Best 10 Books to Read On Modern Indian history
By: Krishna Jena
Tags: Books, India, History, Upsc Preparation

Best 10 Books to Read On Modern Indian history

Must read 10 Books in order to understand and appreciate Contemporary India more or in order to crack UPSC Civil Service Exams.

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In order to understand a Nation, its aspiration, its goal, and its people, it is imperative to know and understand what the nation as a whole has suffered, how it has emerged out of those sufferings, how it has stood the wear and tear of time and the bloody wars that had crisscrossed its heart which, although forgotten, is still manipulating its present and future actions through the inner fabric of its subconscious. To know a nation, where it stands today and what is its future in the modern world of power and politics, one must understand its history. And in order to understand India, the land of diversity, it is imperative to understand and thoroughly know what constitutes India in terms of various events that have shaped and formed its history. These are some books which will certainly help you understand and appreciate what India is.

The Idea of India by Sunil Khilani

This book although first published in 1997 is still very relevant and can serve as an introductory guide to India’s march as a free nation since its independence; it describes the economic and political history of India in the fifty years since Partition. It focuses in particular on the role that the national ideal of democracy has played in India’s evolution. The book is also noted for its treatment of the personality and actions of Jawaharlal Nehru in the development of the country. Journalist Ian Jack described this book, and its description of the “intellectual foundations” of the modern Indian state, as “indispensable” reading.

2. India after Gandhi by Ramachandra Guha

This is the most remarkable retelling of the history of India right from the bloody partition and assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the nation to the modern India of the 2000s. History never before has been rendered in such an interesting and entertaining manner as Mr. Guha presented it in his magnum opus of modern Indian history.

3. India -from midnight to the millennium by Shashi Tharoor

This book is also a jewel when it comes to chronicling the history of modern India and belongs to the same category of Guha’s ‘India after Gandhi’, but much more precise, succinct and in the inimitable style of Dr. Sashi Tharoor. However, this book can not be said to be unbiased in its approach like the Guha’s ‘India After Gandhi’, however, readers will be greatly benefitted from looking at India’s history from the perspective of Sashi Tharoor.

4. The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian History, Culture and Identity by Amartya Sen

What a Nobel Laureate economist can teach about India, its history and culture. It turns out too much. It is a collection of essays that discuss India’s history and identity, focusing on the traditions of public debate and intellectual pluralism. The essays outline the need to understand contemporary India in the light of its long argumentative tradition. The understanding and use of this argumentative tradition are critically important, Sen argues, for the success of India’s democracy.

5. India — The Emerging Giant by Arvind Panagiriya

This book is the magnum opus of India's economic history and chronicles the economic path followed by Nehru to Manmohan Singh. This book is the most comprehensive and analytic yet accessible account available of the most remarkable experiment in economic development under democracy.

6. A feast of vultures : The hidden business of democracy in India by Josy Joseph

This book is a 2016 non-fiction book by the Indian investigative journalist, Josy Joseph. The book examines and documents modern India’s democracy, drawing attention to corruption in business and government. This will not paint a rosy picture of our nation’s functioning as the largest democracy but shows the hideous underworld of power, politics, and corruption that goes in the name of democracy.

7. Battles half won by Ashutosh Varshney

This lively collection of essays by Ashutosh Varshney analyses the deepening of Indian democracy since 1947 and the challenges this has created. It examines concerns ranging from federalism and Hindu nationalism to caste conflict and civil society, accompanied by a substantial overview tracing the forging and consolidation of India’s improbable democracy, the book, full of original insights, portrays the successes and failures of our experience in a new comparative perspective, enriching our understanding of the idea of democracy.

8. Burden of Democracy by Pratap Bhanu Mehta

Politics has truly created opportunities for people to participate in society. But this book reveals the persistent social inequality on the one hand and a mistaken view of the state’s proper function and organization on the other have modified and hindered the workings of democracy and its effects in innumerable ways in order to offer a new ideological imagination that throws light on our discontents. This book shows how by returning to the basics of democracy, we can illuminate our predicament, even while perceiving the broad contours for change.

9. Pax Indica by Sashi Tharoor

Just like a person’s personality is better understood by its behavior towards his neighbors, similarly, a nation is better reflected in its approach to other nations and its relation to them. India cannot be understood in totality without understanding its foreign policy and its approach to other nations and its stance on various emerging international events and international geo-power politics. This book gives us an insightful and an interesting coverage of India’s foreign policies and how the policies affect the common man.

10. An Uncertain Glory: India and its Contradictions by Amartya Sen

This book not only talks of the faults and problems of India which has led to inequality and poverty, but it also tries to find a solution to the problem that has plagued India from the time immemorial. This book presents a powerful analysis not only of India’s deprivations and inequalities, but also of the restraints on addressing them — and of the possibility of change through democratic practice.

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