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A review by rhys_thomas_sparey
India in the Persianate Age, 1000–1765 by Richard M. Eaton
informative
slow-paced
5.0
This took me a lifetime to read, not because it is written poorly by any means, but because I mistook it for a work of popular non-fiction, when it is in truth an academic tome. But what an impressive tome. 'India in the Persianate Age, 1000-1765' is tremendous in scope, microscopically detailing the epic clash of two great civilizations that would culminate in Contemporary India: Persian and Sanskrit.
Two historians pose small but useful criticisms worth remembering when reading it: Katherine Schofield notes that the Persianate Age continued way past 1765 and Karen Ruffle fears that a focus on language as a vehicle of cultural diffusion in characterising India's troublesome Middle Period sidelines religion, which was also hugely influential in determining the prevailing worldviews of the time.
Despite the five-star rating, I share these concerns. Nevertheless, it remains my favourite history of Mughal India yet. It is vivid and immense, improving greatly on deeply racist accounts of the Mughal Emperors as instigators and overseers of an Islamic dark age. In contrast, Eaton evidences how religious diversity thrived and advances made in the second millenium resulted in the sub-continent's global pre-eminence and catalysed its modernity.
Perhaps, this book can form the basis of a narrative of the religious intersubjectivity that no doubt inheres in the interpercolation of the Sanskritic and Persianate worlds and further highlights the absurd and tragic irony of Hindu Nationalism that suppresses Muslim culture in India today.
Two historians pose small but useful criticisms worth remembering when reading it: Katherine Schofield notes that the Persianate Age continued way past 1765 and Karen Ruffle fears that a focus on language as a vehicle of cultural diffusion in characterising India's troublesome Middle Period sidelines religion, which was also hugely influential in determining the prevailing worldviews of the time.
Despite the five-star rating, I share these concerns. Nevertheless, it remains my favourite history of Mughal India yet. It is vivid and immense, improving greatly on deeply racist accounts of the Mughal Emperors as instigators and overseers of an Islamic dark age. In contrast, Eaton evidences how religious diversity thrived and advances made in the second millenium resulted in the sub-continent's global pre-eminence and catalysed its modernity.
Perhaps, this book can form the basis of a narrative of the religious intersubjectivity that no doubt inheres in the interpercolation of the Sanskritic and Persianate worlds and further highlights the absurd and tragic irony of Hindu Nationalism that suppresses Muslim culture in India today.