'Incarnations makes the mind fly across time; place and history. You may smile as; mentally; you walk alongside Khilnani up some flinty slope. You will keep thinking about what he said long after' Daily Telegraph For all of India's myths; its sea of stories and moral epics; Indian history remains a curiously unpeopled place. Sunil Khilnani's Incarnations fills that space: recapturing the human dimension of how the world's largest democracy came to be. In this stunningly illustrated and deeply researched book; accompanying his major BBC Radio 4 series; Khilnani explores the lives of 50 Indians; from the spiritualist Buddha to the capitalist Dhirubhai Ambani - lives that light up India's rich; varied past and its continuous ferment of ideas. Khilnani's trenchant portraits of emperors; warriors; philosophers; poets; stars; and corporate titans - some famous; some unjustly forgotten - bring feeling; wry humour; and uncommon insight to social dilemmas that extend from ancient times to our own. As he journeys across the country; and through its past; Khilnani uncovers more than just history. In rocket launches and ayurvedic call centres; in slum temples and Bollywood studios; in California communes and grimy ports; he examines the continued; and often surprising; relevance of the men and women who have made India - and the world - what it is. Their stories will inform; move and entertain this book's many readers.