This book presents, in a single volume, a selection of the most important interpretations in current times, exploring and reassessing the nature and pace of change in India in the eighteenth century. A distinguished roster of contributors and a comprehensive collection of essays makes this book a must-read for historians, political analysts, students and non-specialist readers interested in the period.

• Acknowledgements


• Introduction


• Part 1: General Assessments of the Eighteenth Century


• The Problem of the Eighteenth Century


• Eighteenth-century India: Another View


• Recent Theories of Eighteenth-century India


• The Eighteenth Century in Indian Economic History


• Part II: The Post-Mughal Order


• Political Systems in Eighteenth-century India: The Banaras Region


• The Rise of the Corporations


• Eastern India in the Early Eighteenth-century 'Crisis': Some Evidence from Bihar


• The South Indian State and the Creation of Muslim Community


• Kinship and Pargana in Eighteenth-century Khandesh


• Assertion


• Being Jangli:The Politics of Wildness


• Tributary State


• Part III: The European Intrusion


• Introduction: The Twilight of Mughal Bengal


• Prospective: Aristocracy, Finance and
  Empire, 1688-1850


• Part IV: The New British Order


• The Agrarian Economy and the Dynamics of Commercial Transactions


• Notes on Contributors