A critical analysis of histories and anthropologies of South Asia, seen in relation to the subaltern studies project, and several examples of how colonial history might be done differently.

Saurabh Dube is Professor of History in the Center for Asian and African Studies at El Colegio de México in Mexico City. His books include Untouchable Pasts: Religion, Identity, and Power among a Central Indian Community.

Abbreviations ix
Preface xi
Introduction 1
Colonial Textures
1 Traveling Light 31
2 Evangelical Entanglements 52
3 Telling Tales 76
4 Entitlements and Enmities 103
Postcolonial Tangles
5 Subaltern Subjects
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6 Pilgrims’ Progress 164
7 The Enchanted and the Modern 177
Afterword 187
Notes
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Glossary 231
Bibliography 233
Index 255