Suchergebnisse

"The book is a history of the political and environmental transformation of the Indus basin as a result of the modern construction of the world's largest, integrated irrigation system. Begun under British colonial rule in the 19th century, this transformation continued after the region was divided between two new states, India and Pakistan, in 1947. Massive irrigation works have turned an arid region into one of dense agricultural population, but its political legacies continue to shape the politics and statecraft of the region"--Provided by publisher.

A study of the intersection of nationalism, internationalism, and cosmopolitanism in twentieth-century South Asia requires attention to how these concepts drew on imperial structures and on the notions of civilization that went with them. Gilmartin's brief response to Partha Chatterjee's article on the topic, "Nationalism, Internationalism, and Cosmopolitanism: Some Observations from Modern Indian History," tracks the importance of imperial concepts of center and periphery in structuring both the nationalist movement in India and the movement for the creation of Pakistan during the interwar years.

Maya Tudor, The Promise of Power: The Origins of Democracy in India and Autocracy in Pakistan. New Delhi: Cambridge University Press. 2013. xvi + 239 pages. ₹ 595.

T.N. Seshan's tenure as Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) in the early 1990s transformed the role of the Election Commission of India in India's electoral politics. This article examines Seshan's reforms but concentrates in particular on the public controversies that Seshan's tenure at the Election Commission engendered. Public debate about the role of the Election Commission brought to the surface underlying assumptions about the meaning of popular sovereignty in defining India's democracy. It highlighted the tension between law and democracy in shaping democratic ideals in India and underscored a view of elections as legally marked by a cyclical notion of 'electoral time'. The reforms of the Election Commission during the early 1990s, in fact, opened an unprecedented period of public debate in India on the nature of electoral democracy, which this article explores.

These papers were originally presented at the retirement conference for Prof. John F. Richards, which was held at Duke University on September 29–30, 2006. The conference, entitled 'Expanding Frontiers in South Asian and World History', brought together students, colleagues and associates of Prof. Richards to discuss themes that have marked Richards's work as a historian in an academic career of almost 40 years. These themes focused on 'frontiers' in multiple contexts, all relating to Richards's work: frontiers and state building; frontiers and environmental change; cultural frontiers; frontiers, trade and drugs; and frontiers and world history.

Cattle theft was a common crime in British India, and yet one marked by contradictions. While the protection of property was for many a defining feature of the modern state, colonial administrators were often loath to interfere in the negotiations by which Indians commonly arranged the return of stolen cattle. By examining one important prosecution of cattle theft in Punjab's Karnal district in 1913, this article argues that the state, local communities and individuals negotiated the meaning of property at multiple levels. Property was not a fixed concept, but rather a field of negotiation in which the relationship of state, community and individual were tiefined.