughals and the role of the Indian capitalists in the expansion of the English East India Company's trade and urban settlements. It considers the reasons for the inability of indigenous states to withstand the British, but also highlights the relative failure of the Company to transform India into a quiescent and profitable colony. Finally it deals with changes in India's ecology, social organization, and ideologies in the early nineteenth century, and the nature of Indian resistance to colonialism, including the Rebellion of 1857.List of maps; General editor's preface; Preface; Introduction; 1. India in the eighteenth century: the formation of states and social groups; 2. Indian capital and the emergence of colonial society; 3. The crisis of the Indian state, 17801820; 4. The consolidation and failure of the East India Company's state, 181857; 5. Peasant and Brahmin: consolidating 'traditional' society; 6. Rebellion and reconstruction; Conclusion: the first age of colonialism in India; Glossary of Indian terms; Bibliography; Index. The entire Cambridge series, judging from the quality of these two examples, will prove essential reading for some time to come, forl£"