The lives and afterlives of 50 incredible Indian people from ancient India to the 21st century.

Historian Sunil Khilnani, Professor of History and Politics at Ashoka University, takes listeners on an immersive, whirlwind journey from ancient India to the 21st century through the life stories of 50 remarkable individuals, exploring their surprising legacies and illuminating both the wonders and the urgent conflicts of India today.

From the 5th century grammarian Panini, a pioneer in algorithmic thinking, to the wandering poetess Mirabai, challenger of the gender and caste order; from Malik Ambar, a 16th century north African who became a Deccan kingmaker, to Dhirubhai Ambani, the 20th century entrepreneur whose son now ranks among the world's richest billionaires; from Lakshmibai, the 19th century queen who enjoyed weightlifting, wrestling and steeplechasing, and who became a lightning rod for India's attitudes to women, to the contemporary painter M.F. Husain, who shaped a distinctive Indian modernism; Khilnani brings to life an extraordinary panorama of India's most revealing and resonant lives.

Guests featured include Javed Akhtar, one of the great songwriters of Indian cinema, renowned actress Sharmila Tagore, historian Romila Thapar, poet Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, artists Howard Hodgkin and Bharti Kher, Nobel prize-winning economist Amartya Sen, author and political activist Arundhati Roy, and Sanskrit scholar Sheldon Pollock.

With the help of these experts, Khilnani investigates the lives of political strategists and social reformers, filmmakers and farmers, mathematicians and religious gurus, warriors and saints, artists and slaves, industry titans and freedom fighters, who have co-existed in a country bound together by its people, in all their differences and commonalities. The chosen lives conjure up an India full of relevance and infinite range, celebrating the variety of the country in all its diversity of thought, religion, politics and art.

Production credits

Presented by Sunil Khilnani

Produced by Mark Savage, Jeremy Grange and Martin Williams

Editor: Hugh Levinson

Music composed by: Talvin Singh

Researcher: Manu Pillai

Executive Producer: Martin Smith

First broadcast BBC Radio 4 on the following dates:

The Buddha: 11 May 2015

Mahavira: 12 May 2015

Panini: 13 May 2015

Kautilya: 14 May 2015

Ashoka: 15 May 2015

Charaka: 18 May 2015

Aryabhata: 19 May 2015

Shankaracharya: 20 May 2015

Rajaraja Chola: 21 May 2015

Basavana: 22 May 2015

Amir Khusro: 25 May 2015

Kabir: 26 May 2015

Guru Nanak: 27 May 2015

Krishnadevaraya: 28 May 2015

Mirabai: 29 May 2015

Akbar: 1 June 2015

Malik Ambar: 2 June 2015

Dara Shikoh: 3 June 2015

Shivaji: 4 June 2015

Nainsukh: 5 June 2015

William Jones: 8 June 2015

Rammohan Roy: 9 June 2015

Lakshmibai, Rani of Jhansi: 10 June 2015

Jyotirao Phule: 11 June 2015

Birsa Munda: 12 June 2015

Deen Dayal: 26 July 2021

Jamsetji Tata: 27 July 2021

Vivekananda: 28 July 2021

Annie Besant: 29 July 2021

Chidambaram Pillai: 30 July 2021

Ramanujan: 2 August 2021

Tagore: 3 August 2021

Visvesvaraya: 4 August 2021

Periyar: 5 August 2021

Iqbal: 6 August 2021

Amrita Sher-Gil: 9 August 2021

Subhas Chandra Bose: 10 August 2021

Gandhi: 11 August 2021

Jinnah: 12 August 2021

Manto: 13 August 2021

Bhimrao Ambedkar: 16 August 2021

Raj Kapoor: 17 August 2021

Sheikh Abdullah: 18 August 2021

Krishna Menon: 19 August 2021

Subbulakshmi: 20 August 2021

Indira Gandhi: 23 August 2021

Satyajit Ray: 24 August 2021

Charan Singh: 25 August 2021

MF Husain: 26 August 2021

Dhirubhai Ambani: 27 August 2021