The Idea of India: 20th Anniversary EditionA classic since it was first published in 1997, The Idea of India is a magisterial historical study that addresses the paradoxes and ironies of the worlds largest democracy. When, in 1947, the British divided and departed their most prized imperial possession, they handed a huge, diverse, and poor society to a small nationalist elite. For decades this elite would uphold a political construct, an idea of India grounded in democracy, religious