This magisterial book brings together history, ethnography and political theory to compose a remarkable argument about the ways in which colonial administrative knowledge made a deep contribution to the transformation of vernacular nationalism into Hindutva hyper-nationalism. Shail Mayaram's book brings Rajasthan into the deep history of postcolonial Hindu fundamentalism in India and deals a decisive blow to the orientalist fantasy of Rajasthan as an Indian setting for the Game of Thrones.' Arjun Appadurai, New York University