The Routledge Handbook of the History of Colonialism in South Asia provides a comprehensive overview of the historiographical specialisation and sophistication of the history of colonialism in South Asia.

Part I Overarching Themes and Debates 1. Caste in British India: between continuity and colonial construction 2. The Political Economy of Colonialism in India 3. State formation in India: from the Company state to the late colonial state 4. Nationalisms and their discontents in Colonial India 5. Reordering religion in colonial South Asia 6. Reconstituting Masculinities/Femininities: Modern Experiences 7. Contested history: the rise of communalism and the Partition of British India 8. The Raj’s uncanny other: Indirect rule and the princely states Part II The World of Economy and Labour 9. The Emergence of A ‘Modern’ Urban-Industrial Workforce in India, 1860–1914 10. Military labour markets in colonial India from the Company state to World War II 11. Merchants, Moneylenders, Karkhanedars, and the Emergence of the Informal Sector 12. Indian big business under the Company and the Raj 13. Revenue extraction in colonial South Asia Part III Creating and keeping Order: Science, Race, Religion, Law and Education 14. The Science and Medicine of Colonial India 15. Race in colonial South Asia: Science and the law 16. ‘A Race Apart’? – The European Community in Colonial India 17. Christian missionary agendas in colonial India 18. Penal law, penology and prisons in colonial India 19. Terrorism and counter-terrorism in colonial India 20. Schooling the Subcontinent: State, Space and Society, and the Dynamics of Education in Colonial South Asia Part IV Environment and Space 21. Of Lives and Landscapes: The Environmental History of Colonial South Asia 22. Questioning ‘railway-centrism’: Infrastructural governance and cultures of colonial transport system, 1760s–1900s 23. Colonial Port Cities and the Infrastructure of Empire: Tracing the Geography of Alcohol in British Colonial India 24. Site of deficiency and site of hope: the village in colonial South Asia 25. Imperial Sanctuaries: The Hill Stations of Colonial South Asia 26. Agrarian history of colonial South Asia Part V Culture, Media and the Everyday 27. Physical Culture and the Body in Colonial India, c. 1800–1947 28. Before Bollywood: Bombay Cinema and the Rise of the Film Industry in Late Colonial India 29. Rhythms of the Raj: Music in Colonial South Asia 31. Consumer Practices and ‘Consumerism’ in Late Colonial India 31. Food and Intoxicants in British India 32. Languages, Literatures and the Public Sphere 33. Emotions, senses and perception of the self Part VI Colonial South Asia in the World 34. Women, Migration and Travel from Colonial India 35. Debates on Citizenship in Colonial South Asia and Global Political Thought, c. 1880–1950 36. South Asia and South Asians in the world-wide web of anticolonial solidarity 37. Disruptive entanglements: South Asia and South Asians in the World Wars 38.Indian humanitarianism under colonial rule: Imperial loyalty, national self-assertion and anticolonial emancipation 39. Famine Relief in Colonial South Asia, 1858–1947: Regional and Global Perspectives

The volume offers a comprehensive, nuanced, yet highly accessible and readable introduction to the key historiographical and methodological debates that have shaped the field of colonial studies on South Asia for the past decades. [...] It will be most useful to newcomers to the field of modern South Asian studies, as it provides effective and eminently readable introductions to some of the key debates, schools of thoughts, and developments in the historiography of this region over the last four decades. At the same time, the volume will also be useful to more seasoned practitioners who are seeking to expand their teaching or research by providing detailed bibliographies of the latest research on these topics. Overall, this volume provides a valuable contribution to our knowledge and understanding of South Asian colonial history and historiography, and this author anticipates it will quickly become a standard text assigned for courses about the history of modern South Asia and the British Empire in India.Mark Condos, King’s College London, UK. Connections. A Journal for Historians and Area Specialists (June 2022)"It is a handbook rather than a textbook. Students at all levels will find the individual essays invaluable, when they are seeking an introduction to a new theme or to capture the lineaments of some debate in South Asian history. The volume will be useful also for teachers and researchers to have on their shelves as a “go-to“ for tracking recent trends and historiography. I see its role as a reference book and it will contribute greatly to making South Asian history more widely and easily accessible to students in different parts of the anglophone world." - Samita Sen, Cambridge University