India: A History. Revised and Updated

This one volume history of India offers a great perspective on the 3500+ years of known history (plus the 1000+ additional years of archaeological history) by focussing equal attention on equal periods of time, roughly speaking. Naturally, the sources are admittedly sparse the further back we go, but the author does a remarkably good job of keeping a reasonable perspective. Of course, it skips many details later in the story, when details from the recent past are abundant. This makes for less conjecture, but also leaves one with a sense of glossing over, if you are familiar with recent Indian history. Overall, this is an excellent history book for the serious beginner, and can point the interested reader to further enquiry. It is adequately illustrated, and rather nicely diagrammed (particularly for some dynasties where successive rulers went back and forth across generations).

First off, let me explain why I wanted to read this book. I realized a few years ago that there were massive parts of the world, for example the "Middle East" and China, about whose history I knew nothing. I couldn't have told you what the lands of Arabia were like prior to the present day, or when the imperial age ended in China, etc. So I started to collect and read some history books that gave the reader an overview of the known history of a particular region. Thus far, I've read such a book about the Middle East and China. India was next for me. My review, then, is based on my judgment about the book as in introduction to and survey of the history of the region of world currently known as India. For my purposes, I find the book to be quite good. India seems to defy extensive historical summary because of the many different people who have lived in the region throughout history and the relative lack of documentation detailing the early history of those people and their political associations. Like China, India's multitude of kingdoms had elastic borders, with many contemporary nations occupying the subcontinent at any given time. Referring to India as a single entity is often a geographical convenience more than a reality of governance. That Keay is knowledgeable about the history of the region is certain, and his book's approach to describing the cultural and political factors that set the events of India's history to movement is certainly informative. There are a few points in the book, however, where relating the myths and legends of the people are too seemlessly blended with the narrative of the historical fact (or theory, as the facts are often in dispute). As a simple consequence of the complexity of the topic, the crush of information (like the list of a regions of a monarch's conquests, for example) can overwhelm to the point of diluting understanding. I would have found the descriptions more informative if I had been provided with more of a summary of the historical significance of a king or kingdom, providing the list-like information bracketed as a section. The names of the conquered in a particular conquest are not useful for such a coarse view of India's history, and their listing exhausts the reader. There is one weakness that I attribute to the information presented. When studying a large region, I like to have a feel for where in the geography of the region a certain thing or event was located. Keay does mention place names, but from the very outset of the book, I had the feeling that I would be getting more out of the book if I was more familiar with the geography of India. For example (for those like me with a knowledge of U.S. geography), imagine reading a passage that described an area stretching from Salt Lake City to Nashville - not a very useful description for a person not familiar with at least the general location of those cities within the overall geographic region. One cannot easily envision whether this is a large area or a small area, north, south or centralized, near the borders or far from them without at least a feel for their position. I recommend reading this book alongside a good map. For generalists unfamiliar with the topic, I also recommend reading the book with a personal list of non-English terms that are presented in the book. Although Keay does a good job of explaining and introducing concepts that are best expressed in the native language, it is easy to forget many pages later what the deccan, arya-varta, hind, stupa, etc. etc. refer to exactly. The weaknesses of the book are far outweighed by the book's strengths - at least for my stated purposes. The author's style is reasonably readable given the often-times dry material. I am dinging one star for not condensing the overly detailed conquests and bloodlines of comparatively trival houses, as I just feel that, while important to the student of India's history, they are out of place in a survey this general, and dilute the most salient points of interest of these ancient kingdoms. Still, I shouldn't complain about getting exactly what I asked for, which is a complete history of India from the earliest extant knowledge to the present day.

This is an outstanding general history of India and is strongly recommended. The narrative is very well written and organized, making it a very useful broad discussion of Indian history. I had read a similar general history of India 15 years ago and this book is far better written and includes much recent scholarship. There a few minor challenges to the book, in particular its introduction to the European presence in India is weak but it eventually recovers the narrative as the British presence becomes a real factor in India. All that said, this book is long. In that context, it is a great book for those interested in Indian history. For those interested in a short summary, look elsewhere. I read this book to prepare for a my first tourist trip to India and loved it -- it brought to life the great palaces in Delhi and Agra and made real the forces that shaped India such as modern nationalism, the Raj, and the Chola.

In 3000 pages this covers the range of Indian history, including Pakistan and Bangladesh, from the Harrapan civilization of 3000 BC to the present day. The first few chapters discuss archaeology as well as history, since there are no written records of the Harrapan civilization, and records are scarce for later civilizations, including the period in which the epic poems Mahabharata and Ramayana were written, as well as the life of Buddha. The historical record starts appearing with the reign of Ashoka who left inscriptions on numerous columns around the country, but it is fragmentary for many centuries after that. There was more detail on the subsequent dynasties than I could absorb on a first reading. A second reading might help. Some readers might prefer studying a less complete introduction like the excellent series of videos, Story of India, produced by Michael Wood. A high point in the book is a discussion of Mughals, Muslim invaders who are responsible for many of the most impressive Indian monuments, including the Taj Mahal, and the Fatehpur Sikri of Akbar the Great. The rulers from this period seem to have been psychopaths who did not flinch from killing brothers or fathers in order to achieve the throne. Although there were efforts in India to foster tolerance between Muslims and Hindus, independence led to a fracturing of India, first into India and Pakistan along religious lines, with East Pakistan becoming an independent state, Bangladesh. Hundreds of thousands lost their lives when forced to move to states consistent with their religious beliefs. At partition in 1947 the population of India was 330 million Indians and about 30 million each in East and West Pakistan. The population of India has quadrupled since then, and the populations of Pakistan and Bangladesh have increased by a factor of about 6. We live on a finite planet. Such population growth is unsustainable. One wonders why the British and the Indians themselves did not realize that continued population growth would produce continued poverty. There was an effort to establish a form of democracy, although it was corrupted to a form of “demockery” to quote one of the chapter titles. But can democracy work when the people are malnourished? Or are demagogues inevitable? Perhaps one needs a benevolent autocracy at least for poor countries, although such autocracies are rare. The China autocracy introduced a one-child policy in 1979. It is amazing that more people don’t notice the vast difference in outcomes. China now vies with the US for economic dominance, while malnutrition is still a source of early death for many in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. This in spite of the Green Revolution. And time has been lost. Population growth cannot continue forever. In fact, it leads to global warming, which threatens human extinction. The simple use of birth control would alleviate much suffering and might help India achieve higher living standards, as well as curb sectarian violence in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

This book provided a solid timeline through the known history of India but in a somewhat hard to assimilate form. Minute details of dynasties and successions are provided, but I felt that for the length of time it took to read this book, I had not received as much information as I would have thought. It is a worthwhile read, since there is a lot of information that is not often taught or discussed and certainly should not be forgotten, but the development of India, the entity and the people, was not always clear to me. Maybe it was the focus on political successions rather than on the flavour of an Indian life and how such lives were shaped by the events. If I had not already read many other books on India, I doubt that I could have pieced together an understandable view from this book. What is clear is that a great diversity of cultures have created the India that exists today, but in particular, the relationships between Royal India and the regions that were eventually controlled by the mughals and the British are particularly unclear. The pace picks up substantially in the last half century leaving one with a sense of a gallop to a finish. The maps do not aid much in understanding the text. In the end, I am left with the feeling that I read through a lot of detail but am only moderately more informed than when I started. I do, however, appreciate the amount of research that the author must have conducted and am impressed the information that he has been able to collect together into one book. For this reason, I will still consider it a worthwhile addition to my library.

If all of your knowledge about Indian history is derived only from text book, then this is a great read to expand your knowledge and develop newer and more accurate understanding of Indian history. The greatness of the book is in it being most honest and truthful about history which is largely based on evidence gathered from numerous sources like archaeology, literature, linguistics, cultural studies and vast amounts of existing older historical writing. Most Indian history writing tends to sway between extreme view points of either Indian nationalism or one of imperialistic partisanship. This book is quite honest and stays somewhere ideally in the middle. In general author restrains himself from jumping to conclusions based on vague evidence. However, lack of evidence doesn't mean no story or less interesting story. Largely relaying on evidence which is sometimes very obscure author using his intellect often makes very mature and educated conclusions and speculations about the actual course of events. Keay is whimsical in some of his portrays of persons or events sometimes contradicting familial perception; some of which might well be true when looked at it from an absolute sense. For example though he refers to MK Gandhi as 'Mahatma'(great soul), Keay tends to think by no means Gandhi was most influential in the cause towards Indian freedom. Next, the role of revolutionaries in Indian freedom struggle who are idolized by many nationalists are brushed aside as terrorist activities in an absolute sense. Figures like Bhagat Singh etc dont even get a mention in the book! (I am not being critical of this). Other things, hes seen critical of the Brahmanical authority and caste system which has dominated most of Hindu society and religion based bloody conquests by medieval Muslim kings. Author spends good time narrating the ancient and medieval Indian history. The modern portion especially the Indian freedom movement is somewhat brisk and (even misses some details) than I would have liked it to be; yet I liked his narration of Indian political history after Independence(1947) portraying the influential characters of Indira Gandhi, ZA Bhutto and Mujibur Rehman doing justice to real state of events. But for a good read on modern Indian History I am told Ramachandra Guha's 'India after Gandhi' is a good book. In this revised book, he even covers the most recent communal tensions of Ayodhya, Mumbai etc and the Afhgan/Taliban war against terror. I was initially inclined towards buying different books for ancient, medieval and modern Indian history, but since I didnt find good recos for each separately,I decided to try this one-in-all book. Given the obscurity and lack of direct evidence associated with Indian history, one has to say its a great piece of work with all five thousand years of Indian history condensed into one precisely well written , highly recommended book.

John Keay does tremendous justice to about 5000 years of history of the Indian subcontinent in a matter of 640 pages, starting from the Harappan civilization to the final decade of the 20th century, covering political history for the most part but pausing thoughtfully on issues of culture, myth, language & values every now & then. I think that Keay's style is definitely engaging & non-partisan. Unlike some of the other reviews, I did not think that this book is entirely dry & mirthless. I think that there are many instances of having a little fun at the expense of a king here & there, a shahenshah later on & then men from his own country. I think what this book really does for me is separating the element of myth from what is history. For example, both Ashok & Akbar have legendary statuses associated with them - though as Keay reveals, some of such popular imagination is indeed deep rooted in facts, but certain extrapolations of such persona are just stuff of popular imagination. I thought that the challenges in this book are actually challenges of Indian history/geography itself. Barring certain periods, it is very fragmented. It is also debatable exactly what constituted "India" in different periods of history & which dynasties, kingdoms & men played a greater role in defining what we mean by it today. I would recommend this book very highly to anyone who wants summary content on Indian history. @souvikstweets

This is quite a unique book in the sense that it accounts for all the history of India (and in the final chapters of Pakistan and Bangladesh) from the very beginning to the last 2000's in a rather detailed and chronologically organized manner with clear language and explanations, and many pictures to accompany the text. Precisly what I was looking for! In spite of some strange (and poor jabs) at Ancient Greek language and values (e.g. the inferiority in the expressiveness of Ancient Greek compared to Sanskrit while contrary to Modern Greek, Hindustani was unable to draw from Sanskrit to modernize the language to the admission of the author) I would most definitely give this book top marks and would whole heartedly recommend it to anyone who wants to read about the history of the Indian subcontinent.

A very readable history of such an ancient and great civilization. Usually these kinds complete histories can be so stifling and boring — lists of dates and battles and kings. — but this book keep you interested and keeps you coming back for more. John Keay is a fascinating story teller. But this is not a story, it is real history, made quite interesting by his excellent writing.

I should explain that I only read the second half of this book, from about 1600 when the British became involved. I bought it because I wanted to know more about the British East India Company, and also wanted an overview of the history since partition. For these purposes the book was great. On Amazon.co.uk many reviews refer to the book being hard work to read, and many American reviews describe it as dry. I found it neither, although it did take me thirty or forty pages to tune into the author's style, which is really high-grade journalism, not to question his scholarship. It reads like an articulate lecture by someone who thoroughly understands his subject. One reviewer said you need some prior knowledge. Perhaps you do. I came to the book with knowledge of post-independence India being only what I had gleaned from newspapers over the years, but that was enough. I had also many years ago read Gandhi's autobiography, which is a book that sticks in the mind. Regarding the East India Company and the development of British rule, Keay dispels any notion of the British as avuncular colonists. When push came to shove they were decisive and at times brutal. We Brits like to appear as nice imperialists. Effective yes; nice, not unless it was convenient. Having said that the Brits and Indians appear to have had a certain mutual regard. The story since independence is complex and fast-moving and I felt Keay told the story with conviction. He doesn't burden his text with footnotes, jargon or prevarication and plonks his opinion down on the page, which is just as well given how much he has to tell. He has a tendency to try and see the positive in authoritarian actions by different rulers, for example Indira Gandhi and Bhutto. Gandhi instituted a rule of emergency but according to Keay she did it temporarily in order to sort out a raft of administrative disasters, which she did before returning the country to democracy. I enjoyed what I read of this book very much and would recommend it.

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Das mit der indischen Geschichte ist nicht ganz einfach. Nicht nur ist diese für den Leser ein schreckliches Durcheinander von diversen Kulturen und Reichen, auch die indischen Namen sind nicht immer ganz einfach zu merken - zumal diese gelegentlich auch noch mehrfach Verwendung finden. Und dann gibt es auch noch das Problem, dass man sich über vieles streiten kann, weil die Überlieferung bis in die frühe Neuzeit eben nicht gerade anwenderfreundlich ist, also man auf viele Punkte nur indirekt schließen kann. Und das macht dann die Geschichtsschreibung in Indien zu einem Minenfeld, denn dort soll aus der fernen Vergangenheit auch immer mal wieder die eine oder andere Tagespolitik begründet werden. Als Beispiel für diese Diskussionen müssen wohl auch der Prozess und die Einordnung der arischen Einwanderung gelten. John Keay macht aus dieser Situation eine ganze Menge. Obwohl das Buch nicht gerade kurz ist, erzählt er nicht sklavisch alle Details nach sondern setzt Schwerpunkte, die ihm dann erlauben, die wesentlichen Gründe und Argumente für bestimmte Theorien nachvollziehbar machen. Ganz undogmatisch entscheidet er sich dann für eine wahrscheinliche Theorie als Grundlage seiner Darstellung, lässt aber offen, ob nicht spätere Funde oder bessere Argumente noch einmal zu einer anderen Wertung führen können. Im Kern folgt er dabei Leitlinien, die sich auch in anderen Büchern über indische Geschichte finden, er bewegt sich also auf sicheren akademischen Boden. Das einzelne seiner Stellungnahmen aber dennoch hier auf Amazon kritisiert werden, ist vieleicht verständlich, stellt aber aus meiner Sicht keine wirkliche Kritik am Buch selbst dar. Eine Freude zu lesen ist dieses Buch aber aus einem anderen Grund: Es ist einfach sehr, sehr gut geschrieben. Ich habe einmal gelesen, dass man sich dann etwas gut merken kann, wenn man eine emotionale Verbindung zu etwas entwickelt. Und da ist es mit dem Lernen von Daten und Fakten aus der indischen Geschichte eben nicht ganz einfach. Ein Reich, ein Herrscher scheint jeweils seinen Vorgänger abgelöst zu haben, ohne dass sich in der Struktur der Herrschaft wirklich etwas verändert hat. Anders: Es fällt eben gerade nicht so einfach, aufgrund der überlieferten Faktenlage die Guten und die Bösen in dieser Geschichte zu identifizieren. Keay sucht sich aber aus den vorhandenen Informationen das heraus, was die handelnden Menschen in dieser Geschichte lebendig werden lässt, er baut auf einzelnen, überlieferten Anekdoten auf und macht daraus kleine Biographien. Und die bleiben dann im Gedächtnis. Dass daneben auch die strukturellen Veränderungen dargestellt werden (Beispiel: Entwicklung der Administration bis hin zum Reich der Mogul), macht das dann zu einer wirklich gelungenen Gesamtansicht.

This book is definitely not a light read and the language can also be a difficult to follow for a lay reader. A reader with a decent understanding of Indian history will be able to follow the book, but harder for those not attuned to Indian history. Whats good about it is that it is comprehensive and detailed.