This book claims that there were many different nationalisms in colonial Bengal. It shows that Bengali Muslims were not opposed to Hindu?Muslim unity, but keen to work on this unity on a regional level. It also shows that Bengali Hindu nationalism was also not a homogeneous body of thought. The diverse responses to the claims of ?difference? raised by other communities produced deep internal variations within their community. Going beyond the Hindu?Muslim or nationalism?communalism binaries, this work opens up an unfamiliar terrain of hidden contestations over the idea of nation in colonial Bengal.