David Ludden provides a comprehensive historical framework for the understanding of regional diversity of agrarian South Asia. Adopting a long-term view, he treats South Asia not as a single civilization territory, but as a patchwork of agrarian regions, with their own social, cultural and political histories. He traces these histories from medieval times to the present. As a comparative synthesis of the literature on agrarian regimes in South Asia, this will be a valuable resource for students of agrarian and regional history, as well as comparative world history.