Book excerpt: This is a book that examines the nineteenth-century cultural history of Orissa from the postcolonial angle by drawing primarily from literary sources. It focuses on issues such as feudalism and colonial modernity, language politics and the rhetoric of progress, westernisation, nativity and border crossing. It brings the archival material to centre stage and employs theatrical tools from the fields of gender, translation and culture studies. The book shows the intersections between colonial subjugations and postcolonial longings.