In her introduction to Hindu Pasts—which showcases her work as a scholar of social, literary, and religious history—Vasudha Dalmia outlines the central ideas which thread her writings: first, to understand in greater historical depth the relationship between body language, religion, and society in India, as well as the ever-changing role of its religious and social institutions; second, to recognize that the Hindu tradition, which colonials and nationalists tend to see as monolithic, is in fact a multiplicity of distinct and semi-autonomous strands.

The reciprocal relationship between colonialists and the colonised people of India, during the crucial period from 1760 to 1860, provides fascinating study material. This edited volume explores cultural colonialism by focussing on the ambivalent processes of reciprocal perceptions.

Between the late sixteenth and early twentieth centuries, Banaras, the iconic Hindu center in northern India that is often described as the oldest living city in the world, was reconstructed materially as well as imaginatively, and embellished with temples, monasteries, mansions, and ghats (riverfront fortress-palaces). Banaras’s refurbished sacred landscape became the subject of pilgrimage maps and its spectacular riverfront was depicted in panoramas and described in travelogues. In Banaras Reconstructed, Madhuri Desai examines the confluences, as well as the tensions, that have shaped this complex and remarkable city. In so doing, she raises issues central to historical as well as contemporary Indian identity and delves into larger questions about religious urban environments in South Asia.

In a penetrating account of the evolution of British intelligence gathering in India, C. A. Bayly shows how networks of Indian spies were recruited by the British to secure military, political and social information about their subjects. He also examines the social and intellectual origins of these 'native informants', and considers how the colonial authorities interpreted and often misinterpreted the information they supplied. It was such misunderstandings which ultimately contributed to the failure of the British to anticipate the rebellions of 1857. The author argues, however, that even before this, complex systems of debate and communication were challenging the political and intellectual dominance of the European rulers.

This book provides a comprehensive account of the Banaras Hindu University (BHU), India's first residential university and the result of Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya's efforts to establish a Hindu university in the country. This book not only discusses the origins and development of the BHU, but also the challenges and issues that the school faced. It studies Malaviya's efforts to introduce religious education in BHU—and even make it mandatory—and his response to Mahatma Gandhi's efforts to boycott the university. It also describes the lives of the students in the campus and its academic, intellectual, and cultural atmosphere. This book also considers the role and influence of the British in the development of Hindu education during the late colonial period and the importance of the university's location.