What China and India once were : the pasts that may shape the global future /

What China and India once were : the pasts that may shape the global future / edited by Sheldon Pollock and Benjamin Elman. - New York : Columbia University Press, (c)2018. - 1 online resource (viii, 365 pages) : illustrations, maps

Includes bibliographies and index.

Life and energy / Conquest, rulership, and the state / Gender systems: The exotic Asian and other fallacies / Relating the past: Writing (and re-writing) history / Sorting out babel: Literature and its changing languages / Big science: Classicism and conquest / Pilgrims in search of religion / Art and vision: Varieties of world-making / Kenneth Pomeranz and Sumit Guha -- Pamela Crossley and Richard M. Eaton -- Beverly Bossler and Ruby Lal -- Cynthia Brokaw and Allison Busch -- Stephen Owen and Sheldon Pollock -- Benjamin Elman and Christopher Minkowski -- Zvi Ben-Dor Benite and Richard H. Davis -- Eugene Wang and Molly Aitken.

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.



9780231545624

2018022232


Electronic Books.

DS421 / .W438 2018