The period 1858-1914 on which this book focuses, comprises several disparate and localized struggles which are significant in revealing wider unities that existed among the peasantry. Hardiman first traces changing trends in the way the peasantry has been viewed by historians, from the colonial era to recent times. He then emphasizes the "community" consciousness of peasants, which is then redefined within the context of their specific struggle. He thus demarcates particular areas of resistance based on specific relationships of domination and subordination, each with a distinct character and chronology. Each localized, isolated resistance is thus unified in being directed against those outside the peasant community.

My dissertation identifies four major parties in a feudal society: the ruler, the ruler's bureaucratic agents (local governments), the lords, and the peasants. In the context of Feudal China, the dissertation focuses on the landlord-peasant relationship and the landlord-local government relationship, while treating the ruler-lord relationship as exogenous.

Addressing an important gap in the historiography of modern Assam, this book traces the relatively unexplored but profound transformations in the agrarian landscape of late- and post-colonial Assam that were instrumental in the making of modern Assamese peasantry and rural politics. It discusses the changing relations between various sections of peasantry, state, landed gentry, and politics of different ideological hues — nationalist, communist and socialist — and shows how a primarily agrarian question concerning peasantry came to occupy the centre stage in the nationalist politics of the state. It will especially interest scholars of history, agrarian and peasant studies, sociology, and contemporary politics, as also those concerned with Northeast India.

An ambitious comparative study of regime consolidation in the 'revolutionary' People's Republic of China and 'conservative' Taiwan in the early 1950s.