What China and India Once Were : The Pasts That May Shape the Global Future / Benjamin Elman, Sheldon Pollock.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Elman, Benjamin A., 1946- editor.

Pollock, Sheldon I., editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

India--History.

India.

China--History.

China.

India--Social life and customs.

China--Social life and customs.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (viii, 365 pages) : illustrations, maps

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Columbia University Press, [2018]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

In the early years of the twenty-first century, China and India have emerged as world powers. In many respects, this is a return to the historical norm for both countries. For much of the early modern period, China and India were global leaders in a variety of ways. In this book, prominent scholars seek to understand modern China and India through an unprecedented comparative analysis of their long histories.Using new sources, making new connections, and reexamining old assumptions, noted scholars of China and India pair up in each chapter to tackle major questions by combining their expertise. What China and India Once Were details how these two cultural giants arrived at their present state, considers their commonalities and divergences, assesses what is at stake in their comparison, and, more widely, questions whether European modernity provides useful contrasts. In jointly composed chapters, contributors explore ecology, polity, gender relations, religion, literature, science and technology, and more, to provide the richest comparative account ever offered of China and India before the modern era. What China and India Once Were establishes innovative frameworks for understanding the historical and cultural roots of East and South Asia in global context, drawing on the variety of Asian pasts to offer new ways of thinking about Asian presents.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments

Maps

Introduction / Elman, Benjamin / Pollock, Sheldon

PART I

I. Life and Energy / Guha, Sumit / Pomeranz, Kenneth

II. Conquest, Rulership, and the State / Crossley, Pamela / Eaton, Richard M.

III. Gender Systems: The Exotic Asian and Other Fallacies / Bossler, Beverly / Lal, Ruby

PART II

IV. Relating the Past: Writing (and Rewriting) History / Brokaw, Cynthia / Busch, Allison

V. Sorting Out Babel: Literature and Its Changing Languages / Owen, Stephen / Pollock, Sheldon

PART III

VI. Big Science: Classicism and Conquest / Elman, Benjamin / Minkowski, Christopher

VII. Pilgrims in Search of Religion / Benite, Zvi Ben-Dor / Davis, Richard H.

VIII. Art and Vision. Varieties of World Making / Aitken, Molly / Wang, Eugene

Afterword. The Act of Comparing (Both Sides, Now) / Chakrabarty, Dipesh / Saussy, Haun

Chronology

Chinese and Indian Terms

Contributors

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 07. Dez 2018)

ISBN:

9780231545624

0231545622

OCLC:

1035228176