Deborah Sutton is Professor of South Asian History at Lancaster University. She is the author of Other Landscapes: Colonialism and the Predicament of Authority in Nineteenth-Century South India.

• ImagesAbbreviationsGlossaryAcknowledgementsIntroduction The Temple in Imperial CultureChapter Structure1. Company Rule and Temples in the Madras Presidency, 1800–1841 Temples and the Topography of WarHindu Temples as the Property of the Company GovernmentThe "Accounts of the Church": Company Officers and Temple RevenuesCompetition, Succession Disputes, and Company AdjudicationAssets, Accounts, and Corruptions in Temple AdministrationChristian Missions and the Ejection of the Company from TemplesConclusion2. The Hindu Temple in Nineteenth-Century Architectural Scholarship IntroductionEarly European AccountsText, Architecture, and Buildings: Ram Raz and the Recovery of the Hindu TempleThe "Stone Book": James Fergusson and Ethnographies of ArchitectureFergusson's Taxonomies of Temple ArchitectureSelf-reproduction and the Hindu TempleConclusion3. Colonial Archaeology and the Idea of the Temple as a Monument Temples as MonumentsThe Temples of BhubaneswarHindu Temples and ConservationConclusion4. Siting and Inciting Shrines in the City of Delhi The Shiv Mandir DisputeThe Cities of Delhi and Temples as Rubble: The Removal of ShrinesCreating Temples and Negotiating New PublicsRumour and Divine Emergence5. Dark Spaces and the Body: The Temple in Victorian and Edwardian Literature Hinduism and the British ImaginationVictorian AdventuresRudyard Kipling and the Hindu TempleGods in History: E.M. Forster, Civilisation, and WarE.M. Forster's A Passage to IndiaConclusion6. The World Mountain: Stella Kramrisch and the Hindu Temple Stella Kramrisch and Indian ArtKramrisch and the Hindu TempleThe Search for Acceptance: Stella Kramrisch, William Rothenstein, and British Art HistoryA Better Alliance: Kramrisch and the Warburg Institute Exhibition, 1940ConclusionConclusion BibliographyIndex

"In a post-Babri Masjid demolition world, Sutton's contribution is a nuanced history that shows us how the idea of a temple came to be what it is today. It is an important resource for historians, art historians, and scholars of religious studies. It is also an excellent resource for introducing undergraduate students to the intersection of historiography and colonial power." — American Historical Review"a fascinating exploration of the intricacies of British imperial engagement with the Hindu temple from the emergence through to the end of colonial rule in India. Sutton takes us on a journey of bureaucratic and legal entanglements, destruction and resistance as the colonial state sought to define, control and subjugate this central site of devotion in Indian society." — History Today"Deborah Sutton's pathbreaking study Ruling Devotion: The Hindu Temple in the British Imperial Imagination offers a new understanding of the modern history of the Hindu temple in India." — The Wire