Empire and Gunpowder

Military Industrialisation and Ascendancy of the East India Company in India, 1757-1856
1. Auflage 2022
ISBN: 978-1-032-13269-3
Verlag: Routledge India

Buch, Englisch, 214 Seiten, Format (B × H): 161 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 493 g

Reihe: War and Society in South Asia

This book focuses on the relation between technology, warfare and state in South Asia in the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries. It explores how gunpowder and artillery played a pivotal role in the military ascendancy of the East India Company in India.

The monograph argues that the contemporary Indian military landscape was extremely dynamic, with contemporary indigenous polities (Mysore, the Maratha Confederacy and the Khalsa Kingdom) attempting to transform their military systems by modelling their armies on European lines. It shows how the Company established an edge through an efficient bureaucracy and a standardised manufacturing system, while the Indian powers primarily focused on continuous innovation and failed to introduce standardisation of production.

Drawing on archival records from India and the UK, this volume makes a significant intervention in our understanding of the rise of the British Empire in South Asia. It will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of history, especially military history, military and strategic studies and South Asian studies.

Zielgruppe

Postgraduate

Autoren/Hrsg.

Chowdhury, Moumita

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Stadt- und Regionalsoziologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Militärgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften Interdisziplinär Regionalwissenschaften, Regionalstudien
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Asiatische Geschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction 1. Weapons, Armies, Warfare and Polities in Pre-British India 2. The Character of the East India Company’s Army 3. Production of Gunpowder in India, 1757–1856 4. Production of Cannon in India, 1757–1856 5. Production of Gun Carriages in India, 1757–1856 6. Artillery and the Military-Fiscal State in India, 1757–1856 7. Changing Dynamics of Warfare in India, 1757–1856. Conclusion. Bibliography.

Über Autor(innen)

Moumita Chowdhury is an independent scholar. Chowdhury received her PhD from the Department of History, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India. She was awarded the Fellowship for Research in Military History by the History Division, Ministry of Defence, India, from 2016 to 2019. She also received the Charles Wallace Short Term Fellowship in 2018.

Her research interest lies in South Asian and global military history. Her work explores the relation between warfare, technology and state building in India during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.