In 1972, Duras was commissioned by Britain's National Theatre to write India Song as a play, although it was not staged at that time. India Song was first published in book form as a play/screenplay/novel in 1973. It was adapted to film as a motion picture released in 1975 and first performed on stage in 1993.

India Song is narrated by four voices, two female and two male, who recall the events of one night at a party held at the French embassy in Calcutta in 1937 and the following day at the French residence on an island in the Indian Ocean. Anne-Marie Stretter is an object of fascination for everyone. Although married to Ambassador Stretter, she has taken Michael Richardson as her lover. Two other men, a French vice-consul and a young French attaché, are also in love with her. One night, Anne-Marie commits suicide by walking into the Indian Ocean to drown herself. Her story is set within the luxurious confines of European colonial life, where the privileged white colonists take refuge from the poverty, disease, starvation, and suffering of the Indian people.

India Song covers many themes, including love, desire, passion, and the social inequalities of colonial domination.