India has always been a land of contrasts and marvels. Today, it contrives to be a functioning democracy in the midst of a society that remains inherently hierarchical. In order to grasp this paradox in all of its dimensions, Jean Alphonse Bernard resolved to revisit the realities of India now in the company of  Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–59).

Botticelli, Pignol: two artists in their forties, one painting Venus at her birth, the other sculpting her. Both have found the fault in her divine beauty and each in his own way unveils a great truth, because, as Kandinsky reminds us, all that is veiled has huge importance.