Foreign correspondents travel the world, report on people and events and have hundreds of thousands (in some cases millions) of readers or viewers. South Asia is an especially favoured assignment because of the immensity of the story. It is a place where politics and major events unfold on the streets, not just in closed rooms. This book, with its collection of reportage, comment and photographs, reflects this story. It does not seek to cover every event in the decades since 1947, but focuses instead on good writing and historic moments that give a picture of how foreign correspondents have covered the region.

The collection includes articles and photographs on subjects as diverse as tiger hunts, religious fanaticism and the Indian enthusiasm for P.G. Wodehouse. Peter Kann’s Pulitzer Prize-winning account of the fall of Dacca in 1971 and Barbara Crosette’s eyewitness report of Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination are two justly celebrated pieces, but all the contributions bring to life the subcontinent’s recent—and dramatic—histories.

Today, while e-mail and mobile phones allow events to be relayed almost as they happen, foreign correspondents still undertake in-depth reportage, which may involve weeks of research and travel. The job can also be dangerous, even life-threatening. The collection includes two Wall Street Journal articles by Daniel Pearl, who was kidnapped and killed by Islamic militants in 2002.