Naukar, Rajput, and Sepoy
The Ethnohistory of the Military Labour Market of Hindustan, 1450–1850
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Cambridge University Press
Published:17th May '90
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
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- Paperback£39.99(9780521523059)
This book firmly roots the history of the British Indian sepoy in India'a medieval past.
This book studies the importance of North India's military labour market for state and sect formation, social change and the survival strategies of Hindustani villages, and shows how North Indian politics and decision making reflected the multiple alliances and fluid identities of the peasantry.This is a study of an aspect of the ethnohistory of North Indian peasant society: the importance of its military labour market for state and sect formation, for social change as well as for the energetic survival strategies of the villages of Hindustan. It traces the history of the British Indian sepoy to at least as far back as the fifteenth century, firmly rooting him in India's medieval past. It also shows that, from the anthropological point of view, not the hierarchically arranged castes, but the multiple alliances and fluid identities of the peasantry were the central phenomena of North Indian politics and decision making.
""Naukar", Rajput and Sepoy challenges long-held assumptions about the nature of military power and peasant society in northern India before British ascendance. It will add to our knowledge of Indian state formation and to the growing body of scholarship questioning the historical pervasiveness of caste in Indian society." Journal of Asian History
"...the argument that military free agency, or naukari, was an important career alternative for late medieval Indian peasants is compelling and energetically sculpted, making this a welcome addition to the social and economic history of South Asia." Richard B. Barnett, The International History Review
ISBN: 9780521381321
Dimensions: 224mm x 145mm x 21mm
Weight: 408g
236 pages