The long eighteenth century was a period of major transformation for Europe and India as imperialism heralded a new global order. Eschcwing the reductive perspectives of nation-state histories and postcolonial « east vs west » oppositions, contributors to India and Europe in the global eighteenth century put fonvard a more nuanced and interdisciplinary analysis. Using eastern as well as western sources, authors présent fresh insights into European and Indian relations and highlight :

- how anxieties over war and piracy shaped commercial activity ;

- how French, British and Persian histories of India reveal the different geo-political issues at stake ;

- the material legacy of India in European cultural life ;

- how novels parodied popular views of the Orient and provided counter-narratives to images of India as the site of corruption ;

- how social transformations, traditionally characterised as « Mughal decline », in effect forged new global connections that informed political culture into the nineteenth century.

« Adopting multi-disciplinary approaches, contributors stress the complexity, subtlety and intricacy of the remarkable global connections between India and Europe in the eighteenth century. This book will undoubtedly provoke not only lively debate, but also much further research. »

Maria Misra, Fellow of Keble College, Oxford and author of Vishnu's crowded temple : Ivdia since the Great Rebellion