India, China, and the World: A Connected History

(Hardback)

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This pathbreaking study provides the first comprehensive examination of India-China interactions in the broader contexts of Asian and world history. By focusing on material exchanges, transmissions of knowledge and technologies, networks of exchange during the colonial period, and little-known facets of interactions between the Republic of India and the Peoples Republic of China, Tansen Sen argues convincingly that the analysis of India-China connections must extend beyond the traditional frameworks of nation-states or bilateralism. Instead, he demonstrates that a wide canvas of space, people, objects, and timeframe is needed to fully comprehend the interactions between India and China in the past and during the contemporary period. Considering as well the contributions of people and groups from beyond India and China, Sen also explores the interactions between Indians and Chinese outside the Asian continent. The authors formidable array of sources, pulled from archives and libraries around the world, range from Chinese travel accounts to Indian intelligence reports.Examining the connected histories of the two regions, Sen fills a striking gap in the study of India and China in a global setting.

Reviews

This book [is] a timely reminder of the long relationship between these two cultures, and of their generally peaceful concord. * Week in China *
India, China, and the World: A Connected History is a big book with equally large ambitions. . . [it] covers everything from the movement of people, objects, and ideas across the ancient Silk Road up to the formation of the contemporary One Belt, One Road Initiative. Rather than simply depicting the flows between South Asia and China as traveling along a one-way street, the author does an admirable job of demonstrating how those movements were circulatory. . . . This book will make for engaging reading for specialists and general readers who are interested in the longue dure history of exchanges between India and China. * Journal of Asian Humanities at Kyushu University *
Tansen Sen is unquestionably the worlds leading historian of Sino-Indian connections. In this pioneering work, he situates his formidable knowledge within the framework of world history, revealing how central the relationship has been for both Asia and the wider world. -- Prasenjit Duara, Duke University
Tansen Sen has the remarkable knowledge and skills to be considered a historian of both China and India. In this groundbreaking study, his facility with the languages of both cultures enables him to provide a sophisticated history and analysis of their exchanges of products, philosophical and religious views, and scientific ideas. Noting that the relations between the two cultures need to be perceived in a broader context, Sen describes the influences of their interactions on other Asian civilizations. He concludes with an analysis of their relations in the modern world. -- Morris Rossabi, author of Khubilai Khan: His Life and Times
Tansen Sen provides a deeply engaging, wide-ranging, and richly detailed history of the peoples, technologies, ideas, and commodities that have connected China, India, and the wider world from ancient times to the present. Now that China's One Belt One Road is all the rage, it is fascinating to learn how these ancient spaces of mobility became assets for contending empires and objects of conflicting national interests that formed a diplomatic scaffolding for transnational politics. -- David Ludden, New York University

Author Bio

Tansen Sen is director of the Center for Global Asia and professor of history at NYU Shanghai and Global Network Professor at NYU. His books include Buddhism, Diplomacy, and Trade: The Realignment of India-China Relations, 6001400.