A Mughal knife made from a meteorite. A precious necklace split between two nations at partition. A butter advert that achieves iconic status.
Through a curatorial selection of objects from the prehistoric ages through twenty-first century India, Sudeshna Guha provides a panoramic view of the rich histories of the subcontinent. The incisive essays in this collection detail not just objects but the histories of their reception: examining how changing times and attitudes cast their presence on the ways in which the past is interpreted and recalled. In doing so, A History of India through 75 Objects inspires us to interrogate our own notions of a knowable past and fixed national history. Teeming with thought-provoking insights and surprising anecdotes, the essays instil a sense of wonder about the continuous processes by which histories are constructed.
Review
A History of India through 75 Objects demonstrates how the objects that go into the construction of a history may initially be viewed just as objects, either of value or not. The transition from being an object and becoming a historical source, illuminating its own history in the process, is illustrated with deftness and sensitivity, and with an impressive historical reach on the part of the author. – Romila Thapar, Professor Emeritus, Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University
In this superbly arranged and delightfully illustrated book, Sudeshna Guha uses her deep scholarship and passionate engagement to show how select objects illuminate the complex histories of India. The range of artefacts encompassed here, from cloths and statuary to billboards and pumps, demonstrate that objects' significance shifts across boundaries, alters with time and place, and can never be reduced to a dominant story of nation or creed. – Simon Schaffer, Professor, History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge
This volume takes the now familiar format of histories focussing on objects but brings to it that invaluable critical edge, so needed today. It evaluates in great depth how objects, whether 'authentic' or reflected through reproduction or representation, fashion experiential and social effects, thereby highlighting the importance of engaging with their powerful materiality and their multiple and changing meanings in the scholarship of history. – Deborah Swallow, Märit Rausing Director and Professor, Courtauld Institute of Art
Book Description
Includes objects from prehistory to the twenty-first century India, and makes for a delightful introduction to India.
About the Author
Sudeshna Guha is currently a professor in the department of History and Archaeology at Shiv Nadar University, India. She holds a Ph.D. in archaeology and has a long curatorial and teaching career at the University of Cambridge. She has built upon the scholarship of visual anthropology and ethnographies of material studies for analysing histories of archaeology and is at present developing research on histories of museums, collections and curatorial practices within South Asia. She has published widely, also on histories of heritage, and is the editor and contributor of The Marshall Albums: Photography and Archaeology (Mapin/Alkazi Collection of Photography, 2011), and author of Artefacts of History: Archaeology, Historiography and Indian Pasts (Sage 2015).
+91 9818282497
