Mira Kamdar explores India in all its complexity--from its ancient civilization and kingdoms to its days as a British colony, and from its independence to the current moment and its challenges. Kamdar expertly navigates India's contradictions and complications, while celebrating the merging of its artistic and intellectual heritage with the Iinformation Age. This book is isdispensable to anyone seeking to understand contemporary India.--book cover.

Part I. How India got to the twenty-first century. India's civilizational legacy ; British Raj and the road to independence ; A new republic -- Part II. Will the twenty-first century be India's century?. Society ; Economy ; Politics ; Geopolotics ; Environment.