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Désirée Lévi’s intelligent and passionate description of her 1921-1922 journeys, DANS L’INDE: DE CEYLAN AU NEPAL, was first published in Paris a century ago and appears here for the first time in English translation.

Madame Lévi’s honest, unvarnished prose paints a vivid, detailed picture of India’s cultural, political, and social life at a crucial moment in the struggle for independence and recognition. She had a front-row seat to Gandhi’s anti-colonial efforts, visited Hindus, Jains, Parsees and Sikhs in their homes and temples, and socialized with the common men and women too often ignored by Europeans of the period. Thanks to her husband, Sylvain Lévi, a renowned Sanskrit scholar and author of a monumental history of Nepal, she gains access to aspects of life in India and Nepal that otherwise would have eluded her. Their four months as humble visiting professors at Santiniketan, Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s sprawling campus at the epicenter of the Bengali Renaissance, gave her access to India’s intellectual, cultural, and political elites. A completely different experience awaited them in Nepal, where, after a harrowing trek over the Himalayas, they enjoyed four months of luxury and scholarly work in Kathmandu as guests of the royal family. Short visits to Sri Lanka and intrepid journeys across India and Nepal in every conveyance known to man completed their year-long odyssey she faithfully recorded in this book.

Illustrated with period photos by E.O. Hoppé, and enhanced by Pratapaditya Pal’s valuable observations, Désirée’s great-great-grandson, Pascal Fuchshuber’s family insights, and extensive notes by the translator, IN INDIA: FROM SRI LANKA TO NEPAL is an important contribution to the scholarship and understanding of India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka of a century ago.