Writing Self, Writing Empire: Chandar Bhan Brahman and the Cultural World of the Indo-Persian State Secretary

FAIN: FA-55558-10

Rajeev Kumar Kinra
Northwestern University (Evanston, IL 60208-0001)

Writing Self, Writing Empire examines literary and political culture in the early modern Mughal Empire (1526-1857) through the eyes of the celebrated Hindu state secretary, Chandar Bhan Brahman. Through an analysis of Chandar Bhan's literary, administrative, and epistolary writings, it touches on numerous understudied themes in Indo-Persian intellectual history, and seeks to recalibrate and historicize the common assumption that "political Islam" is, and has always been, inherently fundamentalist and intolerant.