The companion volume to the best-selling Puffin History of India for Children: 3000 BC � AD 1947, Roshen Dalal�s new history of post-Independence India tells the story of the making of the nation that we live in, and the events and personalities that have shaped it in recent times.

The Puffin History of India for Children: 1947 to the Present begins at a turning point of Indian history, as India attains independence and the British withdraw from the subcontinent. Independent India�s first few years are eventful and epoch-making: before the traumas of Partition and of the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi have fully subsided, the focus must shift to laying the blueprint of the new nation, with the making of the Constitution, the integration of the 565 princely states, the setting-up of the administrative, legislative and judiciary systems, and the establishment of an infrastructure for industry and agriculture. The author follows this key period in Indian history closely, from the first Republic Day celebrations in 1950 to the first general elections in 1952, and the implementation of the subsequent agendas for social and economic development envisaged by Jawaharlal Nehru.