Edited and with an introduction by Professor Habib, 'Confronting Colonialism' is a series of essays commemorating the second centenary of Tipu's final battle against the British at Sriranagapatnam in 1799. The essays, devoted to the history of Mysore under Haider Ali and Tipu Sultan, underscore the need to defend the memory of two rulers, who were indomitable opponents of the colonial regime; they also emphasize the centrality of Haider Ali and Tipu Sultan in Indian nationalist historiography. This collection is of particular importance, especially in light of the recent tendency to devalue the significance of the two rulers.

This volume brings together, for the first time, several of Professor Habib s essays, representing three decades of scholarship and providing an insightful interpretation of the main currents in Indian history from the standpoint of Marxist historiography. The collection examines the role played by the peasantry and caste in Indian history; explores the forms of class struggle and the stage of Indian economic development in Mughal India; analyzes the impact of colonialism on the Indian economy; and chronicles the changes in Marx s perception of India. These painstakingly researched and erudite essays form a volume that is indispensable for scholars and students of Indian history.

Edited and with an introduction by Professor Habib, 'Confronting Colonialism' is a series of essays commemorating the second centenary of Tipu's final battle against the British at Sriranagapatnam in 1799. The essays, devoted to the history of Mysore under Haider Ali and Tipu Sultan, underscore the need to defend the memory of two rulers, who were indomitable opponents of the colonial regime; they also emphasize the centrality of Haider Ali and Tipu Sultan in Indian nationalist historiography. This collection is of particular importance, especially in light of the recent tendency to devalue the significance of the two rulers.

This volume brings together, for the first time, several of Professor Habib's essays, representing three decades of scholarship and providing an insightful interpretation of the main currents in Indian history from the standpoint of Marxist historiography. The collection examines the role played by the peasantry and caste in Indian history; explores the forms of class struggle and the stage of Indian economic development in Mughal India; analyses the impact of colonialism on the Indian economy; and chronicles the changes in Marx's perception of India. These painstakingly researched and erudite essays form a volume that is indispensable for scholars and students of Indian history.

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. It brings the Satyagraha against the Rowlatt Act, engraved in national memory by the slaughter at Jallianwala Bagh. The work ends with August 1947 when India finally attained independence. The volume stresses the importance of the ideological factor, seen in the growth of communalism that ultimately led to the Partition of the country along with independence.

This book covers the whole range of technology, from the tools and skills of ordinary men and women to the instruments of astronomers and the equipage and weaponry of war. Changes in technology are carefully traced and their consequences examined. Larger questions, such as those of constraints on technological development and the role of the social and economic environment, are also addressed. This volume, in line with the others of A People's History of India, gives several extracts from texts, containing significant information about specific aspects of pre-modern technology. There are special notes on technical terms, sources of the history of technology, the problem of invention versus diffusion, and the development of medieval technology outside India. It includes illustrations taken from medieval sculpture, painting and book-illustrations. The volume is addressed to the general reader as well as the student, who would like to read about something on which conventional textbooks have little to offer. A special effort is made to keep the style non-technical without loss of accuracy. It is hoped that the theme is sufficiently interesting not only for the historian but for any citizen wanting to know what common people, men and women, did with their hands and tools in earlier times.

This volume is devoted to the economic and social history of India from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century. The book consists of three long chapters, divided into numerous subchapters. The first chapter describes the agrarian order during the main period of the Delhi Sultanate (1206-1398), while the second chapter delves into the urban economy and trading world of the same period. The third chapter deals with the fifteenth century, 1398-1526, a period of political divisions. While describing the economy and social structure in north India during the century, the chapter pays special attention to conditions in the Vijayanagara empire, which flourished during this period in south India. A special feature of the volume, as with others in the series, is the inclusion of long extracts from sources and technical and bibliographical notes appended to each chapter.

Increasing interest has been shown in recent decades in matters relating to ecology, especially under the influence of the debate on climate change. The scope of ecology is, of course, much wider than that of climate alone, and involves in addition not only human relation with all species of animals and plants but also those conditions of human societies (material and intellectual) that influence our responses to the opportunities and challenges posed by nature. It is with this wider sense in mind that the history of ecology has been treated in this volume. Extensive extracts from sources have been provided; and there are special notes on ecology, climatology, zooarchaeology, natural history, and forestry.

The monograph surveys the developments within the Indian economy during the period of the high tide of colonial domination between the 1857 Rebellion and the First World War. Its various sub-chapters deal with population, gross product and prices; tribute, imperialism of Free Trade, and the construction of railways; peasant agriculture, plantations, commercialization of agriculture and its impact on rents, peasant incomes and agricultural wages; and rural de-industrialization, modern industries, tariff and exchange policies; banking and finance; and fiscal system, tax-burden and the rise of economic nationalism. There are extracts from contemporary comments and reports; technical notes on such matters as computing national income, counterfactual analysis, etc., and short bibliographies accompanying each of the five chapters.

The National Movement: The First Phase, till 1918 deals with popular resistance to colonial rule, a special position being given to the Revolt of 1857-58, its nature and legacy; the rise of national consciousness, and the factors leading to it; the movement for social reform and political awakening among the middle classes. It examines the critique of British rule by early economic nationalists as well as the foundation (in 1885), and development as a political party, of the Indian National Congress. It considers the rise of the Extremists (as against Moderates), describes the rise of communalism and the Partition of Bengal (1905), the opposition to it and the rift within the Congress, the rise of violence and the Ghadar movement (1913-15). It also considers the effect of British measures of 1909 and 1911 on the National Movement, the Congress-Muslim League Pact of 1916, the Home Rule Movement, and, finally, Gandhiji's arrival and the agitations of 1917-18. The volume is authored by Irfan Habib, the general editor of the A People's History of India series.

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.

Starting with the reformers of the nineteenth century and ending with present-day ideologues, Habib questions the controversial idea of Islamic science as a category distinct from modern, Eurocentric science. Through the lives of famous men like Sir Syed Ahmed Khan and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Habib shows the reader that the modern-day promulgation of Islam and its followers as anti-modern and anti-science is a myth that leads, quite literally, to explosive consequences.

Post-Mauryan India, 200 BC - AD 300: A Political and Economic History, as part of the People's History of India series, deals with the five hundred years that, in the political sphere, are associated with the dominance of Indo-Greeks, Sakas, Kushans, and Satavahanas. The volume also offers a detailed survey of the economy of the period, which saw important changes, in craft production as well as overseas trade. (The changes in the caste system and cultural life during this long period will be treated in a separate volume.) A special feature of the present volume is that the information contained is based on fully updated material. As with other volumes of the series, translations of select inscriptions and extracts from texts are appended to each chapter. There are special notes (by way of technical aids) on the Puranas, the Shangam texts, and Kushan chronology; and on numismatics and economics. In addition, there are seven maps and twenty-four illustrations, being mainly reproductions of coins and sculpture.

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.

Comprising No. 14 in the People's History of India series, published by Aligarh Historians Society in collaboration with Tulika Books, this volume is devoted to the economic and social history of India from the 13th to the 15th century. The book consists of three long chapters, divided into numerous sub-chapters. The first chapter describes the agrarian order during the main period of the Delhi Sultanate (1206-1398), and the second the urban economy and trading world of the same period. The third chapter deals with the fifteenth century, 1398-1526, a period of political divisions. While describing the economy and social structure in north India during the century, the chapter pays special attention to conditions in the Vijayanagara empire, which flourished during this period in south India. A special feature of the volume, as with others in the series, is the inclusion of long extracts from sources and technical and bibliographical notes appended to each chapter.

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.