(English) Science, economy and urbanity

The two-volume India, the Portuguese and Maritime Interactions is the outcome of the 14th International Seminar on Indo-Portuguese History held at New Delhi. These essays look at the multilayered nature of Indo-Portuguese interactions and address the complexities of the very varied subsystems that got woven around the Indian Ocean over a period of more than five centuries. The first volume focuses on Indo-Portuguese interactions in terms of circulation of medical knowledge and aspects of health care; the nature of scientific and technological interactions; dynamics of trade and political economy; and meanings of urbanity. Networks of information, indigenization of techniques, land-centric economic processes, calendar-reckoning traditions, and complexities of urban milieu are analysed with a richly textured and complex set of arguments so that our understanding of the 'early modern history of India' is recast, and the web of interconnectedness within which India redefined itself against the background of Portuguese interactions is highlighted. Students and researchers of medieval and early modern, modern and contemporary Indian history will find the volume extremely useful.

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Historical demography,Colonial populations,Portuguese Empire,India,Goa

• History and Archeology - Humanities