Reading List for 2014 – India List

Biographies & Autobiographies

1. Great Soul – Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With India
2. Gandhi Before India – Ramachandra Guha
3. My Country, My Life – LK Advani
4. The State of the Nation by Fali S Nariman
5. Leadership In The Indian Army : Biographies Of Twelve Soldiers First Edition by Maj Gen V K Singh
6. Walking with Lions: Tales from a Diplomatic Past by K. Natwar Singh
7. Wings of Fire: An Autobiography – AP J Abdul Kalam
8. Turning Points: A journey through challenges by A. P. J Abdul Kalam

 

History

1. India A History Revised and Updated John Keay

 

Ancient

1. India – A Sacred Geography
2. The Difficulty of Being Good – Gurcharan Das
3. A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India by Upinder Singh
4. A History of the Sikhs 1469-1839 (Volume -1) by Khushwant Singh
5. The Arthashastra by Kautilya, L. N. Rangarajan, L. N. Rangarajan

 

Medieval

1. India – A Million Mutinies Now (Vintage International) – V.S. Naipaul
2. The Agrarian System of Mughal India, 1556-1707 – Irfan Habib
3. The Last Mughal by William Dalrymple
4. White Mughals : Love and Betrayal in Eighteenth-Century India by William Dalrymple
5. A History Of The Sikhs 1839-2004 (Volume – 2) by Khushwant Singh
6. Emperors of the Peacock Throne : The Saga of the Great Mughals by Abraham Eraly

 

Modern

1. Jinnah, Pakistan and Islamic Identity – Akbar Ahmed
2. The Discovery of India – Jawaharlal Nehru
3. Indian Summer The Secret History of the End of an Empire
4. Freedom At Midnight 13 Edition  by Dominique Lapierre, Larry Collins
5. The History of Assam from Yandabo to Partition by Priyam Goswami
6. The East India Company: The World’s Most Powerful Corporation by Tirthankar Roy
7. Economic History Of India, (1857-1947) by Tirthankar Roy
8. A Tale of Two Revolts: India 1857 and The American Civil War by Gandhi Rajmohan
9. His Majesty’s Opponent: Subhas Chandra Bose and India’s Struggle against Empire by Sugata Bose

 

Contemporary

1. Working a Democratic Constitution An Indian Experience by Granville Austin
2. Our Moon has Blood Clots: The Exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits by Rahul Pandita
3. Himalayan Blunder: The angry truth about India’s most crushing military disaster : The Angry Truth about India’s Most Crushing Military Disaster  by J. P. Dalvi, Frank Moraes
4. The Meadow  – The Kashmir Kidnapping that Changed the Face of Modern Terrorism by Adrian Levy, Cathy Scott Clark

 

India’s International Relations and Security Policies

1. The Blood Telegram Nixon Kissinger and a Forgotten Genocide by Gary J Bass
2. Pax Indica: India and the World of the 21st Century – Shashi Tharoor
3. Everyman’s War : Strategy, Security and Terrorism in India  by Raghu Raman, M. K. Narayanan
4. India at Risk : Mistakes Misadventures and Misconceptions of Security Policy by Jaswant Singh
5. Everyman’s War : Strategy, Security and Terrorism in India  by Raghu Raman, M. K. Narayanan
6. The Kaoboys of R&AW: Down Memory Lane – B Raman

 

Contemporary Writings on India

1. Development as Freedom  Amartya Sen
2. Why Growth Matters – Jagdish Bhagwati
3. The Indian Renaissance – India’s Rise After a Thousand Years of Decline – Sanjeev Sanyal
4. The Siege – 68 Hours Inside The Taj Hotel – Cathy Scott-Clark & Adrian Levy
5. A Better India: A Better World – N R Narayana Murthy
6. Imagining India: Ideas For The New Century– Nandan Nilekani
7. Reimagining India : Unlocking the Potential of Asias Next Superpower by Company, McKinsey
8. Accidental India: A History of the Nation’s Passage through Crisis and Change by Shankkar Aiyar
9. The Service Of The State: The Ias Reconsidered by Bhaskar Ghose
10. Corruption in India: The DNA and the RNA by Bibek Debroy, Laveesh Bhandari

 

A P J Abdul Kalam

1. India 2020: A Vision for the New Millennium [1998.]
2. Ignited Minds: Unleashing the Power Within India [2002]
3. Mission India [2005]
4. Target 3 Billion [2011]
5. My Journey: Transforming Dreams into Actions [2013]
6. Squaring the Circle : Seven Steps to Indian Renaissance

 

Ramachandra Guha

1. The Last Liberal and Other Essays (Permanent Black, 2004)
2. Makers of Modern India (Viking/Penguin) (Editor, 2010)
3. Patriots & Partisans (Penguin) (2012)
4. Gandhi Before India (Penguin) (2013)

 

Shashi Tharoor

1. Reasons of State (1982)
2. India: From Midnight to the Millennium (1997)
3. Nehru: The Invention of India (2003)
4. Bookless in Baghdad (2005)[84]
5. The Elephant, the Tiger, and the Cell Phone: Reflections on India – The Emerging 21st-Century Power (2007)
6. India: The Future is Now (2013)

 

Arun Shourie

1. Worshipping False Gods: Ambedkar and the Facts that Have Been Erased by Arun Shourie
2. The World of Fatwas Or the Sharia in Action by Arun Shourie
3. We Must Have No Price And Everyone Must Know That We Have No Price by Arun Shourie
4. Missionaries in India:Continuities, Changes, Dilemmas by Arun Shourie
5. Governance and the Sclerosis That Has Set In by Arun Shourie
6. Are We Deceiving Ourselves Again by Arun Shourie
7. Where Will All This Take Us? by Arun Shourie
8. Will The Iron Fence Save a Tree Hollowed by Termites:Defence Imperatives Beyond the Millitary  by Arun Shourie
9. Self Deception : Indias China Policies Origins, Premises, Lessons  by Arun Shourie

 

Mark Tully

1. No Full Stops in India – 1992
2. The Heart of India – 2000
3. India in Slow Motion – 2003
4. India’s Unending Journey: Finding balance in a time of change – 2008