India is a superlative country in almost every way. It continues to awe even seasoned return travellers with its extreme contrasts of class and colour, opulence and poverty, filth and beauty. This is the land of one of Humanity’s oldest and most fascinating cultures, where vast empty deserts melt into subtropical backwaters. India’s list of world-class sights, monuments, temples and cities is rivalled by few other nations on earth. Here, religion and class mix in a way that seems impossibly sustainable. Yet India has endured for millennia.