India: A History - John Keay

Fully revised with forty thousand new words that take the reader up to present-day India, John Keay's India: A History spans five millennia in a sweeping narrative that tells the story of the peoples of the subcontinent, from their ancient beginnings in the valley of the Indus to the events in the region today.

The Indian subcontinent is one of the world’s most fascinating and complicated regions, the home of a billion and a half people, several major religions, and one of the world’s oldest and most richly diverse civilizations. In India: A History, acclaimed South Asia expert John Keay spans five millennia in a sweeping narrative that tells the story of the peoples of the subcontinent, from their ancient beginnings in the valley of the Indus to the events in Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh today.

This book is a compelling epic of cultures and conquest, colonization and independence. It vividly re-creates the turning points of Indian history and brings to life the leaders who shaped India’s evolution, from Ashoka, the “Caesar of Ancient India,” who ruled the vast Mauryan empire in the third century B.C., to twentieth-century figures such as Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. Along the way Keay provides fresh insights into the patterns of invasion and migration that have stirred the subcontinent’s cultures for centuries, from the “Aryan” invaders, to Alexander’s Macedonian armies, to the Islamic conquerors, to the coming of the East India Company and the establishment of the British Raj. He also profiles the rise of religions and philosophies that have profoundly shaped these cultures, including Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam.

Throughout the book Keay synthesizes recent revelations from archaeology, anthropology, and textual scholarship to explode the myths that have plagued the highly politicized historiography of the region. He investigates the controversy surrounding the origins of the Harappan peoples who built the first cities of the subcontinent, explains the cultural and political significance of India’s architectural marvels such as the Taj Mahal, and details the bloody suppressions that characterized the “Pax Britannica” of the Raj. Provocative, comprehensive, and highly readable, India: A History is a panoramic portrait that is destined to become the authoritative work on the region for years to come.