 (L) Young performers await their turn at a garba or neighbourhood carnival celebrating Navratri (R) Lioness at Gir National Park, the last surviving habitat of the Asiatic lion |
by Philip Game
Yesterday we stalked one of India's last lions and her cubs; later that evening we joined in a garba, a neighbourhood carnival, joining in a Gujarati folk dance.
 Gujarat, between Mumbai and the better-known Rajasthan, is where the 17th-century emissaries of the East India Company first engaged with the Moghul Empire, yet Gujarat's defining feature seems to remain its staunch Indian-ness.
Here Hindu and Muslim communities form a volatile blend; in Ahmedabad Gandhi founded the ashram from which he set forth to defy British rule on the famous Salt March.
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