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This introductory chapter discusses Hindu caste and ritual. It examines the religious texts in Sanskrit, which serve as relevant sources of information on Indian society. It takes a look at anthropological research and the formation of a positivist approach, as well as the consequences of defining social reality based on concreteness. It introduces Louis Dumont's writings, where he rejects the dichotomy between behaviour and thought, and insists that an explanatory model cannot be limited to copying observed reality. It then pinpoints the two Sanskrit texts that will be analyzed in detail, namely the Dharmaranya Purana and the Grihya Sutra of Gobhila. The chapter also studies the caste Puranas, who are defined as a class of Sanskrit language that is concerned with the five main themes of creation.

This chapter discusses the history of Hindus and Muslims in India. The first section studies the Muslim invasion of India, which challenged Hinduism. It describes the State in medieval India as non-religious and non-secular, but controlled by the foreign élite who possessed superior military power. It then examines the structure of politics and the administration, which changed in response to the Indian situation. The following section focuses on the Hindu caste system and the effect the aristocratic culture had on the Hindus and the Muslims. Unlike the Hindus, the Muslims theoretically considered themselves as brothers and were split by their consciousness of class, race, economic status, and caste. The chapter also discusses the myths that became widespread during this time.

Throughout the nineteenth century traditional Indian birthing practices were under scrutiny of both Bengali and British reformers. Missionaries and British doctors believed that non-hygienic practices of traditional birth attendants, known as dhais—who were generally lower-caste Hindus or poor Muslims—and the unhygienic condition of the anturghar or sutikagriha (where birthing took place) were the main causes of high rates of maternal mortality. Many physicians wrote medical guidebooks in simple Bengali and articles on improved midwifery were published in vernacular popular magazines to instruct women in modern reproductive practices. Institutionalized training programmes for midwives were introduced in the 1870s. For the colonized people, modernization of reproductive health was part of the desire for self-improvement and formulation of middle-class identity. The emphasis on unsanitary practices of the traditional birth attendants made them more and more marginalized in the emerging discourse on science and modernity.