In a challenging new history of modern India, the authors explore the imaginative and institutional structures that have changed and sustained the country. While previous histories have been composed as handmaids of British nationalism or as products of emerging nationalist identities, this book challenges the notion that a continuous meaning can be applied to social categories such as "caste," "Hindu," "Muslim," or even "India,". An initial chapter focuses on the period of Muslim dynasties that preceded colonial conquest, while the final chapter analyzes the dramatic recent events of the 1990s, including economic change, religious nationalism and India's emergence as a nuclear power. Illustrations and quotations from historical sources are integral to the narrative. Thomas R. Metcalf is Professor of History, University of California, Berkeley. His previous books inlcude An Imperial Vision (California, 1989) and Ideologies of the Raj (Cambridge, 1997). Barbara Metcalf is Professor of History at the University of California, Davis. She is the editor of Making Muslim Space in North America (University of California Press, 1996).

芭芭拉•D.梅特卡夫（Barbara D. Metcalf），加州大学戴维斯分校历史系荣誉退休教授，研究南亚史（特别是殖民时期）、印度和巴基斯坦的穆斯林史。曾任亚洲研究协会主席、美国历史学会主席。著有《英属印度的伊斯兰复兴（1860-1900）》（Islamic Revival in British India: Deoband , 1860 -1900）、《在北美和欧洲制造穆斯林空间》（Making Muslim Space in North America and Europe）等。

托马斯•R.梅特卡夫（Thomas R. Metcalf），加州大学伯克利分校历史系荣誉退休教授，研究南亚史特别是殖民时期的印度史、大英帝国史。著有《帝国的连接：印度洋竞技场中的印度（1860-1920）》（Imperial Connections: India in the Indian Ocean Arena, 1860-1920 ）、《打造王冠之珠：有关帝国全盛时期的英属印度随笔》（Forging the Raj: Essays on British India in the Heyday of Empire ）、《英属印度的意识形态》（Ideologies of the Raj）等。