List 1:
1. The Idea of India – Sunil Khilnani – a keen effort to analyze modern Indian history and understand why and how India works as a secular democracy.
2. India – from Midnight to Millennium – Sashi Tharoor – Another superb and updated effort in line with Sunil Khilnani’s. A bit liberal for some, but wonderfully written and captures the modern, liberal indian ethos brilliantly.
3. In spite of the Gods – The strange rise of modern India – by Edward Luce
4. India Unbound – Gurucharan Das
5. The Algebra of Infinite Justice – Arundhati Roy – About modern India, a different view [also Greater common Good, by the same author]
6. On a slightly different note, ‘Five Point Someone’ and ‘One Night at Call Centre’ by Chetan Bhagat
7. The Discovery of India – by Jawaharlal Nehru – examining the Indian history from a liberal perspective
8. The British Rule in India – by Karl Marx [and other writings on India] – leave the politics and read from a pure economic perspective.
9. The Wonder that was India – A L Basham – an all time great, though slightly dated now.
10. Imagining India – Ronald Inden
List 2:
1. In spite of the Gods – Ed Luce
2. India – What can it teach us? – Max Mueller
3. In light of India – Octavio Paz
4. India: a million mutinies now – VS Naipaul
5. Alberuni’s India – er, by Al Beruni
6. India: A history – John Keay
7. A two volume history of India – Romila Thapar and Percival Spear
8. The Idea of India – Sunil Khilnani
9. India – Shashi Tharoor
10. The Argumentative Indian – Amartya Sen
List 3:
In spite of the Gods – Ed Luce
India – What can it teach us? – Max Mueller
In light of India – Octavio Paz
India: a million mutinies now – VS Naipaul
Alberuni’s India – er, – Al Beruni
India: A history – John Keay
A two volume history of India – Romila Thapar and Percival Spear
The Idea of India – Sunil Khilnani
The Argumentative Indian – Amartya Sen
Wings of Fire – APJ Abdul Kalam
Ignited Minds
Being Indian
A search in Secret India – Paul Brunton
A source book of Indian philosophy – S Radhakrishnan
India My Love – Osho
India – from Midnight to Millennium – Sashi Tharoor
India Unbound – Gurucharan Das
The Algebra of Infinite Justice – Arundhati Roy -
Five Point Someone – Chetan Bhagat
One Night at Call Centre – Chetan Bhagat
The Discovery of India – by Jawaharlal Nehru
The British Rule in India – by Karl Marx
The Wonder that was India – A L Basham
Imagining India – Ronald Inden
The Vedas, Bhagavad Gita,
Engaging India – Strobe Talbott
The Polyester Prince – Hamish McDonald
Yuganta – Irawati Karve
Swami and Friends – RK Narayan
The Vendor of Sweets – RK Narayan
The Great Indian Novel – Shashi Tharoor
Sardar Sarovar: The Independent Review – Bradford Morse
Power Play – Abhay Mehta
City of Gold – Gillian Tindall
City of Djinn’s – William Dalrymple
The Hills of Angheri – Kavery Nambisan
Words Like Freedom – Siddharth Dube
Savaging the Civilized – Ramachandra Guha
Sourcebook of Indian Tradition – Ainslee Embree
Early history of India (and other volumes) by Romila Thapar
The world is flat – Thomas L. Friedman
Social Background Of Indian Nationalism – by A R Desai
The Age of Kali – William Dalrymple
The Burdens of Democracy – Pratap Bhanu Mehta
Why Ethnic Parties Succeed in India – Kanchan Chandra
India’s Economic Reforms – Jagdish Bhagwati
Raag Darbari
The Best of R K Laxman
Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
In Light Of India – Octavio Paz
Tamas – Bhisham Sahni
The Elephant Paradigm – Gurcharan Das
Culture Shock! India – Gitanjal Kolanad
Everybody loves a good draught – by P. Sainath
Freedom at Midnight – Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins
List 4:
History and culture of the Indian people, 11 volumes, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan
History of the freedom movement, R C Majumdar
The renaissance of India, Sri Aurobindo
Most writings of Vivekananda
The gospel of Ramakrishna
India: a wounded civilization, Naipaul
Writings of Jainendra, Tagore, SharatChandra, Bankim,
Arun Shourie “Eminent Historians”, “Worshiping false gods, Ambedkar and the facts which have been erased”, “A secular agenda”
List 5:
1. The Discovery of India, by Jawaharlal Nehru (nonfiction).
2. India Unbound, by Gurcharan Das (nonfiction).
3. The Devil’s Wind, by Manohar Malgaonkar (fiction).
4. Freedom at Midnight, by Dominic Lapierre and Larry Collins (nonfiction).
5. On the Grand Trunk Road, by Steve Coll (nonfiction).
6. May You be the Mother of a Thousand Sons, by Elizabeth Bumiller (nonfiction).
7. Arrow of the Blue-Skinned God, by Jonah Blank (nonfiction).
8. Motiba’s Tatoos, by Mira Kamdar (nonfiction).
9. An Area of Darkness, by V. S. Naipaul (nonfiction).
10. India After Gandhi, by Ramachandra Guha (nonfiction).
11, “Mother India India: A Political Biography of Indira Gandhi,” by Pranay Gupte (nonfiction).
List 6:
V. S. Naipaul’s Books on India on India (India-an area of darkness, India a Million Mutinies)are confront the grim realities of India, no romanticizing…
Will Durant A Case for India (banned at one time by the British)
Count Keyserling The travel Diary of a Philosopher (has a part on India as well as China, Japan and US)
Kitab-e-Yamini –a shocking tale of how Turks came into India
Francois Bernier–Travels in the Mogul Court–eyewitness account of Frenchman shows how the court lead to the poverty of India–no schools, no Universities, high taxation of peasants just built palaces for themselves
Andre Wink–exposes the truth about Islam in India without holding an ideological bias
Arun Shourie Eminent Historians
Al Beruni’s India–displays Muslim bias but you can learn a lot from his book as he was a great scholar
Someone mentioned“Discovery of India” by Jawaharlal nehru–I find this book very superficial–part of Nehru’s problem–one feels as if the does not understand the real India…
Someone mentioned Max Meuller India what it can teach us–good book–It is a pleasure to read Meuller who despite his biases understands India so much more than those writing in modern times going by the name of “Indologosts”. A great man’s work even his mistakes and biases are a pleasure to read…
Books by Tagore–although much is lost in Engligh translation
Kalhan–History of Kashmir–first Indian historian on India. Tanslated by Aurel Stein
List 7.
One of the best collection of novels on India is the Gandhi Quartet by a much celebrated but not too well known writer, Chamana Nahal. These include:
1) Azadi (Freedom). New Delhi, Arnold-Heinemann, and Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1975; London, Deutsch, 1977.
2)The Crown and the Loincloth. New Delhi, Vikas, 1981.
3)The Salt of Life. New Delhi, Allied, 1990.
4)The Triumph of the Tricolour. New Delhi, Allied, 1993.
List 8:
1. “We are like that Only” by Rama Bijapurkar (Penguin) – on marketing in today’s India
2. “The Indians” by Sudhir & Katharina Kakar (Penguin) – social psychology
3. “Branding India-An Incredible Story” by Amitabh Kant (Collins Business) – a case study on “Incredible India” campaign
4. “Handmade in India” by Aditi & MP Ranjan (Cohands & Mapin) – an encyclopaedic tome on India’s craft tradition
5. “The Earthen Drum” by Pupul Jayakar on India’s crafts
6. “Chasing the monsoon: A modern pilgrimage through India” by Alexander Frater
7.”Butter chicken in Ludhiana: Travels in small town India” (Travelogue) by Pankaj Mishra
8. “Temptations of the West: How to be modern in India, Pakistan….” (Travelogue) By Pankaj Mishra
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