Indian Historiography: Vol.1

This is the first volume of a series of four volumes on Indian historiography. Each volume has been planned to include sections on ancient, medieval and modern India. This volume has similar sections. In the first section on ancient India, critical issues like feudalism and transition from status to contract, formation of state with roots of oriental despotism have been examined. Early stages of urbanization and town planning have also been addressed. In the second section on medieval India, imperial decline due to personal incompetence of rulers and institutional decay have been highlighted. The hierarchical policy and the tax burden on primary producers produced a fractured central state which in turn led to the formation of segmented states. But with the growth of trade and commerce and resultant urbanization the potential for capitalist development came to play. Foreign Trade boosted it. These issues are in focus in this section. In the section on modern India, further development of urbanization with its negative side, colonial deforestation balanced by efficient forest conservation, proletarianisation and politicization of industrial labour have been covered. All the above areas had their historians and the essays in the volume trace and evaluate these writings in a scholarly manner. Thus it becomes a significant contribution to Indian historiography which is now an emerging area of interest and has been included in the Syllabi of all universities.