Urban Histories of Rajasthan. Religion, Politics and Society (1550-1800)

By Elizabeth M. Thelen

BIPS is delighted to announce the publication of Urban Histories of Rajasthan, by Dr Elizabeth M. Thelen, the latest volume in the BIPS series Studies in the History and Culture of the Persianate World.

The volume is published by Gingko Library and distributed by the UCP University of Chicago Press. It is available for purchase here.

Literary descriptions of premodern Indian cities have included a diversity of peoples found in the streets and markets, evoking a sense of wealth and abundance, and connection to regional and global networks of trade. But they also raise questions on how the residents lived together and negotiated their differences: which differences mattered, when and to whom? How did state actions and policies affect urban society and the lives of various communities? How and why did conflict occur in urban spaces?

In considering these questions, this book explores the histories of urban communities in the three cities of Ajmer, Nagaur and Pushkar in Rajasthan, between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. The focus of this study is on everyday life and contextualising religious practices and conflicts by considering patterns of patronage and looking at conflict more broadly within society. Various archival documents are examined and the findings demonstrate the complex and sometimes contradictory ways religion intersected with the political, economic and social realms.

Elizabeth M. Thelen is a postdoctoral research associate in the History Department at the University of Exeter. She earned her PhD from the University of California, Berkeley in History, specialising in the history of South Asia, and her PhD dissertation received the British Institute of Persian Studies Early Career Researcher Prize.