I had set out with the intention of presenting before you as complete a picture of Indian Islam as it is observed, practised and interpreted as it is possible for any student of social history. In the course of editing these volumes I have expanded and stretched my own understanding of Islam and its many manifestations. I have, also, in the process used and introduced a wide variety of published materials for a more nuanced understanding of history. In this volume, in particular, I seek to explore the many different traditions within the broad sweep of Islam across the length and breadth of the subcontinent. From pan-Islamism to Socialism, from an appeal to nationalism to an equally rousing call for Unitarian Islam, from sectarianism to Sufism, this book is an eclectic mix. The next volume in this series, the sixth and the last one, shall be on Partition and its aftermath. What I have hoped to achieve, as the editor of this series, is to present the religious and secular identity of the Muslim communities as reflected in the literatures about them, written by them or on them. The essays included in these volumes will, I hope, enrich our understanding of the richness and variety of Islam in the subcontinent. I also hope that they will generate interest in exploring the many more themes which may not have figures in the volumes.