In South Asia, religion plays a significant role in the cohesion and operation of identities. Ethic and religious identities rarely disappear with modernity. Rather, modernity refashions religious idenities in various ways.

Sociologists have acknowledged the importance of the role of religion and are increasingly factoring it into their accounts. This volume is, therefore, of great value. The articles selected look at religious customs and traditions, conversion and national identity, sectarian conflict and fundamentalism - issues that bear not only upon local and regional contexts but have wider implications as well.