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Indian Journeys

3 x 50
Broadcaster:  BBC

Commissioned by the BBC as a landmark for the end of the 20th century, Indian Journeys looks at some of the great spiritual journeys of India's past and shows how they have influenced the country. These ambitious journeys are familiar territory for the presenter William Dalrymple, whose best-selling books about China, The Middle East, and particularly India, have already made him one of the leading writers of his generation.

In the first episode, Dalrymple follows in the paths of the barefoot holy men to find the spectacular source of the Ganges, which lies deep in the glaciers of the high Himalayas, on the very borders of Tibet.

In the second episode, Dalrymple explores the city of Delhi. He concentrates on one of the most intense of Delhi’s mysteries – the ancient tradition of Indian Sufism, about whish little is known in the West.  Indian Sufism fuses many of the best elements of both Islam and Hinduism and has always promoted tolerance.

The last Indian Journey actually begins thousands of miles away in the Middle East. It was from here that St Thomas is said to have travelled to India in the first century. Kerala in Southern India is the heart of the film. In this humid, tropical state, the church that claims to follow Thomas’ teachings does observe a mass that, because it has been preserved almost unchanged for two millennia, is thought to be an accurate reflection of the one held by Christ’s own disciples. Dalrymple reveals the contemporary parallels to Thomas’ world. For in 2000 years surprisingly little has changed in Southern India, as in the time of Thomas, Christianity has to compete with a sea of different faiths.

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