"In these nine essays that were originally published in The New York Review of Books, seven distinguished writers offer penetrating insights into the complexities of the subcontinent. Roderick MacFarquhar reflects on the legacy of Empire and Partition, Ian Buruma investigates the challenges to secularism in Indian democracy, Christopher de Bellaigue explores the violent politics of Mumbai, and Pankaj Mishra remembers life in turbulent Benares. The volatile intersections of history, politics, and culture on which they focus haunt Indian literature, too, as shown in essays by Nobel Prize winner Amartya Sen on Rabindranath Tagore, Hilary Mantel on Rohinton Mistry, and Anita Desai on Indian women's writing across the centuries."--BOOK JACKET.