Overview

Situated at the intersections between history and literature, the book explores the life-stories written in the Mughal period to recover socio-cultural developments in the period. It focuses on the genre of life-stories and looks at the complex interactions between agency and the ruling structure in shaping historical formations. The biographical dictionaries explored in this book highlight the significance of the agency of political actors, and the strategies through which the aristocrats and the elites reproduced the political system. At the same time, these texts are also quite helpful in recovering processes through which the ordinary people, in routine, everyday forms negotiated with and contested the political system. Delving into the life-narratives preserved in the tazkiras or biographical compendia, this book looks at the household as a political formation and positions the aristocratic households as integral to the reproduction of imperial sovereignty. The work also delves into the world of emotions and argues for the need to draw linkages between political developments and shifts in emotions and affect. This book will be an essential resource for scholars and researchers of history especially early modern history, cultural studies, literature, sociology, South Asian history. It will also be of interest to those studying gender and political discourse in early modern South Asia.

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9781032991320

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Reviews

‘Focusing on the Indo-Persian tazkiras, the author looks at life-narratives as a form of history-writing, and in doing so, she enriches our understanding of the political culture and state-society interactions in early modern South Asia. She reads the biographies in her tazkiras to unravel the relations between human subjectivities and socio-political institutions, and their significance in shaping new norms of manhood and socio-cultural identities. The book is a fascinating study of the elite households in Mughal India, and while it looks at the distribution of affect and emotions therein, it also brings to light their intricate connections with imperial sovereignty.’ Prof. Farhat Hasan, Dept. of History, University of Delhi, Delhi. ‘Instead of relying on what normative historiography would concern itself with, this brilliant account, working on the intersections of history and literature, engages with life-narratives or biographies or tazkiras written in the Mughal period, and in doing so, the author underscores the agency of common people and everyday lives, which helped shape the political and social register of that period. What is most unique about this extraordinary work is what the author extrapolates from her research, namely, how the world of emotions and mentalities is a valid and compelling register through which one can examine social and political developments in the Mughal period, instead of relying on the overused categories of the state and its subjects. I can say without reserve that this is an exceptional monograph, not just for bringing to light alternative sources and archives, but also for sharply focusing on the ‘household’ as a political formation, as also for deftly outlining the attendant emotions and affects produced by them, all of which helped fashion the political and the social in the Mughal period.’ Prof. Simi Malhotra, Dept. of English, Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi. ‘In this remarkable study Shivangini Tandon draws on the elite tazkiras of 17th and 18th centuries that delineate the world of Mughal nobility and its idealized depictions of masculinity, comportment, civility and selfhood. Focusing on the intersections between individual lives, their representations, and the social-cultural norms of the time, she center-stages the noble household and its relational economy. Aristocratic men and women figure, but also slaves, concubines, dancing girls, eunuchs, merchants and more. We get a rich tapestry of the lives of those with cultural capital and political power, and those on its fringes who both amplify and limit the power of their social superiors.’ Prof. Anshu Malhotra, Chair, Department of Global Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA. ‘Modern historiography of medieval India has long used written texts as innocent careers of information, irrespective of genre-specific conventions and specificities. Tandon’s work builds on recent trends that respects the integrity of a text and tries to refrain from reducing it into a mere ‘source’. She attempts a nuanced reading of three of the more important biographical anthologies (tazkiras) of the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries. Instead of the usual narratives framed in abstract categories like peasantry and nobility, the author’s focus on individual experiences (as recorded in the tazkiras) gives the reader of her work a glimpse into the lived and everyday character of the power relations that sustained and animated institutions like the household, the royal court and the state.’ Prof. Pankaj Jha, Dept. of History, Lady Shri Ram College for Women, University of Delhi, Delhi & Managing Editor, The Indian Economic and Social History Review.

Author Information

Shivangini Tandon is working as an Assistant Professor of History in Women’s College, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India. Her research interests include early modern South Asian history, feminist theory and questions of culture and language.

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