Land and Sovereignty in India: Agrarian Society and Politics under the Eighteenth Century Maratha Svarajya

This original contribution to Indian history, focusing on contemporary and largely indigenous documents, introduces a new set of concepts for the analysis of late Mughal rule. More specifically it examines the origins and development of the Maratha svardjya or 'self rule' within the context of declining Muslim power. It traces the expansion of Maratha dominion to a process of fitna, a policy of 'shifting alliances' which was recurrent in the wake of Muslim expansion throughout its history. The book gives an interesting perspective on Hindu-Muslim relationships in the pre-British period as well as on the nature of the Indo-Muslim state and its most important successor polity, on its capacity for change and development in the intermediate sections of society, the land-tenurial system, the monetisation of the economy, and on the fiscal system.Wink, Andre is the author of 'Land and Sovereignty in India: Agrarian Society and Politics under the Eighteenth Century Maratha Svarajya' with ISBN 9780521320641 and ISBN 052132064X.