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"Although the filmmaker Satyajit Ray is well known across the world, few outside Bengal know much about the diverse contributions of his forebears to printing technology, nationalism, childrens literature, feminism, advertising, entrepreneurialism, and religious reform. Indeed, even within Bengal, the earlier Rays are often very inadequately known and associated exclusively with childrens literature. The first study in English of the multifarious interests and accomplishments of the Ray family and its collateral branches, The Rays before Satyajit reconstructs the multidimensional Ray saga and interweaves it with the larger history of Indian modernity. While eager to learn from the West and rarely drawn to simple-minded nationalism, the Rays, at their best, shunned mere imitation and sought to create forms of the modern that were thoroughly Indian and enthusiastically cosmopolitan. Some of the outcomes of this quest, such as Upendrakishore Rays innovations in half-tone photography and block-making, were admired in the West, though the metropolitan careers of colonial innovators, the book shows, were inevitably constrained by forces beyond their control. Within India and Bengal, however, many of the Rays innovations were of enduring significance, and when situated in their contexts, they help us understand the tensions and contradictions of the pursuit of modernity in an economy that was neither capitalistic nor politically autonomous. Ranging across the history of religion, literature, science, technology, and entrepreneurial culture, The Rays before Satyajit is not only the first collective biography of an extraordinary family but also a book that illuminates the history of Indian modernity from a new perspective."

"Modernity, which emphasizes the relegation of religion firmly to an individuals private life, is a challenging idea for any culture. In India it faces a particularly unusual problem: the persistence of numerous traditional and religious practices means that religion and modernity co-habit here in a complex, plural, transient, and historically evolving relationship. Religion and Modernity in India explores this complex relationship through a series of case studies on the quotidian experiences of people practising a variety of religions. It presents the dynamically interacting textures of society engaging with modernity in divergent ways, both historically and in contemporary times. The essays in this collection consciously bring in the idea of inclusivity by factoring in the small and local contexts. They raise important questions about marginality and sexuality, and discuss the oral and cultural traditions of both mainstream and marginal communities such as tribal communities and women. In doing so, they put forward the perspectives of groups that represent difference but at the same time are linked to a larger whole."

"Synopsis:"Intimate Empire is a pioneering study of the Japanese (and Korean) language cultural productions by ethnic Koreans from the empire's expansionist era during the Asia-Pacific war. Nayoung Aimee Kwon's intervention enables us to rethink the spaces of complex resistance, vexed co-optation and accommodating governmentalities opened up by these texts that trouble the received notions of ethnonational boundaries between postcolonial Korea and postimperial Japan. Staking out thought-provoking problematics and excavating new materials, analyzed by Kwon with exceptional care, nuance, and theoretical sophistication, Intimate Empire is a major step forward in transnational Asian studies." -- Jin-kyung Lee, author of Service Economies: Militarism, Sex Work, and Migrant Labor in South Korea "Nayoung Aimee Kwon's Intimate Empire is a breakthrough in Korean and Japanese Studies. The book has a dual focus: one is the contested colonial encounter between Korean and Japanese intellectuals in the Japanese Empire; the other is postcolonial power in which minority intellectuals work in the United States. Clearly it is an innovative type of comparative study of imperialisms both past and present." -- Naoki Sakai, author of Translation and Subjectivity: On 'Japan' and Cultural Nationalism "Impressively researched and brilliantly crafted, this is a landmark study of cultural production under Japanese colonialism that is sure to create many big waves across Korean and Japanese studies and which should be read by everyone with an interest in the antinomies and conundrums of colonial modernity throughout the world. Eschewing the conventional nationalist binary of 'collaboration' versus 'resistance,' Nayoung Aimee Kwon introduces the third term of 'intimacy,' and shows that an effective postcolonial critique must interrogate this disavowed and unspeakable zone." -- Takashi Fujitani, author of Race for Empire: Koreans as Japanese and Japanese as Americans during World War II "Besides many compelling analyses and arguments made in Intimate Empire, plentiful visual materials provide us a fascinating glimpse into the cultural fields in the empire... it is a great contribution to the scholarship on colonial culture and imperialism for its exemplary handling of archives and its succinct arguments made based on comparative readings of texts. It is an essential text for researchers of colonial literature, transcultural colonial exchange, cultural fields in wartime Japan, and translation." -- Jooyeon Rhee Acta Koreana "Intimate Empire is a most welcome addition to transcultural scholarship on East Asian literatures and cultures and sets an excellent example for future research on imperialism in East Asia and well beyond." -- Karen Thornber Pacific Affairs "Intimate Empire establishes critical questions for historians to ponder, beginning with: Who writes the empire? How does the language they use matter? Kwon has demonstrated many pathways into, as well as offered new and alternate routes for, future discovery." -- Alexis Dudden American Historical Revie"

"In its most brutal form, the prison in British India was an instrument of the colonial state for instilling fear and dealing with resistance. Exploring the lived experience of select political prisoners, this volume presents their struggles and situates them against the backdrop of the freedom movement. From Mohamed Ali, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, the Nehru family, and Gandhi, to communists like M.N. Roy, we get a vivid glimpse of their lives within the confines of the prison in a narrative that is at times deeply personal and yet political. The struggles of some remarkable women of the time are also brought to the fore, be it the feisty doctor Rashid Jahan, Aruna Ali, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, or Sarojini Naidu. Extensively researched, the volume draws upon the records at the National Archives of India, private papers, creative writings of the prisoners, newspapers, memoirs, biographies, and autobiographies. The volume also brings to light the differences between Indian and European prisons during the colonial period and the conception of criminal classes in the colony. Capturing the sharp pangs of loneliness, the poetry born out of solitude, and the burning desire for independence, Roads to Freedom breathes new life into accounts and tales long forgotten."

"On 14 July 2013, India closed down its telegraph service, drawing the curtain over an important chapter in its history of telecommunications. Introduced during the British colonial period, the telegraph was opened for public use on 1 February 1855. The beginning of the service, much like its end, was marked by strikingly similar scenes of people rushing to the telegraph office in order to send messages. The similarity with the contemporary scenario does not end here. Like the internet today, the electric telegraph came to play an important role in the conduct of journalism in nineteenth-century India. This book is an attempt to reconstruct this interconnected history of telegraphy and journalism and the first systematic account of the development of English-language news reporting in nineteenth-century India. Drawing on a wide range of historical material and an in-depth analysis of the newspaper press, it questions grand narratives of media revolutions, arguing instead that the use of telegraphy in journalism was gradual and piecemeal. News itself emerged as the site of many contestations, as imperial politics, capitalist enterprise, and individual agency shaped not only access to technologies of communication, but also the content and form of reporting."