Author(s): Larry Collins

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The subject of this book is the eclipse of the British Raj & the birth of an independent India & Pakistan; the violent transformation of that fabled India - the land of maharajas with their palaces, vices, jewels & harems, their gold-caparisoned elephants & their glittering private armies; the India of Kipling's army, with its centuries of legendary heroism, its skirmishes along the Khyber Pass & the Northwest Frontier against the fiercest warriors on the globe, the Pathans, its young British officers commanding troops of a dozen races & religions & castes; the India of tiger hunts & pigsticking, of polo & memsahibs, of dazzling balls & luxurious clubs; the India of astrologers & sadhus, holy men & strange customs; the India that was the heart & soul of an empire - into the new India of Gandhi & Nehru, precursor of the Third World