How one historian remapped the boundaries of the early modern world
In short: From New Delhi to Oxford and Paris, Sanjay Subrahmanyam has spent decades dismantling the idea of isolated empires. By tracing the intricate links between the Indian Ocean and the Iberian world, he reveals a global history far more interconnected than most textbooks suggest.
A scholar of immense geographic and intellectual range, Sanjay Subragmanyam’s career has spanned the world's most prestigious institutions. After studying at the Delhi School of Economics, where he completed his PhD in 1987, he held significant academic positions in Paris at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales and at the University of Oxford. After being named Oxford's first Professor of Indian History and Culture in 2002, he transitioned to UCLA in 2004, currently occupying an endowed social sciences position.
His scholarship is defined by the concept of 'connected histories.' Rather than viewing the expansion of European empires or the rise of the Mughal Empire in isolation, Subrahmanyam examines the shared spaces of the Indian Ocean and the interactions between Islamic and Christian worlds. His work often focuses on the period between 1500 and 1800, exploring how trade, language, and courtly culture moved across borders. This approach is evident in works such as 'Europe’s India' (2017) and 'Empires Between Islam and Christianity' (2018).
Beyond his monographs, Subrahmanyam has been a vital figure in global academic discourse. After being appointed to an Early Modern Global History Chair at the Collège de France in 2013, he gave a sequence of lectures during 2013–14 and continued as a visiting professor for many years. His contributions have been recognized with the first Infosys Prize in Humanities in 2012. Through his research on the Iberian empires and the political economy of South India, he continues to reshape our understanding of how the modern world was forged through encounter and exchange.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Sanjay Subrahmanyam
- Also: Sanjay Subrahmanyam
- Also: Wikidata — Sanjay Subrahmanyam · CC0
- Also: history.ucla.edu — Sanjay Subrahmanyam
- Also: Wikidata — Sanjay Subrahmanyam. Courtly Encounters: Translating Courtliness and Violence in Early Modern Eurasia · CC0
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