Includes a CD of Indian music.
India - one nation but many peoples, many languages, many religions, many political conflicts, where ancient traditions and bustling modernity exist side by side. Today it is home to some of the liveliest literature in the English-speaking world - and to atomic bombs as well. In her introduction to this collection, the author argues that all the contradictions of modern India, including its very identity as a nation, are laid bare by its nuclear programme.
In this collection, distinguished writers from East and West offer penetrating insights into the complexities of the subcontinent, its history, politics and literature. From its earliest women poets to Rabindranath Tagore, from the Raj to the dawn of the Indian nuclear age, from its peaks of literary culture to its traumas of ethnic bloodshed, these essays trace paths through a land of almost unfathomable variety, try to unravel the legacies of India's past and to discern the shape of India's future.
