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March
of Central Asia
Ram
Rahul |
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March
of Central Asia is the chronicle of the march of all
Central Asia (East Central Asia: Tibet and Xinjiang,
and West Central Asia: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan,
Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan), the central region of
the continent of Asia, through twenty centuries from
the ancient time to the present. It tells of the condition
and circumstance of all Central Asia, its episodes
and encounters, and the routes taken by its society
and its patterns during this march through the ages.
Central Asia has marched down the pathway of history
since antiquity. The march of pre-history Central
Asia is obscure. This obscurity lifted with Cyrus
the Great (r. BC 557-530) of Iran, who opened Central
Asia to history, and the world.
Alexander the Great (BC 356-323) of Macedon, Zhang
Qian (BC 158-115) of China, Qutayba ibn Muslim (668-715
AD) of Arabia, Chingiz Khan (1165-1227 AD) of the
Mongols, Emir Timur (1336-1405 AD) the most heroic
and greatest political of Central Asia itself, generals
and commissars and huntsmen and explorers have marched
over its high mountain passes and through its deep
valleys and deserts during two millennia and more.
There has also been the march of peoples and ideas,
poets and philosophers, ambassadors and merchants
and pilgrims and travellers, and those who advanced
this long march as well as those who hindered it.
Central Asia is no longer the Shangri-La of legend
or “lost horizon”. Its epic march, however,
continues as ever. The book March of Central Asia
will advance readers’ knowledge of Central Asia
and amuse their gleeful delectation.
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| 1.
CENTRAL ASIA: Snows and Grasses, Yaks and Cheeses
2. TIBET: Lost Horizon
3. XINJIANG: Routes of Civilizations
4. AMU-SYR REGION: Region of Royal Nomads
5. TSARIST/SOVIET TURKESTAN: Aspects of Emperialism
6. CONTEMPORARY CENTRAL ASIA: Lamas and Mullahs, Militants
and Blasts
Postface
Bibliography
Index
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Ram
Rahul is a foremost scholar and doyen of Central
Asian studies. He was awarded fellowship by Rockefeller
Foundation to study Central Asia during 1952-54. In
1959 he received the first-ever UGC fellowship for Central
Asia in Indian School of Inter-national Studies, New
Delhi. Then he joined the Indian School of International
Studies as Reader/Associate Professor in Deptt. of Central
Asian History and Institutions. He retired as Professor
of Central Asian Studies from Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Soon after retirement, he taught the history of Central
Asia abroad.
The UNESCO gave him a short fellowship to visit centres
of Central Asian studies in Europe in 1971. The Ford
Foundation (New Delhi) gave him a grant to visit centres
of Central Asian studies in the United States in 1981.
During 1982-83 residencies of the Rockefeller and Ford
Foundations in Bellagio (Italy) and Washington, DC enabled
him to work on the historiography of Central Asia from
the ancient time to 1949-50. The UNESCO invited him
to its consultation meetings on the civilizations of
Central Asia during 1968-73. It also invited him to
attend conferences on Central Asia held in Soviet Central
Asia, Afghanistan and Mongolia.
Prof. Ram Rahul has extensively travelled in Asia and
elsewhere in connection with Central Asian studies.
Other than contri-butions to the house journal International
Studies, he has written ten articles for inter-national
journals and more than 25 books such as Central Asia:
A Textbook History.
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