history | asian Studies Chatterjee and & “Indrani Chatterjee and Richard Eaton have produced an impor- eaton Slavery tant edited volume that will be welcomed by students of com- parative slavery. It enriches our knowledge of slavery in South South aSian Asia by providing a number of illuminating case studies and, in S the process, makes us reconsider the significance of slavery in l the subcontinent.” a hiStory —Edward A. Alpers, University of California, Los Angeles v e Despite its pervasive presence in the South Asian past, slavery is r largely overlooked in the region’s historiography, in part because y the forms of bondage in question did not always fit models based on plantation slavery in the Atlantic world. This important volume & will contribute to a rethinking of slavery in world history, and of the category of slavery itself. Most slaves in South Asia were not S agricultural laborers, but military or domestic workers, and the o latter were overwhelmingly women and children. Individuals might become slaves at birth or through capture, sale by relatives, u indenture, or as a result of accusations of criminality or inapprop- t riate sexual behavior. For centuries, trade in slaves linked South Asia h with Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia. The contributors to this collection of original essays describe a wide range of sites a and contexts covering more than a thousand years, foreground- S ing the life stories of individual slaves wherever possible. i a Contributors are Daud Ali, Indrani Chatterjee, Richard M. Eaton, n Michael H. Fisher, Sumit Guha, Peter Jackson, Sunil Kumar, Avril A. Powell, Ramya Sreenivasan, Sylvia Vatuk, and Timothy Walker. h Indrani Chatterjee is Associate Professor of History at Rutgers i University. S t Richard M. Eaton is Professor of History at the University of o Arizona. r Cover illustration: Portrait of Malik Ambar by Hashim, c. 1610. y V & A Images/Victoria and Albert Museum. Used by permission. Edited by indrani Chatterjee and INDIANA richard M. eaton University Press ISBN-13: 978-0-253-21873-5 http://iupress.indiana.edu ISBN-10: 0-253-21873-X Bloomington & Indianapolis 1-800-842-6796 INDIANA Slavery and South Asian History Slavery & South Asian History Edited by Indrani Chatterjee and Richard M. Eaton INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS Bloomington & Indianapolis This book is a publication of Indiana University Press 601 North Morton Street Bloomington,Indiana 47404-3797 USA http://iupress.indiana.edu Telephone orders 800-842-6796 Fax orders 812-855-7931 Orders by email [email protected] © 2006 by Indiana University Press All rights reserved No part ofthis book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means,electronic or mechanical,including photocopying and recording,or by any information storage and retrieval system,without permission in writing from the publisher.The Association ofAmerican University Presses’ Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements ofAmerican National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence ofPaper for Printed Library Materials,ANSI Z39.48-1984. Manufactured in the United States ofAmerica Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Slavery and South Asian history / edited by Indrani Chatterjee and Richard M.Eaton. p.cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-253-34810-2 (cloth :alk.paper) — ISBN 0-253-21873-X (pbk.) 1. Slaves—India—History.2. Slavery—India—History.3. Slaves—South Asia—History.4. Slavery—South Asia—History. I.Chatterjee,Indrani.II.Eaton,Richard Maxwell. HT1246.S495 2007 306.3’620954—dc22 2006008098 1 2 3 4 5 11 10 09 08 07 06 To all present and future historians ofslavery CONTENTS List ofMaps ix Preface and Acknowledgments xi Note on Translation and Transliteration xv Introduction RICHARDM.EATON 1 1.Renewed and Connected Histories:Slavery and the Historiography ofSouth Asia INDRANICHATTERJEE 17 2.War,Servitude,and the Imperial Household:A Study of Palace Women in the Chola Empire DAUDALI 44 3.Turkish Slaves on Islam’s Indian Frontier PETERJACKSON 63 4.Service,Status,and Military Slavery in the Delhi Sultanate: Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries SUNILKUMAR 83 5.The Rise and Fall ofMilitary Slavery in the Deccan,1450–1650 RICHARDM.EATON 115 6.Drudges,Dancing Girls,Concubines:Female Slaves in Rajput Polity,1500–1850 RAMYASREENIVASAN 136 7.Slavery,Society,and the State in Western India,1700–1800 SUMITGUHA 162 8.Bound for Britain:Changing Conditions ofServitude,1600–1857 MICHAELH.FISHER 187 9.Bharattee’s Death:Domestic Slave-Women in Nineteenth-Century Madras SYLVIAVATUK 210 10.Slaves or Soldiers? African Conscripts in Portuguese India,1857–1860 TIMOTHYWALKER 234 11.Indian Muslim Modernists and the Issue ofSlavery in Islam AVRILA.POWELL 262 12.Slavery,Semantics,and the Sound ofSilence INDRANICHATTERJEE 287 List ofContributors 317 Index 319 MAPS 1.Central Asia,Iran,and north India (12th and 13th centuries) xviii 2.The Arabian Sea rim xix 3.Western and southern India xx 4.Eastern India xxi