Literature, History and Power in the Fifteenth Century

What is it about?

The paper is focussed on north Indian literary cultures in the fifteenth century. The purpose, however, is to understand its diverse knowledge formations and its interlocked linguistic grids. It argues that the unusual literary ferment of the fifteenth century allowed for a more efficient, wider and deeper conduits of communication for any future bid at power by an imperial enterprise. Put differently, it is an attempt to study how imperial subjects were probably formed even before the empire comes into being.

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Why is it important?

The significance of this article lies in (a) its focus on a time period (fifteenth century) that is rarely studied by historians in the context of north India; and (b) its attempt to link literature and knowledge formations (of the fifteenth century) with political enterprise and state power (of the Mughals in the sixteenth century). Thus it seeks to break new ground on the relationship between literature, history and power. Methodologically, it is an attempt to write a "subjects-first" history of an empire that was yet to come.

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