Animal Kingdoms: Hunting, the Environment, and Power in the Indian Princely States

This admirable and well-written study of hunting and elite identity in north Indian princely states in the later nineteenth and early twentieth century is a welcome addition to social and environmental history of this period. -- Kalyanakrishnan Sivaramakrishnan, Professor of Anthropology and of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University A first-rate book—lucid in style and meticulous in research. A major contribution to the worlds of princely India and environmental history. Hughes skillfully weaves the use of archival sources, memoirs, and visual images to bring to light little-explored dimensions of the encounters of princes and their quarry, with the British and their increasingly restive subjects. -- Mahesh Rangarajan, Director, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, and Professor in Modern Indian History, University of Delhi Animal Kingdoms is a book that opens up many new avenues: it will be cited and referenced for years to come. -- Maan Barua * South Asian History and Culture * Animal Kingdoms is brilliant scholarship at its best and should be considered a very substantial addition to the now mature field of South Asian environmental history. It enables with its themes, concerns and vibrant engagements many different scripts on political ecology and environmental imagination. -- Rohan D’Souza * International Journal of Asian Studies * Students of wildlife management and ecology, as well as historians of India and the British Empire, will welcome this thought-provoking study. -- Thomas R. Metcalf * Journal of Interdisciplinary History * The book does a marvelous job of explaining how Indian princes under the raj wrested and implemented their autonomy in the domain of hunting environments. -- Prakash Kumar * American Historical Review *