M.K. (Murari) Jha
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| Telephone number: | +31 (0)71 527 2651 |
| E-Mail: | m.k.jha@hum.leidenuniv.nl |
| Faculty / Department: | Faculteit der Geesteswetenschappen, Institute for History, Algemene Geschiedenis |
| Office Address: |
Johan Huizingagebouw Doelensteeg 16 2311 VL Leiden |
- Spreekuur/Hours
- By appointment
- Fields of interest
- South Asian History, Economic and Social history of Gujarat, Diaspora, the Indian Ocean, the Political Economy of the Gangetic Basin.
- Research
- The Political Economy of the Ganges River: Highways of State-formation in Mughal India, c.1600-1800
This research proposes to study the main routes, both riverine and overland, along the eastern track of the Ganges River. Together these routes served as the spine of empire in northeastern India. Political, economic and cultural activities converged on this highway system and as such was thoroughly exploited by consecutive Afghan, Mughal and British rulers to build and run their stunningly powerful and wealthy Indian empires. However, it almost defies belief that despite a plethora of regional studies, the Ganges River has never ever been studied as the prime political and economic axis of the Mughal Empire.
Although for various regions of the Indian Ocean, historians have investigated the complex linkages between the coast and the hinterland, the gap between the scholarships of continental states and maritime trading companies is yet to be bridged. One question to keep in mind is the "logistical" difference between continental and maritime economies. For example, should we agree with the historian Whiting Fox by suggesting that continental states were organized on the more coercive extraction of their agricultural surplus whereas the littoral, constituting that "other India", was based on a more consultative, voluntary exchange of commodities over relatively long distance?
Thus, seeking a link between these two apparently different worlds we can ask ourselves: how the coastal economy of Bengal at the Ganges delta interacted with the upriver hinterland of Hindustan? An investigation into this issue will help synthesize the divergent interpretations of the decline of the Mughal state that were reached by Aligarh and revisionist historians in the 1990's. Again, the Ganges River as the most obvious link between the coast and the hinterland, has been almost entirely neglected by these historians. Besides, the study will also shed new light on the organization of the Mughal state and, once again, will raise the issue of decline from a new and relatively long-term, inside perspective. In fact, the Ganges River offers the historian a unique thermometer that indicates the alternating health of the Mughal body politic. It is high time to take up the challenge and explore that huge quantity of contemporary documents produced by some of those millions of warriors, traders, bureaucrats, pilgrims and other wayfarers, who frequented this route during these two centuries of Mughal rule.
- Curriculum vitae
- Murari Jha (1977, Bihar) studied history at T.M. Bhagalpur University, Bihar, and at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi. At JNU his research mainly focused on the economic and social history of Gujarat in the early modern period. While doing research at JNU, he also did some anthropological work to document the oral traditions of Gangetic Bihar.
At Leiden University he did his second MA/Mphil and wrote a dissertation on “The World of the Ganges River: The Political Economy of the mid-Gangetic Basin, Bihar; c.1600-1800.” Presently he is working towards his PhD dissertation to be completed in 2012.
- Teaching activities
- Currently Jha is devising a course on the different River systems of Asia and the world with Dr. Jos Gommans and it will be offered at the Masters level programme in the year 2010.
- Publications
- Book Review of The Cotton Textiles and Corporate Buyers in Cottonopolis by Santha Hariharan, in Indian Historical Review, vol. XXIX, Jan-July 2002
Article “The Mughals, Merchants and the European Companies in 17th Century Surat”, in Asia Europe Journal, vol.3, no. 2, July 2005.
Book Review of The Indian Ocean by M. N. Pearson in Asia Europe Journal, vol.4, no.4, December 2006.
Book Chapter “The Social World of Gujarati Merchants and their Indian Ocean Networks in the Seventeenth Century” in Rajesh Rai and Peter Reeves (eds.) The South Asian Diaspora:transnational networks and changing identities (Routledge, 2009).
- Conferences and formal presentation
- “Indian Textiles and the Dutch Global Trading Network, c. 1700-1705” presented in the 20th International Association of Historians of Asia (IAHA), New Delhi, 2008.
“Fluidity of Nature and the Rhythms of Navigation along the Ganges in the 18th Century” presented in the 15th World Economic History Congress at Utrecht, August 2009.
“The Natural Environment and the Limits of Mughal Imperial Authority in the mid-Gangetic Basin during the Eighteenth Century” presented in a conference organized by History Association at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, September 2009.
At Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS), on 15th October 2009, presented findings of the field trip to the Dutch and other European settlement buildings in Bihar and Bengal.
