Naukar, Rajput, and sepoy : the ethnohistory of the military labour market in Hindustan, 1450-1850

Bibliographic Information

Naukar, Rajput, and sepoy : the ethnohistory of the military labour market in Hindustan, 1450-1850

Dirk H.A. Kolff

(University of Cambridge Oriental publications, no. 43)

Cambridge University Press, c1990

Available at  / 19 libraries

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Note

Originally presented as the author's thesis (Ph. D.--Leiden University, 1983) under title: An armed peasantry and its allies : Rajput tradition and state formation, 1450-1850

Includes bibliographical references (p. 200-212) and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

This is a study of an aspect of the ethnohistory of North Indian peasant society: the importance of its military labour market for state and sect formation, for social change as well as for the energetic survival strategies of the villages of Hindustan. It traces the history of the British Indian sepoy to at least as far back as the fifteenth century, firmly rooting him in India's medieval past. It also shows that, from the anthropological point of view, not the hierarchically arranged castes, but the multiple alliances and fluid identities of the peasantry were the central phenomena of North Indian politics and decision making.

Table of Contents

  • Preface
  • List of abbreviations
  • Glossary
  • 1. Beyond the control of the state
  • 2. A Warlord's fresh attempt at empire
  • 3. The Rajput of pre-Mughal North India
  • 4. Politics and entrepreneurship of a 'spurious' Rajput clan
  • 5. Bhojpuri soldiering and the vicissitudes of Empire
  • Epilogue
  • Bibliography
  • Index.

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