US officials deny that Headley was a double agent. ibid.
I’ll have the fly to India for gold,
Ransack the ocean for orient pearl. Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus, 1604
India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grandmother of tradition. Our most valuable and most astrictive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only! Mark Twain
So far as I am able to judge, nothing has been left undone, either by man or nature, to make India the most extraordinary country that the sun visits on his rounds. Nothing seems to have been forgotten, nothing overlooked. Mark Twain
60 years ago India threw off the chains of the British empire and became a free nation. And now the world’s largest democracy is rushing headlong into the future. Michael Wood, The Story of India I, BBC 2012
The rest of the world was populated from here. ibid.
Since ancient times Indian civilisation has been driven by great ideas, by the search for knowledge and truth. Here in south India the people of the Jain religion pay homage to a teacher who was once a king, who renounced his kingdom to seek enlightenment. Michael Wood, The Story of India II
The caste system into which all Hindis are born, marry and die. The caste system divides people from birth. ibid.
The nature of the human condition, he [Buddha] thought, is suffering. ibid.
Persians vs Alexander and the Greeks ... An ancient Greek version of Mad Max. ibid.
India has traded with the world since the beginning of history. Michael Wood: The Story of India III: Spice Routes and Silk Road
What the Indians wanted most of all was gold. ibid.
This is a journey back to the Golden Age – real and imaginary. Michael Wood: The Story of India IV: Ages of Gold
It was the Sufi saints who first brought Islam and the people of India together. Michael Wood: The Story of India V: The Meeting of Two Oceans
The world’s richest economy had begun to decline. ibid.
The quest for Hindu/Muslim unity has never been abandoned. ibid.
The tale of India’s last invader – the British – is a chain of accidents. Michael Wood: The Story of India VI: Freedom
The British victory in south India came in 1799. ibid.
The war was not just about power but profit. ibid.
Bengal became a mainstay of British imperialism. ibid.
The food too – which has spread across the entire world. ibid.
Everything would be changed by the Great Rebellion of 1857. ibid.
The British Raj was one of the most ingenious and adaptive empires in history – an immense patchwork embracing nearly a quarter of the people of the planet. ibid.
Imperialism is never benign. ibid.
1947: Great floods of people fled in fear … Up to a million died … Could the partition have been avoided? ibid.
The British – they were tried and found wanting. ibid.
The world’s biggest democracy is looking once again to the future. ibid.
India – the ancient, the eternal and the ever new. ibid.
Famed for its almost perfect symmetry. Known the world over as the symbol of India ... Yet the identity of the architect is one of the monument’s greatest mysteries. Mystery Files: Taj Mahal, National Geographic 2011
The Taj Mahal is perhaps one of the most public declarations of lost love ever seen. But the myth has it the Shah is not yet finished: he plans a second monument across the Jumna River ... The legend of the Black Taj. ibid.
The midnight garden and pool complete the Taj Mahal complex. ibid.
Mortimer Wheeler faces his darkest hour as an archaeologist in British India. In 1947 the Crown colonies are on the brink of partition. Civil war is raging. Wheeler has to quit the location of a unique discovery – the cradle of urban civilisation along the Indus River. Who lived here? India: The First Civilisation
Scholars speak of over 50,000 inhabitants. ibid.
The masters of the Bronze Age may have been illiterate. ibid.
A fresh water and sewage system. ibid.
Down a dusty backstreet in a rural Indian town one house is home to 100 pregnant women. They’re carrying babies they’ll soon hand over to couples from around the world. And it’s all the work of Dr Nana Patel. She’s the pioneer of a booming commercial surrogacy industry. House of Surrogates, BBC 2013
Sam & Yana have paid a fee of around $28,000 to Dr Patel’s clinic for its services. ibid.
The surrogate mothers have no genetic link to the babies they carry. ibid.
Returning home with your newborn can be fraught with difficulty. ibid.
‘The surrogate gets on average $8,000.’ ibid. Dr Patel
Winston Churchill said he was revolted at the spectacle of this seditious fakir striding half-naked up the steps of the Viceroy’s palace to negotiate on equal terms with the representative of the King Emperor. Great Crimes and Trials: The Gandhi Assassination
As the Mahatma walked to prayer that 30th January he was shot. His murderer and accomplice hanged, contrary to Gandhi’s teachings. ibid.
Welcome to India: over one in six in the world live here, and to make ends meet, more of us are moving to the city than anywhere else on Earth. We’re resourceful and highly resilient. Welcome to India, BBC 2012
Indian housewives own 11% of the globe’s gold stocks. ibid.
Over 90% of our working population earn their money off the books, generating two-thirds of our GDP. ibid.
There’s a mounting panic among residents of the beach in Mumbai – there’s word that the Council are serious about their eviction threat and are sending over their bulldozers. ibid.
Back at base, Jura and four employees strip off the labels and sort the [plastic] bottles by colour. Welcome to India II
The world’s largest ship recycler. ibid.
There is a ‘system’ around here ... And the mob are an integral part of it. ibid.
A material opportunity for a better future. Welcome to India III
The Ganges is a sacred being. ibid.
You mean the Khasi. That’s Randy Lal. Carry on Up the Khyber 1968 starring Sid James & Kenneth Williams & Charles Hawtrey & Roy Castle & Joan Sims & Bernard Bresslaw & Peter Butterworth & Terry Scott & Angela Douglas et al, director Gerald Thomas
It’s long been known that you – the Burpers – are the greatest fighters in all Afghanistan. ibid. Khasi
Quit India. Protest slogan
It is complete independence that we want. Mahatma Gandhi
Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the act depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest. Mahatma Gandhi
At the stroke of the midnight hour, while the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. Jawaharial Nehru, speech Assembly 14th August 1947
The light has gone out of our lives and there is darkness everywhere. Jawaharial Nehru, re Gandhi’s assassination
I may lose many things including my temper, but I do not lose my nerve. Jawaharial Nehru, press conference Delhi 4th June 1958
Democracy and socialism are means to an end, not the end itself. Jawaharial Nehru