Land and Sovereignty in India: Agrarian Society and Politics under the Eighteenth-Century Maratha Svarajya (University of Cambridge Oriental Publications)
Cambridge University Press, 8/21/2008
EAN 9780521051804, ISBN10: 0521051800
Paperback, 440 pages, 21.1 x 14 x 2.5 cm
Language: English
This original contribution to Indian history, focusing on contemporary and largely indigenous documents, introduces a set of concepts for the analysis of late Mughal rule. More specifically it examines the origins and development of the Maratha svardjya or 'self-rule' within the context of declining Muslim power. It traces the expansion of Maratha dominion to a process of fitna, a policy of 'shifting alliances' which was recurrent in the wake of Muslim expansion throughout its history. The book gives an interesting perspective on Hindu-Muslim relationships in the pre-British period as well as on the nature of the Indo-Muslim state and its most important successor polity, on its capacity for change and development in the intermediate sections of society, the land-tenurial system, the monetization of the economy, and on the fiscal system.
List of maps and diagrams
Preface
List of abbreviations
Glossary
Introduction
Part I. Brahman, King and Emperor
1. Sovereignty and universal dominion
2. Mughal expansion in the Deccan
3. The Maratha svarÄÂjya in the eighteenth century
4. Conclusion and summary
Part II. The Co-Sharers of the Realm
5. Sovereignty, vested rights and sedition
6. The king's co-sharers
7. Patrilineage and coparcenary
8. Grants of land
9. The grant of land as act of sovereignty
Part III. The King's Share
10. Land and taxation
11. The standard assessment
12. Adjustments of the standard assessment
13. Tenancy relations
14. Conclusion
Part IV. Regulation and Repartition
15. The brahman bureaucracy
16. Repartition and assignment of the king's share
17. Monetization and the cash-nexus
18. Revenue farming
19. Conclusion and summary
Epilogue
Key to selections of papers from the records at the East-India House
Bibliography
Index.