Collins Illustrated Guide to All India

This guide takes the reader through the cultural and political history of India, with its people, their festivals and religions, and it provides a guide to the palaces, towns, museums and well-known sites, as well as more obscure deserts, jungles and mountains.

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India - a vast subcontinent of cultural contrasts, of complexity and contradictions and of great natural beauty - pulses with the past yet is a thriving modern country with an impressive record of self-sufficiency. As Paul Scott, author of the "Raj Quartet", advised, India cannot be rushed; "...go out, but let India come to you. She comes slowly. Trek in the foothills of the Himalayas, climb a mountain, photograph wildlife...observe a festival". The All India Guide takes this theme and leads the traveller gently into the rich tapestry of India, its cultural and political history, its people and their festivals and religions, and takes a fascinating path across the land from the palaces, towns and museums, from the well-known sites and the obscure, to deserts and jungles, national parks and mountains. Author Toby Sinclair, a resident of India for many years, introduces a country he knows intimately and which he describes both vividly and practically.