Paper, performance, and the state : social change and the political culture in Mughal India / Farhat Hasan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hasan, Farhat, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

State, The.

Mughal Empire--Politics and government.

Mughal Empire.

India--History--1526-1765.

India.

Mughal Empire--History.

India--Politics and government--997-1765.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xi, 155 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2021.

Summary:

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.

Contents:

Property and social relations : litigations and disputes at the Qāzi's court

Law as contested communication : literacy, performativity, and the legal order

Embodiment, sensoriality, and the public sphere : shifting popular perceptions of the state

State formation from below : authority and culture in micro-spaces

Towards a conclusion : the project of the nation-state and the Mughal historian.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 06 Aug 2021).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-009-03244-5

1-009-02525-2

OCLC:

1273974118