This book examines the new orientations in the writing of cultural histories of India from the pre-colonial and early modern period into the postcolonial and contemporary era. It analyses the 'materialist' turn through wide-ranging textual, visual, aural, ritual, and spatial resources like eighteenth-century scribal literature in western India, art deco architecture in twentieth century Calcutta, contemporary urban spaces, early illustrated Bengali almanacs, circulating heads in Naga hills, football in Calcutta's politics, performance and film-making studies in south India, and Mayawati's...