On December 26, 2004, giant tsunami waves destroyed communities around the Indian Ocean, from Indonesia to Kenya. Beyond the horrific death toll, this wall of water brought a telling reminder of the interconnectedness of the many countries on the ocean rim, and the insignificance of national boundaries. "A Hundred Horizons" takes us to these shores, in a brilliant reinterpretation of how culture developed and history was made at the height of the British Raj. Between 1850 and 1950, the Indian Ocean teemed with people, commodities and ideas: pilgrims and armies, commerce and labour, the politics of Mahatma Gandhi and the poetry of Rabindranath Tagore were all linked in surprising ways. Sugata Bose finds in these intricate social and economic webs evidence of the interdependence of the peoples of the lands beyond the horizon, from the Middle East to East Africa to Southeast Asia. In following this narrative, we discover that our usual ways of looking at history - through the lens of nationalism or globalisation - are not adequate. The national ideal did not simply give way to inevitable globalisation in the late 20th Century, as is often supposed; Bose reveals instead the vital importance of an intermediate historical space, where interregional geographic entities like the Indian Ocean rim foster nationalist identities and goals yet simultaneously facilitate interaction among communities. "A Hundred Horizons" merges statistics and myth, history and poetry, in a remarkable reconstruction of how a region's culture, economy, politics and imagination are woven together in time and place.

This volume represents a major contribution to the new field of South Asian intellectual history from a global perspective. It critically examines forms of South Asian cosmopolitanism in the era of anti-colonial agitation. Starting from the assertion that the history of political ideas in South Asia can neither be pictured as the contestation between well-defined 'local' and 'global' epistemes, nor as the battle between 'patriotic' and 'internationalist' perspectives, these essays throw unprecedented light on the intermediate spaces of intellectual encounter and interchange that linked South Asian thinkers to counterparts and conversations worldwide from the late nineteenth century through to independence. By discarding presuppositions about hermetically-sealed local traditions endangered by 'Westernizing' forces, and also by undoing the stubborn tether that ties the study of colonial South Asian thought to the British metropolis alone, the travels of intellectuals that spanned the Indian and Pacific Oceans, from Johannesburg to Tokyo, or the distance from Calcutta to New York, or Bombay to Rome, emerge as significant trajectories for the study of South Asian history within a global horizon. Lateral interactions between colonized groups worldwide, and with other Europes outside Britain and minority Americas constitute a largely unexplored archive for the study of South Asian history.

As well as being an outstanding contribution to Indian economic and social history, this book draws important conclusions about peasant politics in general and about the effects of international economic fluctuations on primary producing countries. Dr Bose develops a general typology of systems of agrarian production in Bengal to show how these responded to different types of pressure from the world economy, and treats in detail the effects of the world Depression on Bengal. Separate chapters are devoted to the themes of agrarian conflict and religious strife in east Bengal, the agrarian dimension of mass nationalism in west Bengal and sharecroppers agitations in the frontier regions. The conclusion attempts a synthesis of the typology of agrarian social structure and the periodisation of peasant politics, placing this in the wider context of agrarian societies and protest in other parts of India and in South-east Asia.

On December 26, 2004, giant tsunami waves destroyed communities around the Indian Ocean, from Indonesia to Kenya. Beyond the horrific death toll, this wall of water brought a telling reminder of the interconnectedness of the many countries on the ocean rim, and the insignificance of national boundaries. "A Hundred Horizons" takes us to these shores, in a brilliant reinterpretation of how culture developed and history was made at the height of the British raj.

A wide-ranging survey of the Indian sub-continent, Modern South Asia gives an enthralling account of South Asian history. After sketching the pre-modern history of the subcontinent, the book concentrates on the last three centuries from c.1700 to the present. Jointly written by two leading Indian and Pakistani historians, Modern South Asia offers a rare depth of understanding of the social, economic and political realities of this region.The new edition includes a rewritten, accessible introduction and a chapter by chapter revision to take into account recent research. The second edition will also bring the book completely up to date with a chapter on the period from 1991 to 2002 and a discussion of the last millennium in sub-continental history.

This book places South Asian history within broader supra-regional and world contexts, as well as within larger historical debates and theories that analyse the shape of the modern world. It is comprised of seventeen studies by historians, sociologists, economists and political scientists, which examine developments within the subcontinent vis-a-vis the global context of capitalism.

This book is a critical work of synthesis and interpretation on one of the central themes in modern Indian history - agrarian change under British colonial rule. Sugata Bose analyses the relationships between demography, commercialization, class structure and peasant resistance unfolding over the long term between 1770 and more recent times. By integrating the histories of land and capital, he examines the relationship between capitalist 'development' of the wider economy under colonial rule and agrarian continuity and change. Drawing most of his empirical evidence from rural Bengal, the author makes comparisons with regional agrarian histories of other parts of South Asia. Thus, this study stands on its own in the field of modern Indian social and economic history in its chronological sweep and comparative context and makes the complex subject of India's peasantry accessible to students and the interested non-specialist.

"Purabi" brings together 52 of Tagores poems and songs. The collection reveals a very different Tagore from the one the West has come to know, bringing to light a passionate poet who celebrated the wonders of this earth instead of just pondering the mysteries of the other world and whose irrepressible love of life was tinged with an acute awareness of its inexorable limits and tragedies. Includes a CD of Tagore songs and recitations in English and Bengali.