Read more
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.
List of contents
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.
About the author
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.
Summary
This book focuses on the relation between technology, warfare, and state in South Asia in the 18th and the 19th centuries. It explores how gunpowder and artillery played a pivotal role in the military ascendancy of the East India Company in India.
