N. Chadhuri is an
economic historian whose "Asia Before Europe:
Economy and Civisation of the Indian Ocean from the Rise
of Islam to 1750" is a 434 page detailed study of the Indian Ocean trading network during the millenium preceding its fall under European hegemony.
This book explores the dynamic interaction between
economic life, society and civilisation in the regions around and beyond the Indian Ocean during the period from the rise of Islam to 1750. Within a distinctive theory of comparative history, Professor Chaudhuri analyses how the identity of different Asian civilisations was established. He examines the structural features of food habits, clothing, architectural styles and housing; the different modes of economic production; and the role of crop raising, pastoral nomadism, and industrial activities for the main regions of the Indian Ocean. In an original and perceptive conclusion, the author demonstrates how Indian Ocean societies were united or separated from one another by a conscious cultural and linguistic identity. However, there was a deeper structure of unities created by a common ecology, technology, technology of economic production, traditions of government, theory of political obligations and rights, and a shared historical experience. His theory enables the author to show that the real Indian Ocean was an area that extended historically from the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf to the sea which lies beyond Japan.
In this work he refers to Fernand Braudel's work on the Mediterranean basin
economy and Chaudhuri extends that methodology to the Indian Ocean. Just as Braudel insisted that the Mediterranean economy extended to, influenced, and even included subsidiary areas as far north as the Baltic and as far south as the saharan Sahel; Chaudhuri includes the economies of East Africa (inadequately treated), the East Indies, Malaya (Malacca), and the subcontinent, but he does not stop there. He insists that the "isthmus" of the Middle East, South China and even the Silk Road and North China are as related to the Indian Ocean as the Braudel's Baltic was to the Mediterranean. He then discusses in some detail the societies, clothing, agriculture, nomadism, industry, and urban areas; devoting a full chapter to each. He discusses the uniqueness of each area and the exchanges with copious use of primary sources. All this is done to prove that the Indian Ocean economy was dependent upon the tacit cooperation of Dar al-Islam and the Hindu and Buddhist states; and that commerce was the driving force that made the local economies prosperous, expansive and efficiently developing. He posits that the European incursion stifled this exchange and Europe's disruption, ignorance and violent arrogance made the basin prone to conquest. He concludes that European hegemony resulted in the area's relative poverty.