This book on the picturesque lifestyle of the erstwhile Indian princes and maharajas is now available in a revised Indian edition. The princes may have become mere citizens but the enchantment remains

Although the princes of India have been caricatured as oriental despots and British stooges, Barbara Ramusack's study argues that the British did not create the princes. On the contrary, many were consummate politicians who exercised considerable degrees of autonomy until the disintegration of the princely states after independence. Ramusack's synthesis has a broad temporal span, tracing the evolution of the Indian kings from their pre-colonial origins to their roles as clients in the British colonial system. The book breaks ground in its integration of political and economic developments in the major princely states with the shifting relationships between the princes and the British. It represents a major contribution, both to British imperial history in its analysis of the theory and practice of indirect rule, and to modern South Asian history, as a portrait of the princes as politicians and patrons of the arts.

This is an invaluable work looking into new areas relating to India's princely states. Based on an abundance of rarely used archival material, the book sheds new light on diversities related to the princely states such as health policies and practices, gender issues, the states’ military contribution or the mechanisms for controlling or integrating the states. Contributions are from international, reputable scholars, and they present historiographic, analytical and methodological approaches, placing attention to concepts, theories and sources. Inter-disciplinary in nature, this book will appeal to scholars and researchers of South Asia, studies of transnational histories, cultural and racial studies, international politics and economic history and the social history of health and medicine.

Here, in more than 250 extraordinary photographs, is a showcase of the fabled days of the British Raj. India was at the vanguard of the explosion of photography and the early photographers, both Indian and foreign, mainly British, who strove to document and reveal the landscapes, peoples, cultures, and architecture of the subcontinent. India Through the Lens reveals the history and importance of photography in India, from the appeal of the panorama to the documentation of people, places, and princes. The early Indian photographer, Lala Deen Dayal for example, was unique in being embraced by both worlds- that of the British and the world of Indian Maharajahs. This book appeals to specialists and non-specialists alike- all those who love early photography, British India and the romance of the Raj.