Summary Director/narrator Malle concludes his epic documentary by examining the capital city, Bombay, built by the English for colonial needs. He notes the sidewalk vendors are mainly Muslim southern Indians, dating to Mongolian emperors before the English, and that Muslim influence has greatly impacted culture, cuisine, clothing, language and agriculture. The Haji Ali mosque is shown, and Malle states that when the English left in 1947, Muslims separated from India to form Pakistan, basically swapping places with Hindus and Sikhs there. He then shows a petrochemical plant in Thane and Bombay's famed red-light district, composed mainly of Telugu peasants from Andhra Pradesh. A stock exchange is shown and Pashabhai Patel, an industrialist and Swatantra delegate, discusses their fight for free enterprise as the only solution to India's problems. Malle adds that the total lack of social laws protecting against exploitation and corruption is a huge problem. A wedding of two members of the Parsi, pioneers of Indian capitalism, is shown. They came from Persia to escape Muslim persecution and became rich by founding India's first steelworks. Anyone who marries a non-Parsi is ostracized, and when they die, they are not cremated but placed on 'towers of silence' to be eaten by vultures. Yoga is as foreign to them as if they were from France. Malle then shows a recruit being taught how to direct traffic; this profession considers themselves the 'last of the true English', even more 'English' than the British. Vinayak Purohit, a left-wing intellectual, is interviewed. His philosophy is extreme nationalism and is especially anti-Pakistan. Malle shows a textile mill with Swiss machinery and states that the workers have no unions, and that they have consciousness of religion and caste but not of class. He shows a jeep factory and states that demand far outweighs supply, and that people have to be on a waiting list for 7-10 years. An unsuccessful May Day parade by the communists is shown, and is contrasted with an earlier, successful one by the ruling Congress Party. While the communists are divided between reform and revolution, and their philosophy is antithetical with Indian thought, the Congress Party has suffered a power struggle since Nehru's death, with his daughter, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, struggling to continue his democratic/socialist platform of planned economy and private property. A demonstration by Shiv Sena, an extreme right-wing party with racist, xenophobic slogans, is shown; its leader, Bal Thackery, is interviewed. Rajani Desai, an optimistic economist, is interviewed. She states that India needs raw materials and technology, and that foreign businesses don't directly influence Indian politics but pressure their own governments to do that. She states that because there exists a small elite and large stratification in the administration, people feel they have to act in their own interests and thus corruption occurs. Malle then ends his four-month video diary returning to the more typical Indian life of the villages, with an annual temple festival in Vrajeshwari. Though he loves India because its social and religious structures help it resist the changes of industrialization affecting the rest of the world, he sees its days of doing so are numbered.

• Documentary