CONTENTS Features

ISSUE 1

Women train as stretcher-bearers in Bombay (now Mumbai) in 1942. Discover how the Second World War impacted on the lives of ordinary Indians on page 22

I M A G E S

G E T T Y

22 Famine and freedom: how war ignited India BY YASMIN KHAN How hardships endured by Indians on the home front during the Second World War shaped the face of modern India 34 THE BIG QUESTION

Why did the west dominate for so long? A panel of leading experts debates the reasons why – and if – Europe and North America held sway over global power for centuries

52 1966 and the three crises of the Beatles BY CLIFFORD WILLIAMSON Why, on the Fab Four’s final world tour, global politics was as important as music 64 Art of Africa The curator of a new exhibition of South African art guides us through his highlights 74 The Koh-i-Noor controversy BY WILLIAM DALRYMPLE The story of the world’s most famous diamond, still contested after eight centuries

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