ABSTRACT
Today this past remains-adjacent to and in stark contrast with the new India of glittering steel and glass buildings in vibrant, bustling cities that are becoming centers of global commerce. The many department stores and office buildings rise amid city streets of tight, continuous traffic of fast-moving luxury cars, motorized and bicycle rickshaws-every kind of vehicle imaginable, old and new-while shining, beautiful, and elaborate new universities and temples and ancient walls, forts, and religious shrines stand proud. Yet a turn off main thoroughfares leads to inner cities of stark poverty, teeming with people in cramped stone or wooden buildings or in makeshift hovels and tents of tin, canvas, and broken ancient stone. And in many places rural India remains much as it has been for hundreds of years.
