Bharat Ek Khoj is a 53-episode Indian historical drama based on the book The Discovery of India by Jawaharlal Nehru, that dramatically unfolds the 5000 year history of India from its beginnings to the coming of independence in 1947. The drama was directed, written and produced by Shyam Benegal with cinematographer V. K. Murthy in 1988 for state-owned Doordarshan. Benegal's regular script collaborator Shama Zaidi also co-wrote the script.

A veterinarian, Dr. Rao, makes a visit to a village, where he intends to commence a co-operative society dairy for the betterment of the rural people. The film is set against the backdrop of the White Revolution of India (Operation Flood) which started in 1970. It was entirely crowdfunded by 500,000 farmers who donated Rs. 2 each.

A thief steals from the rich and gives to the poor

Sapna is a poor orphan woman, who lives with an elderly lady whom she calls her aunt. She is a petty thief and is arrested on several counts of theft.

A man whose wife is abducted seeks to have the culprits prosecuted for their crime, but no one will help him. Meanwhile, the wife—abused and berated by her abductors—cannot bring herself to face her husband.

A poor young man sells himself as a bonded labourer to a local landlord in order to marry the love of his life, after his fiancé's father demands a dowry for marrying his daughter.

After having completed his master's with honors, multi-millionaire Shekhar Verma decides to travel to Rambagh, Poona, to work incognito in his dad's friend's, Shankar Saxena's office. He gets the job, goes to rent a room with his childhood friend, Bhagwandas, and his wife, Leela, where he meets with a young woman named Seeta Mathur, who is their neighbor. Shekhar also gets to meet Shankar's daughter, Raadha. Then Shekhar's cover is blown when his dad, Raj Bahadur Verma, comes for a visit. It is here that both Shankar and Raj Bahadur will finalize Shekhar's marriage with Raadha. But is marriage what Shekhar is really after, especially with Raadha?

Quest of Asha and her mother Laxmi to get justice in a corrupt society

The film depicts the life of a truck driver Sucha Singh and his wife Balo. Balo has to get Sucha Singh's food ready every day, walk a long distance through the fields and wait for him on the highway as he drives past the village. He leads an independent life, playing cards with his friends and spending time with his mistress, and comes home only once a week. However, he expects his wife to play the traditional role of a devoted wife. One day Balo gets late, trying to save her sister from the advances of a lecherous villager. Sucha Singh is angry, and drives away without his food. She decides to wait for him until nightfall.

The film set in the 1940s, in a fictitious village in the Shekhavati region in Rajasthan, where no girl child survives beyond the age of seven. It deals with larger issues of communalism and caste system through four inter-related stories.