Hundreds of free India history books pdf, on ancient and modern India. Subject collections and suggested titles. Read free online, download some.
Table of contents
Book Collections on India History
History of India Books PDF – Collection
Free books on the history of India pdf. Some books: Terrorism in India, Forts of India, Women in India, Socialist Transformation of Indian Economy, India and Ceylon: unity and diversity, My Indian Mutiny Diary, Nationalism and Reform in India, Sources of Indian Tradition, The Kashmir Problem: a historical survey, Cities of Ancient India, The Fortified Cities of India, The Social Renaissance in India, Early India and Pakistan: to Ashoka, British Rule in India: an assessment.
Historical Resources of India – Collection
Free pdf books on the history of India pdf. Publication dates range from the early 18th century to the present day. Some titles: The Wonder that Was India, The Indian War of Independence 1857, The Nayaks of Tanjore, History of Kerala, Twentieth Century Impressions of Ceylon, Southern India, The Dutch and English East India Companies, Chiefs and Leading Families in Rajputana, Ancient Jaffna, History of Travancore from the earliest times, History of the Sikhs, Handbooks for the Indian Army: Gurkhas, Indian Islamic Architecture. There are also a number of dictionaries, including Sanskrit-English, Pukkhto, Telugu-English, Nepali Grammar & Vocabulary, English-Konkani.
Politics and Government in India since 1947 – India History Books PDF
Free online pdf books on India Politics and Government since 1947. Some books: Indian Administration, Uncertain India: a political profile of two decades of freedom, India and Parliament, The Government and Politics of India, Muslims in Free India, The Idea of India, India: government and politics in a developing nation, India and Pakistan: a political analysis, Cabinet Government in India, many more books on Politics in Post-Independence India.
Hind Swaraj – India and Self-Rule – Collection
About 1,300 books on India history pdf at the Internet Archive, mostly in English. Although the collection description emphasizes that the theme is self-rule, with a special focus on the works of Mahatma Gandhi, the subject matter appears to be much wider than that. Some titles: History and Culture of the Indian People (many volumes), Life of Mahatma Gandhi, History of Indian Journalism, Courts of India Past to Present, Outlines of Indian Legal History, Women of India, Economic History of India, Patel: A Life, P.V. Narasimha Rao: Selected Speeches, Who’s Who of Indian Martyrs, History of Indian Railways, Founders of Philosophy, and many more.
More Collections of Free Books on India History Topics
More Free Books at Internet Archive on India History Topics
India – Description and travel
India – History – 324 B.C.-1000 A.D.
India – History – 18th century
India – History – British occupation
India – History – 19th century
India – History – 20th century
India – History – Partition, 1947
India – History – Kings and Rulers
India – Politics and government
Suggested Books on India History
India: A Global Studies Handbook
Blackwell, Fritz
ABC-CLIO 2004
India: A Global Studies Handbook unites the geography, history, culture, notable people, and events into a wide-ranging yet concise work that brings this fascinating land to the page. Of interest to academic and general audiences, this volume presents an uncomplicated look at the varied, bustling nation of India. From geography that includes the Himalayas to a cultural fabric built upon the often-criticized caste system, India remains a land of mystery and intrigue.
See the Menu at the top of every page for Directories of Free Online Fiction and NonFiction Books, Magazines, and more, on 400 pages like this at Century Past
Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity – Modern India Books PDF
Boo, Katherine
Random House 2012
In this brilliant, breathtaking book by Pulitzer Prize winner Katherine Boo, a bewildering age of global change and inequality is made human through the dramatic story of families striving toward a better life in Annawadi, a makeshift settlement in the shadow of luxury hotels near the Mumbai airport. With intelligence, humor, and deep insight into what connects people to one another in an era of tumultuous change, “Behind the Beautiful Forevers”, based on years of uncompromising reporting, carries the reader headlong into one of the twenty-first century’s hidden worlds–and into the hearts of families impossible to forget.
Eight Months’ Campaign against the Bengal Sepoy Army, During the Mutiny of 1857
Bourchier, George
London: Smith, Elder 1858
“A horse gunner’s Mutiny experiences. Bourchier’s is a well known and highly regarded eyewitness account of the Indian Mutiny as experienced and reported by an officer of that most famous of Indian Army corps d’elite – The Red Men; the galloping gunners of the Bengal Horse Artillery. The author describes the outbreak of the Mutiny and early actions leading toward the siege and fall of Delhi-including bloody street fighting-in all its appalling violence. Bourchier takes his reader with his battery on the pursuit to Cawnpore, the Relief of Lucknow and the destruction of the Gwalior Contingent. ” -Publisher.
India Today: Economy, Politics and Society – Modern India Books PDF
Corbridge, Stuart
Cambridge, UK: Polity 2013
“Twenty years ago India was still generally thought of as an archetypal developing country, home to the largest number of poor people of any country in the world, and beset by problems of low economic growth, casteism and violent religious conflict. Now India is being feted as an economic power-house which might well become the second largest economy in the world before the middle of this century. Its democratic traditions, moreover, remain broadly intact. How and why has this historic transformation come about? And what are its implications for the people of India, for Indian society and politics? These are the big questions addressed in this book by three scholars who have lived and researched in different parts of India during the period of this great transformation.” -Publisher.
White Mughals: Love and Betrayal in Eighteenth-Century India – India History Books PDF
Dalrymple, William
Penguin 2003 Dewey Dec. 954
“The cross-cultural romance between Khair un-Nissa and James Achilles Kirkpatrick – the gripping central narrative of this book – is an extraordinary tale… In “White Mughals” [the author] has pulled off a tour de force of scholarly research. Academics rarely let themselves get so close and the result is a veritable travelogue through the past, packed with detail and sense of place. The book breathes. … Mr. Dalrymple researches like a historian, thinks like an anthropologist and writes like a novelist. It is a winning combination.”
The Hindus: An Alternative History
Doniger, Wendy
Penguin 2009 Dewey Dec. 954
“A narrative account of history and myth that offers a new way of understanding one of the world’s oldest major religions, this book elucidates the relationship between recorded history and imaginary worlds. Hinduism does not lend itself easily to a strictly chronological account: many of its central texts cannot be reliably dated; its central tenets–karma, dharma, to name just two–arise at particular moments in Indian history and differ in each era, between genders, and caste to caste; and what is shared among Hindus is overwhelmingly outnumbered by the things that are unique to one group or another. Yet the greatness of Hinduism–its vitality, its earthiness, its vividness–lies precisely in many of those idiosyncratic qualities that continue to inspire debate today. Wendy Doniger, one of the world’s foremost scholars of Hinduism, illuminates those moments within the tradition that resist forces that would standardize or establish a canon.” – Publisher.
India
Derbyshire, Ian, ed.
Clio Press 1995
A volume in the Clio Press “World Bibliographical Series”. Comprised of annotated entries on works dealing with the country’s history, geography, economy and politics; and with its people, their culture, customs, religion and social organization. Attention is paid to current living conditions; housing, education, newspapers, clothing, etc.
The Britannica Guide to India : A Comprehensive Introduction to the World’s Fastest Growing Country – Modern India Books PDF
Encyclopedia Britannica
Running Press 2009
“An ancient culture and a new economic power in the world India in the twenty-first century stands on the verge of being one of the world’s newest superpowers with a population of 1.1 billion. In the sixty years since its independence, it has transformed into a modern nation with limitless resources. It is also a nation of extremes. It is a people with 15 official languages, over 166 million mobile phone users, and an economy that spans from traditional village farming to the cutting edge of new technology. This guide is the perfect introduction for the reader who wants to know more than the guide books and gain a deeper understanding of India’s history and culture as well as the key sites to visit.” – Publisher.
India: A Portrait – India History Books PDF
French, Patrick
Alfred A. Knopf 2011 Dewey Dec. 954
“Combines deep research about the country’s history with a series of vignettes culled from French’s street-level reporting. Taken together, his reading of seminal texts and his interviews with politicians, pimps, businessmen, laborers, farmers, scholars and people from all levels of India’s caste system result in a fittingly vigorous and colorful book about what it means to live in India six decades after the nation freed itself from British rule.” – San Francisco Chronicle.
The Delhi Sultanate: A Political And Military History
Jackson, Peter
Cambridge University 1999 Dewey Dec. 954
“In a broad-ranging, accessible narrative, Peter Jackson traces the history of the Sultanate from its foundation in 1210 to its demise in 1400 at the sack of Delhi by the Central Asian conqueror, Tamerlane. During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the Sultanate was the principal bastion of Islam in the subcontinent. While the book focuses on military and political affairs, tracing the Sultanate’s resistance to formidable Mongol invasions from the north-west and the administrative developments that underpinned these exploits, it also explores the Sultans’ relations with their non-Muslim subjects.” – Publisher.
Untouchables: One Family’s Triumphant Escape from India’s Caste System
Jadhav, Narendra
University of California 2006
Every sixth human being in the world today is an Indian, and every sixth Indian is an untouchable. For thousands of years the untouchables, or Dalits, the people at the bottom of the Hindu caste system, have been treated as subhuman. In this remarkable book, at last giving voice to India’s voiceless, Narendra Jadhav tells the awe-inspiring story of his family’s struggle for equality and justice in India.
India: A History – India History Books PDF
Keay, John
Atlantic Monthly 2000 Dewey Dec. 973.91
Keay’s “history exhibits the complete panoply of cultures that have arisen on, or arrived at, the plain of the Ganges River … Within this mix of cultures, Keay avers, Indian historiography is afflicted with the selective interpretations of nationalist writers: he corrects the defect by example in this evenhanded, informed, and enthusiastic illumination of the vastness of Indian history.” -Booklist.
The City of Joy
LaPierre, Dominique
Doubleday 1985 Dewey Dec. 954
“They live amid terrible poverty in one of the most crowded places on earth, the sector of Calcutta known as the City of Joy . This is the story of living saints and heroes, those who abandoned affluent and middle-class lives to dedicate themselves to the poor. And it is a testament to the people of the City of Joy. Their tragedies will move you, their faith, generosity, and most of all, boundless love will lift you,bless you, and possibly change your life.” -Publisher.
Freedom At Midnight – India History Books PDF
Lapierre, Dominique And Larry Collins
OpenSource2009 Dewey Dec. 973.91
2009 edition of a book originally published in 1975. “At midnight on August 14, 1947, India officially became free of the British Empire … The book actually covers the whole year of 1947 …. It examines [Mountbatten’s] months of delicate negotiations with recalcitrant Hindu, Moslem and Sikh leaders, the difficult planning for the partition of India and Pakistan, the apparent early success of the partition and then the murderous riots that swept the country, and follows through to Gandhi’s assassination in Calcutta in January 1948.” – Publ Wkly.
Articles Collection – World History
In Spite of the Gods: The Rise of Modern India – Modern India Books PDF
Luce, Edward
Anchor 2008 Dewey Dec. 954
“As the world’s largest democracy and a rising international economic power, India has long been heralded for its great strides in technology and trade. Yet it is also plagued by poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, and a vast array of other social and economic issues. Here, noted journalist and former Financial Times South Asia bureau chief Edward Luce travels throughout India’s many regions, cultures, and religious circles, investigating its fragile balance between tradition and modernity. From meetings with key political figures to fascinating encounters with religious pundits, economic gurus, and village laborers, ‘In Spite of the Gods’ is a fascinating blend of analysis and reportage that comprehensively depicts the nuances of India’s complex situation and its place in the world.” – Publisher.
The Men Who Ruled India
Mason, Philip
Norton 1985 Dewey Dec. 973.91
First published in two volumes in 1953-1954. “An interweaving of biographical, political, and social history of British India, 1599-1947. .. As a former member of the Indian Civil Service, Mason unabashedly supports the value of Britian’s impact on India through a series of colorful vignettes of such legendary characters as Warren Hastings, John Malcolm, and Mountstuart Elphinstone. He points to British prohibition of suttee, construction of railroads, etc. as justification for British rule.” -SLJ.
Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found – Modern India Books PDF
Mehta, Suketu
Alfred A. Knopf 2005 Dewey Dec. 954
The author “explores various aspects of Bombay life, from setting up residence to exploring the hugely successful domestic film industry; from detailing Bombay’s sex industry to profiling the reasons behind India’s own ‘September 11’, the 1993 riots and bombings that exposed a vast enmity between extremist Hindus and Muslims … Mehta delivers a fresh and unblinking look at contemporary Bombay.” -Booklist. /span>
Articles Collection – Cultural History
The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian History, Culture and Identity
Sen, Amartya
Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2006 Dewey Dec. 954
“India is a very diverse country with many distinct pursuits, vastly different convictions, widely divergent customs, and a veritable feast of viewpoints. The Argumentative Indian brings together an illuminating selection of writings from Nobel prize-winning economist Amartya Sen that outline the need to understand contemporary India in the light of its long argumentative tradition. The understanding and use of this rich argumentative tradition are critically important, Sen argues, for the success of India s democracy, the defence of its secular politics, the removal of inequalities related to class, caste, gender and community, and the pursuit of sub-continental peace.” -Publisher.
India: From Midnight to the Millennium – India History Books PDF
Tharoor, Shashi
HarperPerennial 1998 Dewey Dec. 954
“At the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947, a new nation was born. It has 17 major languages and 22,000 distinct dialects. It has over a billion individuals of every ethnic extraction known to humanity. It has a population that is 32 percent illiterate, but also one of the worlds largest pools of trained scientists and engineers. Its ageless civilization is the birthplace of four major religions, a dozen different traditions of classical dance, and 300 ways of cooking a potato. Shashi Tharoor’s INDIA is a fascinating portrait of one of the worlds most interesting countries, its politics, its mentality, and its cultural riches. But it is also an eloquent argument for the importance of India to the future of America and the industrialized world. With the energy and erudition that distinguished his prize-winning novels, Tharoor points out that Indians account for a sixth of the worlds population and their choices will resonate throughout the globe. He deals with this vast theme in a work of remarkable depth and startling originality, combining elements of political scholarship, personal reflection, memoir, fiction, and polemic, all illuminated in vivid and compelling prose.” -Publisher.
A Brief History of India – Modern India Books PDF
Walsh, Judith E.
Facts on File 2006 Dewey Dec. 954
Land, climate, and prehistory — Caste, kings, and the Hindu world order (1000 B.C.-A.D. 700) — Turks, Afghans, and Mughals (600-1800) — The jewel in the crown (1757-1885) — Becoming modern the colonial way (1800-1900) — Toward freedom (1885-1920) — Gandhi and the nationalist movement (1920-1948) — Constructing the nation (1950-1991) — Bollywood and beyond (1947-2004) — India at the turn of the century (1991-2004).
India
Wolpert, Stanley A.
University of California 2009 Dewey Dec. 954
4th edition. “This comprehensive history of India begins with the prehistoric cultures, describing early tribal wars, conflicts between Hindu and Islamic religions, and the Mughal rule which gave way to British domination. Continues to the present.
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