The editors begin this volume with a brief introduction that lays out the theoretical parameters of the work. They viably argue that throughout the history of the study of Indian religions, the three themes identified in the subtitle of the book recur.

Boundaries provide the first theme, and three chapters are devoted to pushing at them. The first is by Peter Gottschalk, whose paper explores taxonomies in the context of the census of India, which did not focus on religion alone, but used paradigms from the natural sciences that were becoming prominent in the nineteenth century. This combination of surveillance in the guise of science, he argues, led to a double sense of binding in which data was bound to officials and individuals, but groups were bound to particular religious and social identities as well. Second, Arvind Mandair looks at German Indology, especially Hegel, to ask why the same sorts of scrutiny applied by western academics to Indian Renaissance figures are not similarly applied to key sociological thinkers in Europe such as Max Weber or Karl Marx. Whereas Gottschalk and Mandair look at boundaries between Europeans and Indians, Sufia Uddin's chapter focuses on Hindu-Muslim interaction in the Bengali speaking region of South Asia, with a critical eye focused on the beliefs and practices associated with the figure of Bonbibi, well known as the guardian of the Sunderbans. In this harsh environment, Hindus and Muslims share common ecological concerns leading to a focus on Bonbibi, who is revered by both religious communities.

Boundaries have borders, and it is precisely at these borders where encounters are the most intense, leading to contestation. But contestation, although often about resistance, usually leads to negotiation within permeable spheres of interaction, inevitably resulting in appropriations. The second set of chapters uses this key term as an analytical anchor. The second editor, Schmalz, explores Catholic charismatic healing in the city of Varanasi, which is much better known as a site sacred to Hindus. However, due to their minority status, Catholics cannot efficiently patrol the borders of their bounded Catholic prayer services, which are breached by the majority Hindu population that participates actively in them. Bounded spaces, he argues, inevitably invite breaching, just as secrets invite leaking, for the purpose is not completely to conceal but bind with the intent to reveal. In a fascinating study, William Pinch examines how the miraculous cult of Saint Xavier attracted the attention of both the British and Indians, with the testimonies of low-caste Goan fisher folk ultimately providing the necessary evidence to canonize him. Indians thus appropriated the contested figure's charisma for their own purposes, which necessitated the reconfiguration of the relationship between Europe and India. Liz Wilson's chapter on Gotami, the aunt of the Buddha, questions if the feminist interventions in the female immolation debates are in fact appropriate. In the end, she argues that Gotami's life and actions as a woman who founded a female monastic order must be understood within the context of a patriarchal culture.

The last three essays focus on the key term resistance. Resistance to various forms of hegemonies is something that inevitably occurs when boundaries are imposed and maintained, and also when they are breached. Therefore, due to unequal power relationships between the controllers of space and those who have none or very little of their own, subtle forms of resistance, often disguised, emerge to cope with inequality to demand social justice. This section begins with James Laine's reflections on the violent and controversial events surrounding the banning of his book on the Marathi hero Shivaji in India. He finds resistance as a multidirectional phenomenon that shifts as contexts change, which leads to serious questions about the nature of insiders and outsiders within the global academic enterprise. Shazad Bashir also engages in the insider-outsider debate by thinking back on his research among the Nurbakhshis of Baltistan, located in his ancestral home of Pakistan. He suggests that for him as a “returning son” boundaries initially did provide a form of resistance that allowed him to conduct academic research. Once boundaries are established, he writes that it is quite unpredictable how one's ethnographic subjects use the research for their own purposes. Paul Courtwright, whose study of Ganesh also drew considerable controversy because of its Freudian slant, rounds out the collection. He defends the academic's responsibility to remain true to the time honored intellectual tradition of interpretation and critical engagement with indigenous paradigms that are often at odds with ivory tower ones.

The historian Saurabh Dube rounds out the volume with an afterword, followed by three very brief “responses” by three of the contributors. All in all, the volume is tightly edited and a welcome addition to the literature. However, one could also argue that the third section on the personal plights of controversial academics would have been better left out. In the end, though, we must all admit that the researcher is as complicit as the colonial civil servant in creating and rupturing boundaries, as well as in appropriating ideas and data, which can only lead to variety of forms of resistance among all parties concerned in the end.