Contributed articles.

This Volume Is A Tribute To The Great Service Rendered To Historiography By One Of The Most Outstanding Historians Of Our Times, Prof. Dr. K.S. Mathew, Who Is Celebrating His Sixty-Second Birthday This Year. His Colleagues, Friends, Students And Admirers All Over The World Have Made Use Of This Opportunity To Express Their Solidarity With Him By Contributing Scholarly Articles, Which Ake This Volume A Rich Collection Of Research Papers On Indo-European History, For Which Prof.Mathew Has Spent His Whole Life-Time And Continues To Do So. The Portuguese , Indian Ocean And European Expansion Form The Three Major Thematic Areas On Which He Concentrated His Academic Researches For More Than Three Decades And Hence The Felicitation Volume Has Taken This Wider Thematic Frame. Most Of The Articles Are By Renowned Historians Who Are Part Of The New Historiographical School Which Tries To Explode The Various Myths Regarding The European Expansion In The East And Attempts To Reconstruct The European Activities In India In An Objective And Scientific Way, Where Indo-Centric Dimensions Are Given The Focus.

The subject of maritime and oceanic history comprises a large corpus and includes related thematic engagements such as the history of overseas exploration and expansion, navalmilitary history, shipping, port cities, the role of migrations and cross-cultural processes. This extensive field of enquiry also focuses upon the study of littoral societies or the coastal regions, in understanding the influence of the ocean upon these lands. The interface between the land and the sea, with its several ecological and topographical variations, has played an important role in determining human activity, the settlement patterns and material culture in the coastal regions, which taken together constitute huge masses of territories in all continents. The general pattern of existence and the rhythm of life in all these dissociated regions, however, had considerable commonality, due to the overwhelming impact of the two dominant elements-water and land-in shaping the destinies of its inhabitants. Coastal societies have their own particular notion of identity and ambience, which differentiates them from the extensive continental zones. It is in this context, that coastal territories and their histories constitute an interesting theme of enquiry. The present volume examines a number of themes pertaining to different coastal regions of India: coastal ecology, commercial crops, transmission of diseases, fortifications, port hierarchy, new port towns, vessels and boats, fishing communities, social life of women, etc. It should be of interest to students and scholars of maritime history of India.

In this stimulating and authoritative overview, Michael Pearson reverses the traditional angle of maritime history and looks from the sea to its shores - its impact on the land through trade, naval power, travel and scientific exploration. This vast ocean, both connecting and separating nations, has shaped many countries' cultures and ideologies through the movement of goods, people, ideas and religions across the sea. The Indian Ocean moves from a discussion of physical elements, its shape, winds, currents and boundaries, to a history from pre-Islamic times to the modern period of European dominance. Going far beyond pure maritime history, this compelling survey is an invaluable addition to political, cultural and economic world history.

This volume discusses the various socio-economic and political processes that evolved over centuries in the vast coastal fringes of India and out of the circuits of the Indian Ocean, ultimately giving it the distinctive consciousness and identity of Maritime India. The book comments on a wide range of issues, including the nature of maritime trade of the Sassanids with India; the impact of maritime trade on the political processes of Goa; the impact of Portuguese commercial expansion on the traditional Muslim merchants of Kerala and the role of private traders in the structure and the functioning of Estado da India.

This book employs a wide range of perspectives to demonstrate how the East India Company facilitated cross-cultural interactions between the English and various groups in South Asia between 1600 to 1857 and how these interactions transformed important features of both British and South Asian history. Rather than viewing the Company as an organization projecting its authority from London to India, the volume shows how the Company’s history and its broader historical significance can best be understood by appreciating the myriad ways in which these interactions shaped the Company’s story and altered the course of history. Bringing together the latest research and several case studies, the work includes examinations of the formulation of economic theory, the development of corporate strategy, the mechanics of state finance, the mapping of maritime jurisdiction, the government and practice of religions, domesticity, travel, diplomacy, state formation, art, gift-giving, incarceration, and rebellion. Together, the essays will advance the understanding of the peculiarly corporate features of cross-cultural engagement during a crucial early phase of globalization. Insightful and lucid, this volume will be useful to scholars and researchers of modern history, South Asian studies, economic history, and political studies.

An enthralling journey through 2,000 years of India’s steadfast relations with the seas. The Indian Ocean world’s significance in human history is impossible to dismiss. The 1,000-odd kilometres of the subcontinent’s coastline – which underpinned some of the world’s greatest empires and shaped countless human lives – therefore make for the perfect dock from which to embark on a journey through the centuries for a vital reappraisal of India’s history. In this eye-opening book, noted historian Radhika Seshan sets out to map our age-old connections with the seas, tracing maritime linkages from the Harappan period all the way to the long colonial era. Her re-examination of India’s past through the prism of water reveals the extent to which this conduit enabled trade and the movement of people, often leading to the establishment of crucial ports, communities, kingdoms and empires. The Chola, Chalukya and Vijayanagar empires, historic ports such as Muziris and Bharuch and accounts of travellers, explorers, merchants and monarchs who frequented India’s shores are explored here in vivid detail, with the sea providing a riveting backdrop of adventure, migration, invasion and rich cultural networks. While the arrival of the Europeans, the subsequent Raj and their consolidation of terrestrial networks marked the gradual decline of our maritime dominance, the seas hold sway over our geopolitics even today. Combining scholarly rigour with a storyteller’s flair, Empires of the Sea presents India afresh as a nation of pluralities made possible by virtue of its long-standing maritime relations with the world at large.

This is a clear account, written from an Indian point of view, of Portuguese activities in India.

The Portuguese were the first European imperial power in Asia. Dr. Pearson's volume of the History is a clear account of their activities in India and the Indian Ocean from the sixteenth century onwards that is written squarely from an Indian point of view. Laying particular stress on social, economic, and religious interaction between Portuguese and Indians, the author argues that the Portuguese had a more limited impact on everyday life in India than is sometimes supposed. Their imperial effort was characterized more by reciprocity and interaction than by an unilateral imposition of Portuguese mores and political structures.

(Dis)connected Empires takes the reader on a global journey to explore the triangle formed during the sixteenth century between the Portuguese empire, the empire of Kotte in Sri Lanka, and the Catholic Monarchy of the Spanish Habsburgs. It explores nine decades of connections, cross-cultural diplomacy, and dialogue, to answer one troubling question: why, in the end, did one side decide to conquer the other? To find the answer, Biedermann explores the imperial ideas that shaped the politics of Renaissance Iberia and sixteenth-century Sri Lanka. (Dis)connected Empires argues that, whilst some of these ideas and the political idioms built around them were perceived as commensurate by the various parties involved, differences also emerged early on. This prepared the ground for a new kind of conquest politics, which changed the inter-imperial game at the end of the sixteenth century. The transition from suzerainty-driven to sovereignty-fixated empire-building changed the face of Lankan and Iberian politics forever, and is of relevance to global historians at large. Through its scrutiny of diplomacy, political letter-writing, translation practices, warfare, cartography, and art, (Dis)connected Empires paints a troubling panorama of connections breeding divergence and leading to communicational collapse. It examines a key chapter in the pre-history of British imperialism in Asia, highlighting how diplomacy and mutual understandings can, under certain conditions, produce conquest.