About Dhara Anjaria

NBN Episodes hosted by Dhara:

Justin Jones, "Shi'a Islam in Colonial India: Religion, Community and Sectarianism" (Cambridge UP, 2012)

May 17, 2013

Shi'a Islam in Colonial India

Justin Jones
Hosted by Dhara Anjaria

Justin Jones' book, Shi'a Islam in Colonial India: Religion, Community and Sectarianism (Cambridge University Press, 2012) is all about Lucknow, and c…

Markus Vink, "Mission to Madurai: Dutch Embassies to the Nayaka Court in the Seventeenth Century" (Manohar, 2012)

November 18, 2012

Mission to Madurai

Markus Vink
Hosted by Dhara Anjaria

Presenting- and being granted an audience- at the court of a foreign potentate was the way to gain legitimacy, acceptance, and often, protection to be…

Andrew Muldoon, "Empire, Politics and the Creation of the 1935 India Act: Last Act of the Raj" (Ashgate, 2009)

October 13, 2012

Empire, Politics and the Creation of the 1935 India Act

Andrew Muldoon
Hosted by Dhara Anjaria

It was the last in a long line of 'Acts' designed to ensure better colonial governance for the Indian sub-continent. It was an Act which was vociferou…

Carolien Stolte, "Philip Angel's Deex-Autaers: Vaisnava Mythology from Manuscript to Book Market in the Context of the Dutch East India Company, c. 1600-1672 (New Delhi: Manohar, 2012)

August 25, 2012

Philip Angel's Deex-Autaers

Carolien Stolte
Hosted by Dhara Anjaria

In 1658, a Dutch East India Company merchant by the name of Philip Angel presented a gift manuscript to Company Director Carel Hartsinck. It was inten…

Donna Landry, "Noble Brutes: How Eastern Horses Transformed English Culture" (John Hopkins UP, 2009)

June 9, 2012

Noble Brutes

Donna Landry
Hosted by Dhara Anjaria

This is a book about horses. Donna Landry's Noble Brutes: How Eastern Horses Transformed English Culture (The John Hopkins University Press, 2009) is …

Susan Harris, "God's Arbiters: Americans and the Philippines, 1898-1902" (Oxford UP, 2011)

May 22, 2012

God's Arbiters

Susan Harris
Hosted by Dhara Anjaria

Mark Twain called it "pious hypocrisies." President McKinley called it "civilizing and Christianizing." Both were referring to the U.S. annexation of …

Peter Robb, "Richard Blechynden's Calcutta Diaries, 1791-1822" (Oxford UP, 2011)

April 18, 2012

Richard Blechynden's Calcutta Diaries, 1791-1822

Peter Robb
Hosted by Dhara Anjaria

Richard Blechynden came to Calcutta in 1782 as a twenty two year old, and stayed there for the rest of his life, working as a surveyor and architect. …

Nabil Matar and Gerald MacLean, "Britain and the Islamic World, 1558-1713" (Oxford UP, 2011)

March 14, 2012

Britain and the Islamic World, 1558-1713

Nabil Matar and Gerald MacLean
Hosted by Dhara Anjaria

Nineteenth-century observers would say that the British Empire was an Islamic one; be that as it may, before Empire there was trade- and lots of it. N…

Jeff Sahadeo, "Russian Colonial Society in Tashkent, 1865-1903" (Indiana UP, 2010)

March 8, 2012

Russian Colonial Society in Tashkent, 1865-1903

Jeff Sahadeo
Hosted by Dhara Anjaria

Konstantin von Kaufmann, Governor-General of Russian Turkestan from 1867 until his death in 1882, wanted to be buried in Tashkent if he died in office…

Marcus Franke, "War and Nationalism in South Asia: The Indian State and the Nagas" (Routledge, 2011)

February 21, 2012

War and Nationalism in South Asia

Marcus Franke
Hosted by Dhara Anjaria

North East India is, as Marcus Franke's War and Nationalism in South Asia: The Indian State and the Nagas (Routledge, 2011) all too convincingly demon…

Diane Kirkby and Catherine Coleborne, "Law, History, Colonialism: The Reach of Empire" (Manchester UP, 2011)

February 7, 2012

Law, History, Colonialism

Diane Kirkby and Catherine Coleborne
Hosted by Dhara Anjaria

English common law is prevalent across large parts of the world; and all thanks to the British Empire. It was not just culture and commerce that came …

Eugenia Herbert, "Flora's Empire: British Gardens in India" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2011)

December 16, 2011

Flora's Garden

Eugenia Herbert
Hosted by Dhara Anjaria

Horticulture is not an activity normally associated with Empire building. But Eugenia Herbert's book Flora's Empire: British Gardens in India (Philade…

Philip Stern, "The Company-State: Corporate Sovereignty and the Early Modern Foundations of the British Empire in India" (Oxford UP, 2011)

November 30, 2011

The Company-State

Philip Stern
Hosted by Dhara Anjaria

'Traders to rulers' is an enduring caption insofar as the English East India Company is concerned. But were they ever just traders to start off with, …

Alexander Morrison, "Russian Rule in Samarkand, 1868-1910: A Comparison with British India" (Oxford UP, 2008)

November 15, 2011

Russian Rule in Samarkand, 1868-1910

Alexander Morrison
Hosted by Dhara Anjaria

Great Britain and Russia faced off across the Pamirs for much of the nineteenth century; their rivalries and animosities often obscuring underlying co…

Chris Poullaos and Suki Sian, "Accountancy and Empire: The British Legacy of Professional Organization" (Routledge, 2010)

October 24, 2011

Accountancy and Empire

Chris Poullaos and Suki Sian
Hosted by Dhara Anjaria

For an empire supposedly founded on the back of trade, not much attention has been paid to how the finances of the British Empire were organized- or t…

Vera Tolz, "Russia's Own Orient: The Politics of Identity and Oriental Studies in the late Imperial and Early Soviet Periods" (Oxford UP, 2011)

October 5, 2011

Russia's Own Orient

Vera Tolz
Hosted by Dhara Anjaria

Everyone knows that the late nineteenth-century Russian Empire was the largest land based empire around, and that it was growing yet- at fifty-five sq…

Craig Lockard, "Southeast Asia in World History" (Oxford UP, 2009)

September 30, 2011

Southeast Asia in World History

Craig Lockard
Hosted by Dhara Anjaria

A book called Southeast Asia in World History (Oxford University Press, 2009) might seem on the face of it to be out of place on a blog about South As…

Cecilia Leong-Salobir, "Food Culture in Colonial Asia: A Taste of Empire" (Routledge, 2011)

September 13, 2011

Food Culture in Colonial Asia

Cecilia Leong-Salobir
Hosted by Dhara Anjaria

Hobson-Jobson was not just about administration and geopolitics- the language of Empire extended to its culinary endeavours as well. Thus chota hazri,…

Mark Bradley, "Classics and Imperialism in the British Empire" (Oxford UP, 2010)

August 15, 2011

Classics and Imperialism in the British Empire

M. Bradley
Hosted by Dhara Anjaria

The Greco-Roman world was the prism through which the British viewed their imperial efforts, and Mark Bradley's compendium Classics and Imperialism in…

Vinayak Chaturvedi, "Peasant Pasts: History and Memory in Western India" (U California Press, 2007)

August 11, 2011

Peasant Pasts

Vinayak Chaturvedi
Hosted by Dhara Anjaria

The odds are that if you don't figure in an administration's records, you won't figure in the historical record. But what do you do to get into those …

Howard Spodek, "Ahmedabad: Shock City of Twentieth Century India" (Indiana UP, 2011)

July 25, 2011

Ahmedabad

Howard Spodek
Hosted by Dhara Anjaria

As Ahmedabad, the chief city of Gujarat state in Western India, puts itself up as a contender for World Heritage status, Howard Spodek's lovely book, …

Nile Green, "Bombay Islam: The Religious Economy of the West Indian Ocean, 1840-1915" (Cambridge UP, 2011)

July 15, 2011

Bombay Islam

Nile Green
Hosted by Dhara Anjaria

Bombay (Mumbai), India, is a city that has never lacked chroniclers from Rudyard Kipling to Salman Rushdie to Suketu Mehta, bards of pluralism have wr…

Robert Parthesius, "Dutch Ships in Tropical Waters: The Development of the Dutch East India Company Shipping Network in Asia 1595-1660" (Amsterdam UP, 2010)

July 5, 2011

Dutch Ships in Tropical Waters

Robert Parthesius
Hosted by Dhara Anjaria

The Dutch broke the Portuguese commercial and colonizing monopoly in the East in 1595; the seal might have been said to have been set on this triumph …

Katharine E. McGregor, "History in Uniform: Military Ideology and the Construction of Indonesia's Past" (NUS Press, 2007)

July 5, 2011

History in Uniform

Katharine E. McGregor
Hosted by Dhara Anjaria

Nugroho Notosusanto (1930-1985) never pursued a military career; but all the same he did his bit for the Indonesian armed forces. He was co-opted into…