Reading List for the First Session

The following is the complete reading list for the first session of the Medieval History Club. Of these, under-graduate students will be discussing the first seven, pertaining to the history of the Indian subcontinent. The last five readings, concerned with periodisation of history outside India, will be presented by post-graduate and research students. The discussions on these readings will be preceeded by introduction of the theme to the students by professors Shireen Maswood and Uttara Chakraborty.

1.  Javed Majeed, James Mill’s ‘History of British India’ and Utilitarianism as a Rhetoric of Reform’, Modern Asian Studies, vol. 24, no. 2, 1990, pp. 209-224.

2.  Romila Thapar, ‘Interpretations of Ancient Indian History’, History and Theory, vol. 7, no. 3, 1968, pp. 318-335. 

3.  R.S. Sharma, ‘Problem of Transition from Ancient to Medieval in Indian History’, Indian Historical Journal, vol. 1, 1974, pp. 1-9.

4.  Brajadulal Chattopadhyay, ‘Introduction: The Making of Early Medieval India’, in Brajadulal Chattopadhyay, The Making of Early Medieval India, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1994, pp. 1-37.

5.  M. Athar Ali, ‘Encounter and Efflorescence: Genesis of the Medieval Civilization’, Social Scientist, vol. 18, no. 1/2, 1990, pp. 13-28; reprinted in M. Athar Ali, Mughal India: Studies in Polity, Ideas, Society and Culture, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2008, pp. 12-30.

6.  Sanjay Subrahmanyam, ‘Connected Histories: A Note towards a Reconfiguration of Early Modern Eurasia’, Modern Asian Studies, vol. 31, no. 3, 1997, pp. 735-762.

7.  John F. Richards, ‘Early Modern India and World History’, Journal of World History, vol. 8, no. 2, 1997, pp. 197-209.

8.  Meribeth E. Cameron, ‘The Periodisation of Chinese History’, Pacific Historical Review, vol. 15, no. 2, 1946, pp. 171-177.

9.  Nicola Di Cosmo, ‘State-Formation and Periodization in Inner Asian History’, Journal of World History, vol. 10, no. 1, 1999, pp. 1-40.

10. S.D. Goitein, ‘A Plea for the Periodization of Islamic History’, Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 88, no. 2, 1968, pp. 224-228.

11. Dietrich Gerhard, ‘Periodization in European History’, The American Historical Review, vol. 61, no. 4, 1956, pp. 900-913.

12. William A. Green, ‘Periodization in European and World History’, Journal of World History, vol. 3, no. 1, 1992, pp. 13-53.