Frank F. Conlon

Explorations in the History of South Asia: Essays in Honour of Dietmar Rothermund . Edited by Georg Berkemer, Tilman Frash, Hermann Kulke, and Jurgan Lutt. New Delhi: Manohar, 2001. 417 pp.

Explorations in the History of South Asia assembles a wide-ranging collection of articles written in honour of one of the outstanding historians of India, Dietmar Rotheremund. The essays reflect the span of Rothermunds academic productivity. The first part which is dedicated to Indias foreign relations, not only with Germany, but also with her neighbours in the Indian Ocean, is followed by a close look at the relationship between states, courts and religion in premodern contexts. The third part contains articles on Indias colonial experience, while the fourth focuses on developments of the post-colonial states, tackling questions of identity, nationhood and political movements. This volume has contributions by C S Mohanavelu, M Mann, J H Voigt, R Ptak, A Das Gupta, O Prakash, H Kulke, T Frasch, R Chakravarti, G Berkemer, M Horstmann, J K Bautz, A R Kulkarni, M M Islam, R E Frykenberg, K McPherson, A Satyanarayana, J Malik, H Fischer-Tine, B Dahm, M Roberts, P S Ghosh, D Hellmann-Rajanayagam, I Baloch, S K Mitra and D Conrad. Published in association with South Asia Institute, New Delhi Branch.

Modernity and Culture from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean, 1890–1920: Fawaz, Leila Tarazi, and C. A. Bayly, eds.: New York: Columbia University Press 410 pp., Publication Date: May 2001

Modernity and Culture ,from the Mediterrutiean to the Indian Ocean, 189CL1920 is a path-breaking collection of essays examining aspects of the history of the Middle East and South Asia from about I880 to 1920. The product of three conferences, attended by many famous scholars working on the two regions, the volume is a major contribution to thc growing field of comparative history. In the words of the editors, Leila Tarazi Fawaz and C.A. Bayly: “to have meaning, comparative history must also be a history of connections; history, to distinguish itself from among other disciplines needs to account for change” ( I 6). Building on knowledge derived in the area .studies regime, Fawaz and Bayly sought to overcome the regional isolation that can be inherent in scholarship focused on a single world region. Fawaz and Bayly review critiques of area studies in academic research and teaching, noting the limits of the several sides of an ongoing dehate. This volume is clearly intended to move in a new direction, seeking “to prcscrvc and enhance the considerable gains in knowledge and theory that the area studies literature . . . represented” (h) , but to apply these to new concerns with globalization and identity formations. Themes of convergence and divergence are highlighted in both the introduction and several of the essays. Essays include studies of the Red Sea and its ports-the cities of Basra, Damascus, Aleppo, Haifa. Alexandria, and Izmir (Smyrna-illuminating various dynamics of change and continuity. The absence of similar studies in the Indian Ocean world is only partially remedied by Kenneth McPherson’s survcy of port cities as nodes of change. Studies of Ottoman reform, journalism in Istanbul and Cairo, and printing in Cairo offer insights, but not perhaps aimed only at South Asia. C. A. Bayly’s study comparing colonial views of Copts in Egypt and Muslims in India and Susan Bayly’s highly suggestive analysis of French and British readings of racial identity both explicitly contribute to a comparative

On Finding “Certaine Habitation” For South Asian History—A Review Symposium on A Historical Atlas of South Asia

The publication of A Historical Atlas of South Asia , edited by Joseph E. Schwartzberg, represents a major achievement of modern scholarship on South Asia. Its maps and text offer useful perspectives on important geographical and historical relationships in the subcontinent. The geographer, Rhoads Murphey, the archaeologist, Gregory L. Possehl, the economist, Morris D. Morris, and three historians, N. Gerald Barrier, Richard J. Cohen, and John F. Richards present a set of critical essays on the Atlas , emphasizing its many contributions in their fields of interest and identifying subject areas in which they wished there had been more extensive coverage. The symposium is edited and introduced by Frank F. Conlon.