"The lively and provocative volume of eighteen essays brings together the life-long engagement of the distinguished critic M Ramachandran with post-independence art in India. In a complex, even complicated series of arguments he proposes that a work of art is neither independent of marked forces, not of gender politics and regional consciousness. Finally, while praising postmodernism, he is not an uncritical admirer of identity politics and still has faith in the universal values of humanity. Nor is he convinced of the success of postmodernism. I think the reader has a great deal to engage within this lively and sophisticated set of essays. I commend them wholeheartedly." - Partha Mitter