The independence of India was a time of hope and uncertainty in equal measure. It was also a time of accelerated history, when every decision—whether considered or arbitrary—had a lasting effect on its vast and diverse populace. In the decades since, India has evolved into a globally prominent nation of enormous promise and achievement, great contradictions and conflict. In this book, Patrick French, chronicles the epic change. With his superb sense of history and political insight, and an eye for the extraordinary that is as keen as his understanding of the everyday, he builds a compelling narrative of the social and economic revolutions that are transforming India in fundamental ways. Beginning with an account of how the Union was conceived and put together—when India took 'a gamble on democracy'—he examines the astonishing shift from rigid socialism to unbridled capitalism. Along the way, French also paints revealing portraits of Nehru, Ambedkar, Indira and Sonia Gandhi, Mayawati, L.K. Advani and Manmohan Singh. And through his travels across India, he speaks to Maoist revolutionaries, mafia dons, chained quarry workers, technological innovators, cash-rich pimps and self-made billionaire entrepreneurs, trying to answer the central question of the book: 'Why is India like it is today?'