Adroitly and effectively combining historical and anthropological approaches, this study examines the growth and character of Marwari identity as it developed among migrants from Rajasthan who grew to become the dominant commercial and industrial elite in Calcutta. With its view from both the archive and close participant observation, Hardgrove gives us here the first richly textured, intellectually sophisticated, account of this important business community. Sensitive alike to historical change, cultural theory, and ethnographic detail, Hardgrove's work cuts a new path in the repertoire of modern Indian history.