Abstract
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>This book is a historical study of the largest pilgrimage festival in the world, the Kumbh Mela. Focusing on the festival in a key northern Indian political town, Allahabad, the book traces the historical changes in the nature of the mela from the 1700s onward, with particular reference to the influence of British colonialism and the growth of Indian nationalism in the region. It charts the early nationalists' active construction of religion as a sphere of sovereignty, and the attendant changes to religious and social practices at the mela. Further, the book traces the links between the religious community that the mela fostered and the spread of nationalism in the early twentieth century. It also follows and analyzes debates about the role of religion – so often described as modernity's other – in the creation of notions of citizenship and civil society in the late colonial and postcolonial Indian nation.</jats:p>