This ambitious study traces the strategies of human rights activists to show how world-changing reform movements were shaped by women and men from modest backgrounds who were deeply attuned to the power of performance. Tracy C. Davis explores nineteenth-century reform campaigns through the pioneering work of a family of activists – prominent anti-slavery lecturer George Thompson, his daughter Amelia (the first female theatre and music critic for a British daily newspaper) and her husband, the political organizer Frederick Chesson. Engaging in some of the most important social struggles of the late Georgian and Victorian periods – including abolition, enfranchisement, and anti-genocide - this book reveals how two generations' insights into performance consolidated into activist tactics that persist today. Characterised by a skilful deployment of performance theory alongside deep and wide-ranging historical knowledge, this ground-breaking work demonstrates what 'dramaturgy' can teach us about 'history'.

This book takes a closer look at colonial despotism in early nineteenth-century India and argues that it resulted from Indians’ forum shopping, the legal practice which resulted in jurisdictional jockeying between an executive, the East India Company, and a judiciary, the King’s Court. Focusing on the collisions that took place in Bombay during the 1820s, the book analyses how Indians of various descriptions—peasants, revenue defaulters, government employees, merchants, chiefs, and princes—used the court to challenge the government (and vice versa) and demonstrates the mechanism through which the lawcourt hindered the government’s indirect rule, which relied on local Indian rulers in newly conquered territories. The author concludes that existing political anxiety justified the East India Company’s attempt to curtail the power of the court and strengthen their own power to intervene in emergencies through the renewal of the company’s charter in 1834. An insightful read for those researching Indian history and judicial politics, this book engages with an understudied period of British rule in India, where the royal courts emerged as sites of conflict between the East India Company and a variety of Indian powers.

Vidarbha – a major cotton growing region in central India has been the epicentre of a protracted agrarian crisis. Chronic indebtedness and farmers' suicides continue unabated despite decades of state intervention. Going beyond the contemporary discourse that finds fault in neoliberal policies and integration with global markets, this fascinating book tells the story of how nineteenth century 'accidents' particularly in the form of colonial policies and the American Civil War ushered in institutional transformations that shaped the region's cotton economy. By drawing insights from their longitudinal study in villages of the region spanning 12 years, Gaurav and Ranganathan present the 'gambles' that farmers are part of. The novelty of combining a long view of history and evidence based on primary field research results in a book that underscores the importance of investigating roots of agrarian crisis and paying attention to adjustments of farm households, at a crucial juncture in India's economic transformation.

The Indian Ocean world has a rich history of socio-economic and cultural exchanges across time and space. This book and its companion, Merchants and Ports in the Indian Ocean World, explore these connections around the wider Indian Ocean world. The book examines the many overlapping linkages that existed from the early modern period and into the colonial era. It offers a clear understanding of the economic networks that extended across the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic during the 19th century. With a critical historical lens, the volume discusses themes like the opium trade in the Malay-Indonesian Archipelago – the biggest opium trade market at the time; the Safavid mission to Siam; and the economic relationship between Pondicherry and West Africa, via France. Rich in archival material, this book will be of interest for scholars and researchers of Indian Ocean history, maritime history, Indian history, economic and commercial history, South Asian history, and social history, anthropology, and trade relations in general.

Why Are We Facing Never Ending Terrorism? Political violence and terrorism have been, literally, bleeding humanity throughout the world. This book sheds light on terrorism, highlighting the causes of this evil, including religion, wealth disparity, poverty, dysfunctional government, and the crippling lending policies of international financial institutions. In particular, it highlights one major gray area not discussed by conventional writers - theColonial Legacy. This book highlights every aspect of political development from the birth of new nations to the race for supremacy. The impact of scarce mineral resources, the role of religions, the Shia-Sunni turmoil in the Middle East, and last but not least, the militarization processes are all discussed. Greed allows terrorism to take root and to be nurtured. It leads the religious to be abused and innocent people to be victimized by war's profiteers.

Marathas and the Maratha Country' : under this general theme we have already published two books of Professor A. R. Kulkarni, namely (1) Maharashtra in the Age of Shivaji and (2) Maharashtra Society and Culture. We are now introducing his four books under the same series containing reasearch articles based on orginal source and published in various journals. They are (i) The Marathas (1600-1818), a brief survey, (ii) Medieval Maratha Country, essays throwing fresh light on the various aspects of land and people of the region, (iii) Medieval Maharashtra containing essays on Village Communities, social relations, jiziya etc. and (iv) Studies in Maratha History which also includes articles of some other foreign and Indian scholars on Maratha historiography.

The Need For Following The Correct And Standard Research Methodology Is Increasingly Felt When More And More Research Works And Learned Monographs Are Coming Out On History Dealing With Social, Economic, Cultural And Other Varied Aspects Of Life, And Thus The Writing Of A Critical, Unbiased And Authentic History Is The Need Of The Hour. It Has Been Well Said In This Book That The Life Breath Of History Is Interpretation, Which Also Gives A Definite Viewpoint To A Work Of History. It Lays That Objectivity, If Carried To An Extreme, Results In Dry And Lifeless Cataloguing Of Events And Subjectivity, If Carried To An Extreme, Results In A Highly Biased Work Often Divorced From Reality, And That An Ideal Work Would Be One That Combines Subjectivity With Objectivity In Due Proportion Without Upholding The One At The Cost Of The Other.The Present Book Deals With The Different Processes Involved In Writing A Good And Authentic Historical Work. Right From The Heuristic Or The Search For Reliable And Credible Historical Sources Such As Archaeological, Epigraphical, Numismatical, Literary, And Archival, It Brings Into Relief The Important Features Of Analytical Operations Aimed At Ascertaining The Credibility Of Sources By Way Of External And Internal Criticism, Synthetic Operations Aimed At Finding Out A Connected, Meaningful And, If Possible, Enlightening Account Of Facts And Forces, Interpreting Them Properly, And Finally The Exposition, In A Powerful And Impressive Style, Of The Fruits Of All This Research And Thinking. The Book Further Shows How Interpretation Itself Is Properly Done By Means Of Various Processes Such As Generalisation, The Argument From Statistics, Analogy, Hypothesis And The Like.A Special Feature Of The Work Is That The Examples Of Books, Authors, References, Etc. Are Mostly Indian. It Gives Minute Rules And Regulations Essential While Writing A Good Research Work. It Is A Constant Companion To The History Scholars In Their Research Journey While For The Teachers Of The Subject It Is An Ideal Reference Book.