Synopsis This volume addresses a key concern of historians and social scientists today by undermining conventional assumptions of a binary division between 'modern' European nation states and 'pre-modern' Asian empires. It brings together historians of the Qing, Ottoman, Mughal and British Indian empires to address the modern transformation of these regions without dividing world history into western and non-Western. What is unusual is the focused attention on early modern non-European empires which contained many apparently 'modern' institutions and processes, examined within the unifying theme of 'modernity'.With the realization that major empires of Eurasia such as the Mughal Indian, Ottoman and Qing Chinese empires shared many features with European imperial formations, including British India, this book fills the vital need of giving more attention to the non-European world