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thebigad's review against another edition
5.0
Well researched fantastic read.
I have never read a history of India that is better written or substantiated. From 5000 BC onwards, the reader is taken through a treasure trove of facts and observations, often reading like a fiction novel.
I have learned a lot and plan to reread the beginning to better understand the Genesis of this nation and it's identity.
I have never read a history of India that is better written or substantiated. From 5000 BC onwards, the reader is taken through a treasure trove of facts and observations, often reading like a fiction novel.
I have learned a lot and plan to reread the beginning to better understand the Genesis of this nation and it's identity.
musicdeepdive's review against another edition
3.25
Not impenetrably dense, but pretty tough to get through for any newbie to Indian history. An all-in-one resource that is best served with supplementary materials, lest you get lost in this sea of info.
seanmckenna's review against another edition
4.0
Going into my first visit to India, I realized that I had almost no knowledge of its history, so I was seeking a readable single volume that would bring me somewhat up to speed. I had followed a similar approach with Leonard Thompson's "A History of South Africa" and very much enjoyed it. While I enjoyed Keay's book as well, it became clear pretty early on that it would be a bit more of a slog.
The fundamental difference, of course, is that while South Africa and India have both been inhabited for many thousands of years, South Africa's written history is pretty sparse before the arrival of the Europeans. As a result, Thompson's book ended up focusing mostly on the last 400 years or so, which meant a fairly linear narrative of proxy battles between European powers and struggles between the newcomers and the natives. India, by contrast, has a significant written history and was really a set of independent cultures until fairly recently. The result is that the book doesn't build any momentum until about half-way through. A short-lived power will spring up out of nowhere in the south of India and then fade away as quickly as it came, leaving no meaningful impact on the India of today. Meanwhile, something similar will be happening in the north, with neither power having any real interaction with each other. It is really only when the Mughal Empire begins to rise and unite the subcontinent that a more cohesive narrative begins to form. Indeed, Keay makes a comment to this effect when he teases the arrival of the Mughals at the beginning of Chapter 13:
"Through the agency of Babur, first of the Great Mughals, the multilateral history of the Indian subcontinent begins to jell into the monolithic history of India".
You can almost sense his relief rising off the page and as the reader, you feel much the same way.
Of course, I can't really fault the author for this. It wouldn't be appropriate for him to build a linear narrative where none exists. However, the casual reader looking to understand the India of today by learning about its history should be aware that there are several hundred pages of effectively "throwaway" history here, which is to say events and people that didn't have a meaningful impact on what happened later.
All that being said, once Keay did make it to Mughals, readability definitely picked up and I enjoyed the remainder of the book significantly more. As a neutral observer, his summary of the lead-up to and execution of partition seemed balanced and I appreciated that he followed through with the post-partition history of Pakistan and Bangladesh - in other words, this is the history of the Indian subcontinent, not just India the country that we know today.
Keay's writing style is clear and readable, with choice use of wit thrown in to liven up the history, my favorite example being:
"In what the latter often characterized as a doctor-patient relationship, it looked as if India could be retained on a drip-feed of concessions until the sacred cows came home. The First World War changed all that. With the imperial medico coming under severe strain, the Indian patient was co-opted onto the nursing staff. He was fitter, evidently, and the doctor frailer than had been supposed. Doing the rounds, he heard tell of an American panacea called self-determination and of a more revolutionary cure being pioneered in Russia. It was doubtful whether he should be in hospital at all. If the doctor was so obviously fallible, why should the patient be patient?"
If you want a thorough, readable single-volume history of India, I can definitely recommend this. Just be prepared for a bunch of false starts through the first half. And if you find yourself struggling through that part of the book, consider skipping ahead to the Mughals and proceeding from there. If your goals for reading the book were like mine, you'll get most of what you're looking for with much less of a slog.
The fundamental difference, of course, is that while South Africa and India have both been inhabited for many thousands of years, South Africa's written history is pretty sparse before the arrival of the Europeans. As a result, Thompson's book ended up focusing mostly on the last 400 years or so, which meant a fairly linear narrative of proxy battles between European powers and struggles between the newcomers and the natives. India, by contrast, has a significant written history and was really a set of independent cultures until fairly recently. The result is that the book doesn't build any momentum until about half-way through. A short-lived power will spring up out of nowhere in the south of India and then fade away as quickly as it came, leaving no meaningful impact on the India of today. Meanwhile, something similar will be happening in the north, with neither power having any real interaction with each other. It is really only when the Mughal Empire begins to rise and unite the subcontinent that a more cohesive narrative begins to form. Indeed, Keay makes a comment to this effect when he teases the arrival of the Mughals at the beginning of Chapter 13:
"Through the agency of Babur, first of the Great Mughals, the multilateral history of the Indian subcontinent begins to jell into the monolithic history of India".
You can almost sense his relief rising off the page and as the reader, you feel much the same way.
Of course, I can't really fault the author for this. It wouldn't be appropriate for him to build a linear narrative where none exists. However, the casual reader looking to understand the India of today by learning about its history should be aware that there are several hundred pages of effectively "throwaway" history here, which is to say events and people that didn't have a meaningful impact on what happened later.
All that being said, once Keay did make it to Mughals, readability definitely picked up and I enjoyed the remainder of the book significantly more. As a neutral observer, his summary of the lead-up to and execution of partition seemed balanced and I appreciated that he followed through with the post-partition history of Pakistan and Bangladesh - in other words, this is the history of the Indian subcontinent, not just India the country that we know today.
Keay's writing style is clear and readable, with choice use of wit thrown in to liven up the history, my favorite example being:
"In what the latter often characterized as a doctor-patient relationship, it looked as if India could be retained on a drip-feed of concessions until the sacred cows came home. The First World War changed all that. With the imperial medico coming under severe strain, the Indian patient was co-opted onto the nursing staff. He was fitter, evidently, and the doctor frailer than had been supposed. Doing the rounds, he heard tell of an American panacea called self-determination and of a more revolutionary cure being pioneered in Russia. It was doubtful whether he should be in hospital at all. If the doctor was so obviously fallible, why should the patient be patient?"
If you want a thorough, readable single-volume history of India, I can definitely recommend this. Just be prepared for a bunch of false starts through the first half. And if you find yourself struggling through that part of the book, consider skipping ahead to the Mughals and proceeding from there. If your goals for reading the book were like mine, you'll get most of what you're looking for with much less of a slog.
maitrey_d's review against another edition
5.0
The best popular history book on India currently. Very well balanced as the author has neither a left, right nor an Imperialist bias.
evilmonkey85's review against another edition
3.0
I’ve learned about Indian History in secondary school from the Mughal’s coming to India until the British Raj and Independence in 1947 but living in the UK we weren’t taught about Indian History before the Mughal Empire. As I’ve also seen the beautiful palaces, madrasa’s (Mosques) Hindu and Jain Temples on my visits to India.
John Keay has covered a lot of Indian History from the Indus Civilisation to the entry of the British Raj right the way through to Independent India and India after the Independence. This is a book that I would happily recommend to anyone wanting to know more about Indian History.
John Keay has covered a lot of Indian History from the Indus Civilisation to the entry of the British Raj right the way through to Independent India and India after the Independence. This is a book that I would happily recommend to anyone wanting to know more about Indian History.
lukescalone's review against another edition
2.0
This book is kinda terrible. The beginning was ok, and the end was decent, but everything after Harappa and before the Mughals was absolutely brutal to read. This makes some sense given that India has never been a unified state until independence, although it did come close under the Mughals and the British Raj. Because of India's disunity, it is difficult to write a historical narrative (especially when earlier documents are scattered, if extant at all). But, surely there would have been some better way to frame this book in a way where it has meaning rather than a series of disjointed figures and events only linked together by their Indian-ness.
I'll find something else to read to fill in the gaps, and I recommend staying away from this one.
I'll find something else to read to fill in the gaps, and I recommend staying away from this one.