India, China and Egypt are the oldest civilizations of the world. China has begun to revive its glory. India is emerging as a continuing and living civilization that now continues the path of development with acceptance and tolerance with Hinduism as the backbone of understanding others. Egyptian Civilization has created writing and magnificent Pyramids and architecture. Rome conquered Cleopatra and dismantled that civilization. British first came to India for trade but began colonization process of India through establishment of East India company in 1600 AD. King James 1 wrote to Jahangir,  Moghul Emperor,  ruling India at that time, and asked him in 1617 for trading rights through Thomas Roe, a British parliamentarian. The privileges and rights to trade were granted to British. Within 150 years East India Trading Company created its own army with local Indian soldiers and defeated last Moghul king Bahdur Shah Zafar in Delhi in 1857 and with it the Moghul Muslim Rule of India that lasted about 700 years. East India Company handed over the political control over India to the English Crown and English parliament which governed India for the economic advantage of Britain and to the detriment of Indian economy and people. As a result India’s contribution to world GDP declined from 24% to 4% during this period of colonization and England achieved its industrial revolution at the expense of the colonies of which India was most significant. Notwithstanding this colonial occupation, India supported the First and Second World War efforts which support was received by Britain without gratitude and India was denied independence. 

Mahatma Gandhi, in keeping with passive Hindu tradition, led the non-violent  movement for independence. He was scorned by Winston Churchill as a Fakir when it came to granting independence after the end of the war in 1945. Atlee as the Labour Party prime minister finally granted independence to India in 1947. It set in motion the process of dismantling of the British Empire of about 60 colonies by granting of independence and right of self governance. Most of the colonies became independent in the nineteen sixties period described in this novel.

The current Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, a Hindu Gujarati, is leading the country to reunite the country and industrialize it with the slogan “Make it India’, and to regain the glory of Indian civilization of 5000 years. Many have come to India including Alexander the Great of Greece, and have gone. Muslims from the present day Afghanistan and Iran came to India with raids and finally conquered India in 1192 defeating the Hindu king Prithviraj Chauhan. The contribution of Hindu Indian civilization to the world culture is the tradition of pacifism and vegetarian philosophy of life with tolerance of others.  

Subhash Chandra Bose was a Bengali Indian who did not believe that British would leave India without armed conflict. Gandhi and Bose disagreed at the Indian National Congresss on how India could gain independence. Voice of Gandhi on passive resistance prevailed. He was house arrested by the British and escaped to Berlin in 1942 where during the second world war he was supported by Hitler. There he married his secretary Emily Schenkl who was Austrian. Bose and Emily Schenkl had a daughter born in 1942 called Anita Bose and who later married and became Pfaff. She is a Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Ausberg in South Germany near Munich. As of the date of this book she is about 74 years of age and alive. Bose died mysteriously on about 18th August, 1945 in Taiwan. British Secret Service was looking for Bose. Mukherjee Commission appointed by  Indian Parliament did not find tangible evidence of British involvement in the death of Bose in the report published on 17th May 2006. Hitler supported Bose in Berlin and gave grant of 750 German Marks per month to Bose to operate ‘Azad Hind Radio’ in Berlin which broadcast the military effort of Bose to liberate India. About 3000 Indian soldiers, fighting for the British in Lybian campaign of British against Germans, during the second world war were brought to Germany and trained by the Germans to fight for Indian independence. This part of the history is ignored by western historians. This novel mentions the story of Bose in the Berlin chapter.