This book investigates how the construction of a modern Indian national identity utilized classical music as a vehicle to reinforce specific cultural and religious exclusions. Janaki Bakhle, a scholar of South Asian history, examines the historical transition of Indian classical music from a diverse, practitioner-led tradition to a codified, Brahmanic-centered national symbol. By analyzing the intersection of colonial policy and nationalist rhetoric, she argues that the formation of this cultural identity was deeply exclusionary toward Muslim practitioners who had historically sustained the art form.

Scholars and historians frequently cite this work as a critical intervention in the study of Indian cultural nationalism and the politics of identity. Readers often note the academic density of the prose, which provides a rigorous examination of the socio-political mechanisms behind the canonization of Indian classical music.