Peasant history in South India /

The closer modern historians have looked at village India under the Raj the more they have found that changes once ascribed to colonial innovations must be explained by developments long before the establishment of British rule. Ludden makes a distinguished contribution to this relatively new branch of historiography by exploring agrarian trends between AD 900-1900 in the Tirunelveli region of Tamil Nadu at the southern tip of the subcontinent. Searching beyond the record rooms of official archives, he finds ample evidence to support an argument that economic transformations previously attributed to 19th-century colonialism in fact originated with the 16th-century demise of indigenous South Indian kingdoms. Ludden shows how the state replaced religion as the dominant network in the regional social order, thus paving the way for the East India Company's militaristic profiteering. By explaining how transport and transaction costs were lowered, thus enabling state and market networks to increase their capital generating power, he is able to conclude that ``peasants and imperialists alike participated actively'' in the integration of the subcontinent. This fine study should be added to all serious collections on Asia.-C. Morrison, Michigan State University