When this book was first published in the year 1999 the orientalist Eurocentric views prevailed in the historiography of maritime trade in India. Holden Furber, Bastin, Boxer, Pierson, Marshall were all of the opinion that India lacked dynamic merchant class and effective business organization backed by their central or state governments. In an unequal competition, they yielded the dominant place to their western competitors. Indian scholars who worked abroad with them such as Ashin Dasgupta, Tapan Raychaudhuri, Om Prakash, Sushil Chowdhury et al had more or less echoed the same view. They had all forgotten that the gunpowder was the deciding factor in naval battles.
But Sanjay Subramaniam turned the tide in this area by exploring the response side through vernacular source materials to project a view from the shore as against the view from the sea. There was a revival of the viewpoint of Radhakumud Mukherjee by scholars like Latika Bharadrajan and Admiral Sakdher.
In this volume, this latter version has been emphasized. All the scholars have tried to show the Indian response in proper perspective highlighting both success and failures. The bargaining capacity of the Indian producers and merchants has been properly underscored. From this point of view, it opens a new chapter in the history of Indian maritime trade and will induce more Indian scholars to indulge in this view from the shore through the vernacular source materials instead of abjectly depending on the archives of the various western East India companies and recording only their views. An added attraction is the essay by Bhaskarjyoti Basu.
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