Contributed articles on history of the study of India in the United States and contributions of the study of India to various academic disciplines.

The Republic of India is the second most populous, the seventh largest by geographical area, and has the fourth largest economy in terms of purchasing power parity in the world. While it has always been an important country, it has often been neglected. Of late, however, there has been much talk of the 'new' India, one with greater economic dynamism, a more active foreign policy, and the emergence of a huge middle class. With over a hundred new cross-referenced dictionary entries-the majority of which pertain to the last decade-and updating others, the second edition of the Historical Dictionary of India illustrates the rapidly evolving situation without neglecting the country's ancient past. The chronology has been brought up to date, the introduction expanded, and the bibliography includes numerous new titles.

Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Table of Contents -- Introduction -- Prologue -- Part I Genesis of a Learned Milieu -- 1. The conquest of scholarly legitimacy -- 2. Orientalism and prophetic discourse -- 3. The struggle for institutional autonomy -- Part II Scholars and Prophets -- 4. The field of production of discourses on India -- 5. Scholarly practice -- 6. Prophetic Logic -- 7. Study of Hinduism as a disciplinary issue -- Part III Social Science and Indigenous Science -- 8. Louis Dumont and the Brahmanical science -- 9. Louis Dumont and the cunning of reason -- 10. The avatars of scholarship on India -- Conclusion: Sociology put to the test of India -- Postscript: Notes on the construction of a research subject -- Postface to the English-Language Edition -- Appendix. Multi Correspondence Analysis -- List of documents, tables and diagrams -- Sources and Bibliography -- General Index -- Names Index

The contemporary status of the eight South Asian nations was determined by the creation of the British Indian empire and the process of decolonization. This book by the late Ainslie T. Embree is an insightful exploration of how the boundaries of these states were created between 1757 and 1857. During these one hundred years, political and military developments in the Indian subcontinent made a significant impact upon the definition of borders as they (almost) exist today. The narrative begins after Aurangzeb’s death, when vast areas of the Mughal Empire were taken over by regional powers, following which the East India Company swiftly expanded its territory, thus altering the boundaries of the region. Embree explores the meaning of ‘boundaries’ and ‘frontiers’; while the British stressed on ‘natural frontiers’, those shaped by natural landscapes, there was also the French sense of ‘natural borders’, which represented state borders reflecting social composition. Artfully written, with a careful examination of archival materials from England and India, this book reveals the colonial and local interests at work while modern states were carved into being.

India’s anticipated rise to prominence in what has been termed the ‘Asian 21st century’ will have a significant impact upon geopolitics in the coming decades. As India’s stature continues to increase across Asia and the world, appreciating which interests and principles structure the country’s international interaction has never been more important. Central to these dynamics is how India’s identity – and the longstanding values, principles and practices underpinning it – acts as the paramount factor that deeply structures the conduct of its international affairs. Acknowledging this centrality, this edited volume uses this factor as its foremost theme of analysis through which to understand and analyse India’s most important regional, great power and diplomatic interactions. Not only providing a mechanism better to appreciate the historical foundations of these relationships, the focus on identity is also necessary to appreciate how the Hindu nationalism of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) under the leadership of Narendra Modi is now permeating Indian diplomacy. For the BJP, the pursuit – and attainment – of global influence and heightened status is the driving imperative of the BJP with regard to India’s contemporary international affairs. Chapter 6 of this book is available for free in PDF format as Open Access from the individual product page at www.taylorfrancis.com. It has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

This important and timely volume not only explores the many strands and nuances of the chequered course of Indo-US relations, but offers pragmatic policy recommendations. The original essays by reputed scholars and analysts cover a wide range of fundamental issues affecting bilateral relations. The contributors maintain that the rapidly growing rapprochement between India and the United States could have far-reaching implications for peace and progress throughout Asia.

Under the cultural turn and transformation the new intellectual discourses started in the 21st century to search the roots, have cross-cultural comparison and to see how the old traditions be used in the contemporary worldviews. This book is the first attempt dealing with roots of Indian geographical thoughts since its beginning in 1920. It emphasises identity of India and Indianness and consciousness among dweller geographers in India, development and status of geography and its recent trends, Gaia theory and Indian context in search of cosmic integrity, ecospirituality and global message towards interrelatedness, Hindu pilgrimages and its contemporary importance, Mahatma Gandhi and his contribution to sustainable environmental development for global peace and humanism, and new vision to see meeting grounds of the East and the West on the line of reconstruction and reconciliation in the globalising world. These essays are selective and thematic, therefore overall view of comprehensiveness is lacking. But this book is not the end; obviously it is a beginning as already other volumes in sequence and continuity are in progress. At the end, the lead essays, representative of the three eras, by Spate (1956), Sopher (1973), and Mukerji (1992) are reprinted with a view to assessing the relevance of their challenging message even today.