Presents information on India in over 270 photographs and 44 maps. This book is divided into two major sections: one is about India in general, and the other is about the states in particular. It covers a range of topics from history, political divisions, people, physical features, climate, forests and wildlife, natural resources, and more.

This eleventh edition was developed during the encyclopaedia's transition from a British to an American publication. Some of its articles were written by the best-known scholars of the time and it is considered to be a landmark encyclopaedia for scholarship and literary style.