Until quite recently India used to be depicted as an area of developmental darkness, a pool of mute tradition, stubborn stagnation and general failure. To be sure, it had known a glorious past, but that made the contemporary picture even more dismal. It can not be said that India's propaganda efforts have done much to dispel this picture. In the popular imagination it remains a country of marvels – mostly of the past – and monstrosities determining the present. So we seem to stay with the zoo of wonders and monsters that the name of India has evoked since antiquity. However, there are now signs of a weather change. It has become clear that present-day India can boast significant achievements in a number of important fields such as food production, industry, export trade, science and technology. Last but not least, the maintenance of civil liberties - which according to some observers should have properly fallen victim to India's undeniable problems already long ago – is a remarkable and to many a puzzling feature. But these same liberties have in no small measure helped to confirm the received image by highlighting India's problems and failures, which less liberal regimes would hide from the public eye. At any rate, there is perhaps no third world country that is known, warts and all, in such profuse statistical details and yet is so little understood.