This book explores the changing socio-cultural world in early modern South Asia, and locates the agency of the Mughal state therein. The development of literacy and new forms of engagement between literacy and performance prompted the opening up of new spaces of social communication, and led to the development of a performative (and somatic) public sphere in South Asia. The work highlights the significance of legal spaces, along with the markets and coffeehouses, in shaping the emergent public sphere. While defending the case for legal pluralism, it argues that the Mughal state endured and enhanced the diversity in the legal order. Focusing on the socially embedded attributes of the state, it looks at how the state's relations with the local powers impinged on, and reproduced community identities, identity conflicts, legal pluralism, property relations, and different forms of social communication.

This book explores the changing socio-cultural world in early modern South Asia, and locates the agency of the Mughal state therein.

About the Author
Farhat Hasan is Professor in Medieval and Early Modern South Asian History at the Department of History, University of Delhi. He earned his doctorate from the University of Cambridge in 1997. His book, State and Locality in Mughal India: Power Relations in Western India, c.1572-1730 was published from Cambridge University Press (Cambridge, UK) in 2004. The book was short-listed by the International Convention of Asian Scholars (ICAS), based at the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS), Leiden for the best book (on Asia) prize in the discipline of Humanities.


Book Information
ISBN 9781316516812
Author Farhat Hasan
Format Hardback
Page Count 168
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 360g
Dimensions(mm) 236mm * 157mm * 16mm