Irfan Habib

Prehistory describes the earliest ages of human life in India, long before the existence of written records. It is part of a larger project, a People's History of India. In this monograph, the style is sought to be kept simple without making it 'popular', rhetorical or inexact. Chapter 1 treats in brief the geological formation of India, and changes in its climate and natural environment in so far as these relate to an understanding of our prehistory and history. Chapter 2 provides the story of man, first in the global context and then in India. Chapter 3 describes the coming of agriculture and the beginnings of exploitative relationships. Technical or controversial matters that need special attention are dealt with in notes appended to each chapter.

A persuasive redefinition of nationalism by one of the most eminent historians of India. What makes a people living in a mere “geographical expression” a nation? From the French Revolution onwards, the word “nation” came to denote a people who wish to be collectively free. But free from what—colonial rule and inequality? Or religious and cultural diversity? In this timely and succinct essay, Irfan Habib charts India’s struggle to consolidate a nationalist identity, to identify what it sought to be free from. Even as the colonial regime denied the very possibility of nationalism in the subcontinent, opposition to British rule fomented just such a sentiment. But resistance against colonial exploitation alone could not unify the Indian people. Internal inequalities—caste, poverty, religious bigotry—remained (and still remain) to be tackled.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Vedic Age completes the first set of three monographs in the People's History of India series. It deals with the period c. 1500 to c. 700 bc, during which it sets the Rigveda and the subsequent Vedic corpus. It explores aspects of geography, migrations, technology, economy, society, religion, and philosophy. It draws on these texts to reconstruct the life of the ordinary people, with special attention paid to class as well as gender. In a separate chapter, the major regional cultures as revealed by archaeological evidence are carefully described. Much space is devoted to the coming of iron, for the dawn of the Iron Age - though not the Iron Age itself - lay within the period this volume studies. There are special notes on historical geography, the caste system (whose beginnings lay in this period) and the question of epic archaeology. A special feature of this monograph is the inclusion of seven substantive extracts from different sources, which should give the reader a taste of what these texts are like.

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.

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 collection brings together, for the first time, several seminal essays by Professor Irfan Habib interpreting the main currents in Indian history from a Marxist perspective. They cover a wide range of issues: the nature of evolution of caste through the centuries, the role played by the peasantry in Indian history, the forms of class struggle and the stage of development of the economy in Mughal India, the impact of colonialism on the Indian economy, the changes in Marx's perceptions of India, the problems of Marxist historiography. Representing three decades of scholarship, each essay in this collection is painstakingly researched and unfailingly stimulating.

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.

Religion has been, and is, an important element in Indian society and history. It is, however, rare for the subject to be discussed with the necessary degree of detachment. This volume was, therefore, planned with the object of providing a collection of studies that would deal with the role of religion in Indian history on the basis of a rigorous application of academic criteria. The results may surprise those who are more familiar with chauvinistic or apologetic interpretations. The editor's introduction and the fifteen chapters range over an extensive period, from prehistory to the present day, and take up specific problems of crucial significance in exploring the inter- relationship between religion and social change. This volume draws on new research and is meant for academics as well as general readers, who may find here much that is of relevance to their social and intellectual concerns.

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 Indus Civilization by Irfan Habib forms Volume 2 of the People's History of India series. It continues the story from the point reached in the preceding volume, Prehistory, and goes on to describe in depth the Indus Civilization. In addition, other contemporary and later cultures down to about 1500 BC are surveyed, and there is a discussion on how the major language families of India have emerged.

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.

This volume in the People's History of India series gives a general account of Indian economy in the first century of British rule (1757-1857). It describes the changes in Indian economy brought about by the pressure for tribute, the British land settlements, and the triumph of free trade. In order to set these changes in a proper perspective, it begins by furnishing a survey of pre-colonial economic conditions. A notable feature of the book is its reference to how aspects of Indian economy were seen and interpreted by contemporary observers. This is accomplished partly by a rich collection of extracts from the sources. There are also special notes on current interpretations of eighteenth-century history, the nature of tribute or drain of wealth from India to England, and the scope and problems of historical demography.

Karl Marx's articles in the New York Daily Tribune constitute a separate genre among his works, being originally published in English and based on events in various countries in the world. There is no doubt that the work Marx undertook for his Tribune articles not only influenced his later theoretical work (one major result being his incorporation of colonialism as a factor in the genesis and expansion of capitalism), but also gave him an opportunity to apply the general principles of his method of historical materialism to the study of complex circumstances prevalent in different parts of the world. The perception of pre-colonial and colonial India that he put forth in the Tribune is a classic product of such application. The sheer boldness of Marx's explanation of India's pre-colonial 'non-history'; the remarkable insight into the nature of colonial rule which made it so different from all previous conquests of the country; the lucidity of the exposition of the dialectics of colonial impact; the passionate sympathy for the suffering of the Indians, and, at the same time, the utterly dispassionate account of the historical course that opened up before the country, entirely independent of the will and consciousness of the colonial rulers themselves; all these combine to make the Tribune set of articles a real classic on Indian history. Iqbal Husain has established the text of Marx's articles from the original files of the newspaper in which they appeared. He has also collected the extracts relating to India from the Marx-Engels correspondence during the period of the articles. Prabhat Patnaik has written a special Appreciation of what Marx's articles on India add to our understanding of his ideas and approach.

This book provides a comprehensive account of land revenue, administration, agrarian economy, and social structure in India during the Mughal period. It examines areas like agricultural production and technology; trade in agricultural produce, conditions of the peasantry; zamindars; revenue grants and assignments; and the agrarian crisis of the Mughal Empire. The volume also provides information on land measurements; weights; coinages; revenue statistics; price movements; and the village community. Including a comprehensive bibliography, descriptive index, illustrations, and maps, this book is a compulsory read for students, teachers, and scholars of medieval India particularly those interested in agrarian systems.

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.