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The volume explores how the British rule and colonial constructions of identity affected the Indians. It studies the impact of colonialism on Indian identity from the point of view which emphasizes disjunctures as much as continuities. It also steps beyond this paradigm by airing a cross section of new and original research which examines the agency of Indians themselves in the process of identity formation and dialogical nature of Indian cultures. The transformation of Indian identities during the period of colonial rule has been a contentious subject amongst historians in recent years, and anthropologists have increasingly turned to history in an attempt to understand the origins of contemporary ideas and social groups. This volume assesses the degree of continuity seen in movements of people and ideas in the colonial and immediately postcolonial periods and the extent to which the modernizing trends have transformed local constructions of identity and politics.