The story of the birth of India's states is the story of the birth and continuing rebirth of India, the nation. It is a story that everyone in India must know, from young to old. This rigorously researched book lays out the fascinating political and historical circumstances of the birth of India's states and union territories.

The book challenges the stereotypes about and narrates the daily lives of the Mizos through the use of vernacular photography.

Originally presented as the author's thesis--University of Oxford.

'A model work of historical scholarship'-Ramachandra Guha 'The most well-researched, comprehensive history of contemporary Assam ever written'-Partha Chatterjee The crucial battles of World War II fought in India's north-east-followed soon after by Independence and Partition-had a critical impact on the making of modern Assam. In the three decades following 1947, the state of Assam underwent massive political turmoil, geographical instability, and social and demographic upheaval, among others. Later, the truncated state suffered widespread unrest as various groups believed their cultural identity and political leverage were under threat. New social energies and political forces were unleashed and came to the fore. Definitive, comprehensive and unputdownable, The Quest for Modern Assam explores the interconnected layers of political, environmental, economic and cultural processes that shaped the development of Assam since the 1940s. It offers an authoritative account that sets new standards in the writing of regional political history. Not to be missed by any one keen on Assam, India, Asia or world history in the twentieth century.

Zorami is the first novel ever written by a Mizo writer in English (The Mizos are a tribal community in North East India). The novel brings together different strands like the transformation of Mizo identity and culture through 'Christianisation' and the clash between Mizo culture and that sought to be imposed by a domineering subcontinent. Such strands are woven together with the inner 'rites of passage' of the protagonist, Zorami, a Mizo woman subjected to rape and displacement during a time of violent political upheaval and her journey towards personal healing and discovery of a new identity via a spiritual encounter. The author, Malsawmi Jacob, takes the reader through Zorami's traversal of her zones of darkness and shades of grey to a final explosion of the 'colours of acceptance and love'.

The book deals with the cultural heritage of the Mizos. The mizo system of economy was the political and legal system which controlled the social behaviour as well as the military strategies. Personal relationship of the husband and wife, chief and the slaves, father and the children, individual and society that helped flourishing of distinctive Mizo culture in the gerontocratic social order has been depicted in a simple and crisp language.

Conversion has played a central role in the history of Christianity. In this first in-depth and wide-ranging narrative history, David Kling examines the dynamic of turning to the Christian faith by individuals, families, and people groups. Global in reach, the narrative progresses from early Christian beginnings in the Roman world to Christianity's expansion into Europe, the Americas, China, India, and Africa. Conversion is often associated with a particular strand of modern Christianity (evangelical) and a particular type of experience (sudden, overwhelming). However, when examined over two millennia, it emerges as a phenomenon far more complex than any one-dimensional profile would suggest. No single, unitary paradigm defines conversion and no easily explicable process accounts for why people convert to Christianity. Rather, a multiplicity of factors-historical, personal, social, geographical, theological, psychological, and cultural-shape the converting process. A History of Christian Conversion not only narrates the conversions of select individuals and peoples, it also engages current theories and models to explain conversion, and examines recurring themes in the conversion process: divine presence, gender and the body, agency and motivation, testimony and memory, group- and self-identity, "authentic" and "nominal" conversion, and modes of communication. Accessible to scholars, students, and those with a general interest in conversion, Kling's book is the most satisfying and comprehensive account of conversion in Christian history to date; this major work will become a standard must-read in conversion studies.

A history of Mizoram in Northeast India from the Indigenous perspectives of encounters with the British Empire from the 1890s to the 1920s.