70 years after independence Rajan Datar travels to two very different corners of India. Both are borderlands and both are largely undiscovered by tourism, one in the far west, the other in the other far east. In this two-part special he explores the diverse communities, histories and traditions that form the constantly-changing map of India. He begins his journey in the far western state of Gujarat, birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi. There he visits a shipyard in the ancient port of Mandvi, that continues the state's centuries-old sea trading tradition, the basis for much of India's historic wealth. He then discovers the barren beauty of the Rann of Kutch or white desert, one of the largest salt deserts in the world, where the nomadic Kutchis fiercely cling to their unique identity and traditions. He takes a tour to the border with Pakistan, which has become a tourist spectacle in itself, before becoming one of the 20 million daily passengers crammed onto the country's national railway. Travelling south, he visits former principality Junagadh, that thanks to an eccentric and obstinate Nawab, found itself in the middle of an ongoing partition dispute with Pakistan, and finally catches up with the real Cat Women - the female guardians of the world's only Asiatic Lions, once threatened with extinction.
