An interpretative history of India from her pre-historic Indus Valley civilization to the present period of English imperialism as seen through the microscope of a brilliant westernised humanist, written during his war-time imprisonment. This is a discovery of India in terms of her past, her geography, religion, art, racial groups. And here, too, are the 200 years of English domination and its failure. Nehru sees India stimulated by the industrial revolution brought by the British- but barred from participation and resultant prosperity for her people by imperialistic aggrandizement. Dynamic, progressive, Nehru defines the communal problem as actually a struggle between the remnants of feudal order and modernist ideas and Pakistan as an influence, a factor in strengthening those feudal elements. With Russia as another influence, Nehru proposes in answer to the Cripps' mission, full independence for India, and internationally a policy of freedom for dependent nations. The credo of an esoteric, enlightened group of Indian leaders who look to the future.