The book is primarily a self-presentation of Indian sociologists and their recent theoretical and empirical research endeavours. Not only it provides an opportunity for diagnosing what Indian sociologists have identified as the most important issues for various social communities, but also helps reproduce the idiomatic interpretation of modernization in the colonial and post-colonial contexts. And, last but not least, it offers a convenient point of departure for reflection on Western Europe and its international role-modelling function.

The book deserves to be read carefully not only because it provides an excellent review of universality, rationality and diversity in post-colonial India but also because it shows that it makes sense to translate the western world of modernization into the categories and images of Indian capitalist modernization. By approaching the determinants, mechanisms and consequences of this translation in contemporary India so comprehensively and insightfully, it directs our attention towards European modernization rationale and helps take stock of European sociological achievements. And, it is particularly valuable for Polish sociology and sociologists to have a better view of the Western European case of translation of capitalist models of transformation vis-a-vis the European context and the global context.