Much has been written about the Rashtrapati Bhavan as a 20th century 'place' that one lay at the heart of a British imperial vision of India and later on, as the centre of democratic republicanism in the modern nation of India. The intention is to bring out the grandeur of life in the seat of the head of state on one hand and, on the other, the intimacy of life in a small, self-contained community. As the culminating volume in a series of books documenting the rich social,cultural and historical significance of the Rashtrapati Bhavan.