Nehru says that Afghans after being settled in India were Indianised. He is rather a philosopher of history, and his aim is to make constructive suggestions on the basis of historical knowledge. Nehru is not an academic historian, and his aim is not to narrate the facts of history with meticulous care. It is only a general introduction meant for the general reader. It can be understood and appreciated as an introduction to the cultural history of India, as a study of the various phases in the gradual development of the national mind from the early dawn of civilization to the feverish, twentieth century when British India stood at the threshold of liberty and light. We get all the bits and pieces of history of the country and this is a must read for all the Indians. This is best section of the book in my view. The dawn of the national movement, and what better way to learn about it than through the words of the man who along with Gandhi trembled the colonial rule. The path takes through the times when the British came as traders to India and later went to build a colonial empire. And the lives of Babar, Akbar, the Marathas, all flash before our eyes, as we are led to the colonial times of the British rule, with all the minute details. Through the Arabs, the Mongols we come to the golden time of the Mughal Empire. That is the fact that even though the religion was started in India, the larger part of Buddhism in India merged with Hinduism the book gives a detailed picture of the times.

Then there is the answer to the most perplexing question of Buddhism in India. The dawn of the medieval period and the golden era of the Gupta dynasty give a good insight of India’s foreign relationships with the people of Iran, Greece. The epics, the Mahabharata, the Bhagavad-Gita, Buddha, Ashoka and through all the people, the books and the contemporary records of the time, we get a complete picture of India through the ages. The Indus valley civilization, the coming of the Aryans, Hinduism, caste system, the continuity of the great Indian culture, name it and it is in the book. The whole written and unwritten history of India is given in the book.

The discovery of india is a book by