This exhibition uses public and private correspondence and ephemera to trace how the idea of development has evolved (in India) over the last century. 
The exhibition is divided into five sections:

•  The first features exhibits on the diverse ways in which the word ​‘development’ was used in the past and the variety of words that were used to represent what is now invariably referred to as development. 
• The second section showcases two sets of correspondence on ​‘development’ and ​‘rural uplift’ in the late 1930s and 1940s that offer glimpses of the emergent developmental state. 
• The third section focuses on the mutation of ​‘development’ after the Second World War simultaneously into a narrower and linear measurable idea that applies to a much wider range of human endeavours (outside the West). 
• The fourth section of the exhibition highlights how ​‘development’ permeated society and everyday life. 

• The fifth section emphasises the enduring appeal of alternatives to ​‘development’. 

  In addition to enriching the repertoire of sources that inform debates on development, this exhibition also foregrounds the postal archive more generally as a key site for understanding contemporary India.