Hermann Kulke is Professor Emeritus of Asian History at the University of Kiel. He is the author of Kings and Cults: State Formation and Legitimation in India and Southeast Asia (1993) and editor of The State in India 1000-1700 (1995). In 2010 he was awarded the the order of 'Padma Shri' by the Indian government.

Dietmar Rothermund is Professor Emeritus of History at the South Asian Institute, University of Heidelberg. His books include Contemporary India: Political, Economic and Social Developments since 1947 (2012), India: The Rise of an Asian Giant (2008), The Routledge Companion to Decolonization (2006), The Global Impact of the Great Depression, 1929-1939 (1996) and India in the Great Depression (1992).

List of illustrations. Preface. Acknowledgements. Introduction: History and the Environment. 1. Early Civilisations of the Northwest 2. The Great Ancient Empires 3. The Regional Kingdoms of Early Medieval India 4. Religious Communities and Military Feudalism in the late Middle Ages 5. The Rise and Fall of the Mughal Empire 6. The Period of Colonial Rule 7. The Freedom Movement and the Partition of India 8. The Republic. Perspectives. Glossary of Indian terms. Chronology. Bibliography. Index.