What India and China Once Were: The Pasts That May Shape the Global Future.

• Author: Grebnev, Yegor
• Position: Book review

What India and China Once Were: The Pasts That May Shape the Global Future. Edited by SHELDON I. POLLOCK and BENJAMIN A. ELMAN. New York: COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2018. Pp. xiii + 365. $35.

This is an innovative, informative, and highly accessible comparative study, based on a commendable fresh approach to academic collaboration. It can satisfy different audiences, providing inspiration for professionals and serving as an engaging introductory text for students. The eight chapters that constitute the main body of the book have all been written by duos composed of an Indologist and a Sinologist. They cover a broad range of themes dealing mainly with the early modern period (ca. 1500-1800). Nevertheless, this time range is not treated as a hard constraint, as the contributors discuss the precursors to early modern phenomena and their permutations in contemporary societies.

Chapter 1, "Life and Energy," written by Sumit Guha and Kenneth Pomeranz, deals with environmental history, giving an insightful overview of the responses to environmental challenges adopted by Chinese and Indian governments and societies. Although both China and India are described as "energy-sparing economies," a complex combination of factors such as the differences in climate and geography (favoring less reliance on irrigation in agriculture and a larger animal population in India), structures of government (more centralized in China), and cultural preferences (the more civilianized elites in China had less interest in the closure of hunting grounds and pastures, among other things) defined different strategies of environmental adaptation. Chapter 2, "Conquest, Rulership, and the State," written by Pamela Crossley and Richard M. Eaton, compares how the Mughal (1526-1858) and Qing (1636-1912) "conquest dynasties" developed new strategies to integrate different ethnic and cultural elements in their empires. It also provides the valuable political-historical background, describing in particular the co-existing, mandala-like concentric configuration of political power of the Sanskritic tradition and the more centralized Persianate model that jointly shaped the Mughal empire. In the Qing empire, it was matched by the confluence of the Manchu, Mongolian, and Chinese systems of rule, allowing the emperor to present himself as the highest authority to the subjects belonging to each tradition. Chapter 3, "Gender Systems" by Beverly Bossier and Ruby Lai, offers a...