The late Alice Thorner, editor of this volume, had been studying, teaching and writing on the economic and social history of South Asia since 1940. She was co-author, with her husband Daniel Thorner, of Land and Labour in India (1962). In collaboration with Sujata Patel, she edited two volumes of essays Bombay: A Mosaic of Modern Culture and Bombay: A Metaphor for Modern India (1995).
