Tambe (women's studies and history, U. of Toronto, Canada) offers a history of legal regulation of prostitution in Bombay (now Mumbai) in pre-independence India, covering the regulationist phase of the Contagious Diseases Acts, from around 1860 until 1890; the antitrafficking phase, emerging at the turn of the 20th century and lasting into the 1920s; and the abolitionist phase, combining antitrafficking and nationalist discourses, from around 1917 to 1947. Her narrative pays particular heed to the disconnect between the language of law and law enforcement practices and how they reflect the relative power of interested actors, as well as to how the regulation regimes influenced state violence against prostitutes. Annotation ©2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)