Destination India: A US couple's compelling journey

A compelling journey undertaken by an eminent political scientist couple from the US in a Land Rover from London to Jaipur, recording their impressions and experiences of people and places encountered on the way, and an extensive research on India form the subject of a new book.
"Destination India: From London Overland to India, And What We Learned There" is an account of the travels of Lloyd I Rudolph and his wife Susanne Hoeber Rudolph and an account of India less than a decade after independence.
In the summer of 1956, the Rudolphs embarked on a 5000-mile journey on their Land Rover that took them 'East of Suez', across the ecological and cultural lines distinguishing Europe from Asia, and then over the Khyber into the Indian subcontinent.

Part primary source, part analysis, the book, published by Oxford University Press, also provides an account of what the Rudolphs subsequently learned over five decades of teaching and writing about India, including 11 years of research in India.
"What took us to India in 1956 was its location on a new frontier, post-colonial government and politics. 'Destination India' is a book about why and how India came to occupy a central place in our imaginations and our lives," the couple say.
"Day by day and mile by mile, we recorded our impressions and experiences of people, landscapes, and encounters as we drove a 107-inch wheelbase Land Rover from London to Jaipur," they write.

Funded by a Ford Foundation Foreign Area Training Fellowship, the Rudolphs purchased the land rover for delivery in London and set off in mid-July on their overland journey across Europe to Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan, crossing into the Indian sub-continent over the Khyber Pass to Peshawar, travelling through the Punjab to Lahore and Amritsar, and then to New Delhi and Jaipur.