India is a land steeped in history. India’s social, economic, and cultural structures are the culmination of a process of regional expansion. The birth of the Indus Valley Civilization and the influx of the Aryans marked the beginning of Indian history. These two periods are commonly referred to as the pre-Vedic and Vedic ages. Hinduism emerged during the Vedic period.

The fifth century witnessed the rapprochement of India and Buddhism under Ashoka, a Buddhist convert, and it was during his reign that Buddhism spread throughout Asia. Islam arrived in India for the first time in the eighth century and had deeply rooted itself as a political entity by the eleventh century.

Europeans first arrived in India in the 17th century. This occurred at the same time as the Mughal Empire disintegrated, setting the stage for regional states. The English were declared “victors” in the struggle for dominance. The Rebellion of 1857–58, which sought to restore Indian supremacy, was crushed, and the subsequent crowning of Victoria as Empress of India completed India’s incorporation into the empire. It was followed by India’s independence struggle, ending in 1947.

Indian history is deeply rooted and influenced by the invaders from time to time. It was intensely rich that from every era it was looted and exploited. Based on available resources, now people have emerged with unique studies that were never read or seen before. Many developed superpowers now, did not even exist back then, when we were already enjoying the things from the future. Not only geographically, but also in science and technology and even in thinking and inventing we were superior to many.

In the given texts, our history is divided majorly into three parts and of course, these three parts were further subdivided. Ancient History, Medieval History, and Modern History.

Ancient history actually accounts for the rise of Jainism and Buddhism. Our history is even before that when there were rock shelters, Indus valley civilizations, Harappan civilizations, Vedic period, etc…

If you are keen to know Indian history by revealing the existent as well as hidden secrets, I’m sure you will be in awe with the list below.

List of 75 Bestseller books on Indian History

1. The East India Company: The World’s Most Powerful Corporation

This ground-breaking study investigates how the East India Company established colonies in India while also incurring losses in business. The company’s vast business network spanned Persia, India, China, Indonesia, and North America for over 200 years. However, in the late 1700s, its career marked a turning point, and it became an empire builder.

Tirthankar Roy reveals in this fascinating account how the company’s trade relations with India changed—and how the company changed Indian business. The book explores how politics intertwined with business conduct at the time, and what that tells us about doing business now, by piecing together many pieces of a large jigsaw puzzle.

2. Breaking India: Western Interventions In Dravidian And Dalit Faultlines

This book moves you truly; the sordid activities of ‘breaking India’ forces that receive no media coverage are put forth remarkably gallantly by the author, which requires enormous courage. It is unfortunate that we have reached a point where seditious and divisive activities have become “normalized,” while speaking the truth has become a cardinal sin. The book reveals how a syndicate of deception and falsehood has gotten the better of many people, who are now happily annihilating the nation’s civilization and solidarity.

3. Unbreaking India: Decision on Article 370 and the CAA

The abolishment of Article 370 and the passage of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) in 2019 were historically important legislative acts. Author Sanjay Dixit digs deeper into the past to trace the events, actions, and consequences that led to the Union of India enacting these two parameters. He examines these events from all angles—historical, social, and political. He traces the entire history of Kashmir from its pre-Islamic past to the events that transpired during India’s Partition, leading to the initial incorporation of Article 370 into the Indian Constitution.

4. India that is Bharat: Coloniality, Civilisation, Constitution

The first book in a trilogy, India, That Is Bharat, investigates the impact of European “colonial consciousness” (or “coloniality”), particularly its religious and racial roots, on Bharat as the successor state to the Indic civilisation and the origins of the Indian Constitution. It lays the groundwork for its sequels by spanning the time period between the Age of Discovery, as symbolised by Christopher Columbus’ expedition in 1492, and the reshaping of Bharat through a British-made constitution—the Government of India Act of 1919. This includes international developments that led to Western powers founding the League of Nations, which had a tangible impact on this journey. Furthermore, this work traces the origins of seemingly universal concepts like “tolerance,” “secularism,” and “humanism” to Christian political theology.

5. India, Bharat and Pakistan : The Constitutional Journey of Sandwiched Civilisation

The second book in the Bharat Trilogy, India, Bharat, and Pakistan, continues the discussion begun in the first book, India, That Is Bharat. It investigates the combined impact of European and Middle Eastern colonialities on Bharat as the successor state to Indian civilisation, as well as the origins of the Indian Constitution. To that end, the book traces the figurative spectrum of Middle Eastern coloniality, beginning with the rise of Islamic Revivalism in the 1740s following the decline of the Mughal Empire, which foreshadowed the concept of Pakistan, and ending with the end of the Khilafat Movement in 1924, which bolstered the road to Pakistan.

6. An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India

With acuity, impeccable research, and trademark wit, bestselling author Shashi Tharoor reveals just how disastrous British rule was for India in this explosive book. He demolishes the arguments of Western and Indian apologists for the Empire on the supposed benefits of British rule, including democracy and political freedom, the rule of law, and railways, in addition to examining the many ways in which colonisers exploited India, ranging from the drain of national resources to Britain, the destruction of the Indian textile, steel-making, and shipping industries, and the negative transformation of agriculture. The few unarguable benefits, such as the English language, tea, and cricket, were never intended to benefit the colonised but were instead introduced to serve the interests of the colonisers. Brilliantly told and eloquently argued.

7. Why I Am a Hindu

Why I Am a Hindu is a profound book about one of the world’s oldest and greatest religions, written by one of India’s finest public intellectuals. Beginning with a close examination of his own Hindu beliefs, he explores the faith in great depth. He discusses the Great Souls of Hinduism, such as Adi Shankara, Patanjali, Ramanuja, Swami Vivekananda, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, and many others who contributed significantly to the essence of Hinduism.

8. The Battle Of Belonging: On Nationalism, Patriotism, And What It Means To Be Indian

Shashi Tharoor delves into the contentious concepts of nationalism, patriotism, citizenship, and belonging. Throughout his research, he explains what nationalism is and can be, reveals who is anti-national, defines patriotism, and investigates the nature and future of Indian nationhood. He provides a clear picture of the forces working to undermine the ‘idea of India’ (a phrase coined by Rabindranath Tagore) that has evolved throughout history and was enshrined in India’s Constitution by its founding fathers in its modern form. The book, which is divided into six sections, begins by exploring historical and contemporary ideas of nationalism, patriotism, liberalism, democracy, and humanism, many of which emerged in the Western world in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and quickly spread throughout the world.

9. What Happened to Netaji

Anuj Dhar’s writings on the controversy surrounding Subhas Chandra Bose’s fate So, what happened to Netaji in reality? What is the true story behind the 1945 air crash that allegedly killed him? Is there any truth to Subramaniun Swamy’s claim that Netaji was assassinated in Soviet Russia at the request of Jawaharlal Nehru? How do the country’s greatest leaders, from Mahatma Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel to President Pranab Mukherjee and Atal Bihari Vajpayee, fare in India’s longest-running saga? Who was Gumnami Baba of Faizabad, and if he was Netaji, why didn’t he come forward? Above all, what is stopping the Narendra Modi administration from declassifying the Netaji files?

10. Your Prime Minister is Dead

When Lalita Shastri witnessed her husband’s body, she realised he hadn’t been dead for several hours. His face was swollen and dark blue. The body was bloated and had strange cut marks on it. The sheets, pillows, and clothing were all stained with blood. As family members expressed their concerns, sandal paste was smeared on Lal Bahadur Shastri’s face. The debate over whether or not India’s second prime minister died as a result of a heart attack raged on. Allegations of KGB, CIA, or insider involvement in Lal Bahadur Shastri’s death surfaced. Through a disturbing narrative that contradicts the official version in this first-ever comprehensive study of the enduring Shastri, death is unknown.

11. The Indian War of Independence 1857

Veer Savarkar was the first person to refer to the 1857 mutiny as a “war of Independence.” No Indian had dared to say that before his time. The martyrs of 1857 were extremely fortunate to have a historian tell their story who was both a historian and a creator of history. For Indian revolutionaries, this book became the Bible. The British government banned the book before it was published. After being published in Holland, the book was smuggled into India and England. This book was in such high demand that it was sold and resold at the exorbitant price of Rs. 300. (in 1910)

12. The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Classical World

Catherine Nixey’s The Darkening Age tells the little-known-and profoundly disconcerting-story of how a militant religion deliberately tried to obliterate the Classical world’s teachings, paving the way for unwavering compliance to the ‘one true faith.’ The Roman Empire had been open to and accepting of new religions. But when Christianity arrived, everything changed. Despite communicating peace, this new faith was violent, ruthless, and intolerant. When it became the religion of the empire, its zealous followers set about destroying the old gods. Their altars were turned upside down, their temples were destroyed, and their statues were hacked to pieces. Books, including classic works of philosophy and science, were burned. It was total annihilation.

13. Invaders and Infidels (Book 1): From Sindh to Delhi: The 500-Year Journey of Islamic Invasions

The Islamic conquest of India was most likely the grimmest event in history. It is a depressing story because its obvious moral is that civilisation is a precious good whose sensitive compound of order and freedom, culture and peace can be overthrown at any time by barbarians invading from without or multiplying within. Will Durant is an American historian. Invaders and Infidels: From Sindh to Delhi: The 500-Year Journey of Islamic Invasions is a riveting history that traces the origins and progression of Islamic encroachment into India.

14. FLIGHT OF DEITIES AND REBIRTH OF TEMPLES: EPISODES FROM INDIAN HISTORY

The medieval response to temple destruction and image desecration is examined in this work. While temples were severely damaged on a large scale, the repeated attempts to rebuild them are also worth mentioning. During each rebirth, the temple retained its original name, despite a visible reduction in scale and grandeur.

In cases where neither the temple nor the image could be saved, the memory endured, and a shrine was rebuilt after several centuries.

15. Sati Evangelicals Baptist Missionaries and the Changing Colonial Discourse

Prof. Meenakshi Jain, who made history with her book on the Ayodhya controversy, Rama and Ayodhya (2013), adds to her reputation with the current hefty volume, Sati. Evangelicals, Baptist Missionaries, and the Changing Colonial Discourse (Aryan Books International, Delhi 2016). As a meticulous professional historian, she quotes all sources cited in it, with descriptions of Sati ranging from the ancient to the medieval to the modern eras. She also includes the complete text of the relevant British and Republican laws, as well as Lord Wiliam Bentinck’s Minute on Sati (1829), which resulted in the prohibition of Sati.

16. VASUDEVA KRISHNA AND MATHURA

This work investigates the history of image worship in India. The Bhagavata religion, which evolved around Vasudeva Krishna of the Vrishni clan, is its main focus. Several significant archaeological finds from the early Common Era were recovered from the site of Katra Keshavadeva in Mathura.

Many documents pertaining to events at Katra Keshavadeva after 1815 are possibly being presented for the first time to the general reader. The documents attest to the Hindus’ steadfast dedication to the site.

17. RAMA AND AYODHYA

This work examines the antiquity of the Rama Katha and the spread of the Rama cult across the Indian subcontinent in the context of Left academic claims about its late prominence. Its main focus is the Ayodhya conflict over the Ramjanmabhumi temple, which was purportedly destroyed by the Mughal Emperor, Babar, in 1528. It investigates the accounts of foreign travellers in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and British administrator-scholars in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, which attest to Ayodhya’s continued importance as a pilgrimage centre associated with Rama’s birthplace. The lengthy litigation over the Ramajanmabhumi/Babri Masjid during the colonial period attests to the perseverance of the Janmabhumi claims.

18. The Satanic Verses

No modern book has sparked as much controversy as Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses, which earned its author the death penalty. Aside from the controversy, it’s a marvelously sagacious study of good and evil, a feast of language served up by a writer at the pinnacle of his abilities, and a rollicking comic fable. The story begins with two Indians, Gibreel Farishta (‘for fifteen years the biggest star in the history of Indian movies’) and Saladin Chamcha, a Bombay expatriate returning from his first visit to his homeland in 15 years, plummeting from the sky after their jetliner explodes, and continues through a series of metamorphoses, dreams, and revelations.

19. Origines: Phoenicia. Arabia. 1826

Scholars chose this work as culturally significant, and it is now a component of the general basis of civilization as we know it. This work was recreated from the original artifact and is as accurate as possible to the original. As a result, the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations will be visible in the work.

20. Islamic Jihad: A Legacy of Forced Conversion, Imperialism, and Slavery

The September 11, 2001, attacks altered the way the world views Islam. According to M.A. Khan, a former Muslim who left the faith after discovering that it is based on forced conversion, imperialism, and slavery: the primary demands of Jihad, as commanded by the Islamic God Allah. Khan demonstrates in this ground-breaking book that Prophet Muhammad meticulously followed these misguided principles and established the ideal template of Islamic Jihad for his future followers to follow, and that Muslims have been entrenching the cardinal principles of Jihad ever since.

21. Ancient India

From a national historical standpoint, this is a comprehensive, understandable, and fascinating portrait of ancient Indian history and civilization. The work is divided into three broad sections that follow the natural course of cultural development in Ancient India: (1) prehistoric to 600 B.C.; (2) 600 B.C. to 300 A.D.; and (3) 300 A.D. to 1200 A.D.

The work describes the country’s political, economic, religious, and cultural conditions, as well as its rulers’ imperialistic activities and colonisation schemes in the Far East. Political theories and administrative structures are also discussed, but the religious, literary, and cultural aspects of Ancient India have received more attention.

22. AN ADVANCED HISTORY OF INDIA

The revised fourth edition covers events up to 1978 and includes lists of Indian, Bangladeshi, and Pakistani Presidents and Prime Ministers from 1977 to 1978. It delves into recent constitutional amendments, socioeconomic shifts, and educational experiments.

23. Urban Naxals: The Making Of Buddha In A Traffic Jam

Vivek Agnihotri writes about his experience making the film “Buddha in a Traffic Jam,” which exposed the link between an India-wide Maoist terror movement and its proponents in urban centres such as academia and the media. The Naxalites are waging war on India, with detailed plans for state overthrow. Urban Naxals use social and traditional media to spread their message, recruit new members, and wage a propaganda war. This gripping story recounts Agnihotri’s own grooming in college to be an Urban Naxal and details the movement’s plans and tactics. Agnihotri’s story is a behind-the-scenes look at the production of “Buddha in a Traffic Jam,” the violent opposition to its screening, and an exposé of the world’s largest extreme-left terror movement and its penetration into urban India.

24. History of Ancient India

The book provides a comprehensive, analytical, and critical account of medieval India’s political and military history. The onslaught of Turkish invasions and the establishment of Muslim rule in northern India, first at Lahore and then at Delhi, defined this period in Indian history. The Sultanate of Delhi lasted from 1206 to 1526, when it was overrun and replaced by a new wave of Muslim adventurers known as Mughals, led by Barbar. The Delhi sultans established “an Islamic state” in India, denying their indigenous Hindu subjects political freedom and civil liberties by labeling them “infidels.”

25. The History And Culture Of The Indian People/Volume 1/The Vedic Age

The first volume of this history begins with an introductory section dealing with general topics concerning India’s history as a whole. Despite its focus on the Vedic period, it provides the necessary geological, geographical, and biological context before moving on to the first stage of human activity in India. The third section focuses on the Indo-Aryans in general; the fourth on the period’s political history; and the remaining sections on language and literature, political and legal institutions, social and economic conditions, and religion and philosophy. In a nutshell, this volume covers the beginnings of Hindu civilization.

26. The Penguin History of Early India: From the Origins to AD 1300 

From the Beginning to the Present The Penguin History of Ancient India: From the Beginning to AD 1300 is a historical tribute to Indian history and to ancient India’s rich culture and heritage. The book vividly explores India’s past, assisting readers in visualising the formation of a nation and how it grew and flourished over generations. It investigates all of the hues that India represents from then to now and documents India in a way that has never been documented before. A Trip Through Time The historical book begins with the prehistoric era and enumerates the good and bad of each subsequent era. It compares each era’s religious customs, living habits, economic prosperity, traditions, and rituals, giving readers a clear picture of how India evolved into what it is today.

27. India’s Ancient Past

Based on Professor Sharma’s extremely popular school text on Ancient India, which he wrote years ago and later revised, this volume also addresses a number of issues that have become current in discussions about Ancient India today, such as the Identity of the Aryan Culture and Historical Construction. This book is for anyone who wants a masterly, lucid, yet eminently readable introduction to and overview of India’s early history from one of the master-scholars of Indian history, whether they are students, tourists, or the deeply invested lay reader.

28. Remnants of a Separation: A History of the Partition through Material Memory

Remnants of a Separation is a one-of-a-kind attempt to revisit the Partition through objects brought across the border by refugees. These possessions absorbed the memory of a time and place, remaining dormant and unbroken for generations. They now speak of their owners’ pasts, emerging as testaments to struggle, sacrifice, pain, and belonging at an unprecedented juncture in history. A string of pearls given by a maharaja and carried from Dalhousie to Lahore reveals the splendor of a former life. A notebook of poems brought from Lahore to Kalyan demonstrates one woman’s determination to pursue the written word in the face of adversity.

29. In the Language of Remembering: The Inheritance of Partition

This book, as a natural progression of the first book, investigates that very notion, revealing how the partition is still not a thing of the past, and its legacy is woven into the daily lives of subsequent generations. It examines how the partition memory is preserved and passed down through generations of Indians, Pakistanis, and Bangladeshis and their respective diasporas, as well as how its consequences are disseminated and manifested within family, community, and nation. The voices in this living archive, with the oldest interviewees in their nineties and the youngest just teenagers, intimately and sincerely answer questions such as: Is partition relevant? Should we continue to discuss it? Is it what defines our relationships? Does it shape our personalities or amplify our fears without our knowledge?

30. The Partition of Bengal: Fragile Borders and New Identities

This study examines the rich literature that has originated through the historical imagination of Bengali-speaking writers in West Bengal and Bangladesh through issues of homelessness, migration, and expulsion to see how the Partition of Bengal in 1947 has cast a giant shadow over remembrances and cultural practices. The book reveals how the partition has been remembered or forgotten through a wealth of literary and other materials. For the first time, previously untranslated archival materials and texts in Bangla have been assembled to assess the impact of 1947 on the cultural memory of Bangla-speaking people and communities.

31. The Age of Imperial Unity Vol. II

Beginning with a kaleidoscopic picture of North India in the sixth century B.C., this second volume of the History and Culture of the Indian People depicts in full detail the growth of the Magadhan empire and the Persian and Macedonian invasions; and surveys the ways of various dynasties such as the Mauryas, Sungas, Yavanas, Sakas, Pahlavas, Kushanas, Saka Satraps, Satavahanas. Old problems such as the Kaniska era, Vikrama, and Saka Samvat are given new life. The history of South India and Ceylon during this time period is extensively discussed. The period’s history is accomplished with chapters on India and the Western World, as well as Colonial and Cultural Expansion.

32. The History And Culture Of The Indian People Volume 3: The Classical Age

The author took the political history of India, the rise, decline, and fall of the Gupta Empire, as their focal point in the early chapters of this Volume, and placed it in context with the history of the following period. The work of the Chalukyas and Pallavas in the south, who picked up the thread left by the Guptas in the north and accomplished political units in Deccan and South India, thereby envisaging the political ideal of a federation of the three regional units, has received special attention. Cultural movements that accompanied these events have also been documented.

33. The Age of Imperial Kanauj Vol 4

The pivotal city of Kanauj, from which this volume gets its name, serves as the center of the history of the period stated. The imperial city serves as the prize in the triangle of forces battling for supremacy made up of the Pratiharas, Palas, and Rashtrakutas. The larger, more reliable empire of the Gurjara Pratiharas, which is extensively discussed, serves as further evidence that Harshavardhana was not the last empire builder. In contrast to the ancient Deccan, the Rashtrakutas emerge in brilliant colours. For the first time, the significance of Kabul and Zabul in resisting Muslim infiltration has been properly understood. A fantastic chapter on the period’s trans-oceanic cultural activities concludes the book. The volume’s singularity is completed by an extensive index, a comprehensive bibliography, a chronology, a genealogy, and maps.

34. Scars of 1947: Real Partition Stories

The impact of the 1947 Partition of India is still felt heavily in the hearts and minds of those who were affected more than seven decades later. A country was split in half with the simple stroke of a pen on a map, affecting families for generations and leaving behind wounds that are still hurtful to bear.

Unimaginable trauma was endured by people on both sides of the infamous Radcliffe line that separated India and Pakistan. Those who survived this nightmare will never forget the terrible events that caused millions of people to flee their homes. There are accounts from individuals who went on to become presidents, industrialists, researchers in medicine, and more. These tales of how families started over in life after Partition should be remembered in the decades that followed.

35. Ivory Throne: Chronicles of the House of Travancore

When Vasco da Gama arrived in Kerala in 1498 in search of Christians and spices, he unleashed a wave of political rage that would topple local powers like a house of cards. The cosmopolitan fabric of a vibrant trading society was ripped apart, heralding an age of violence and bloodshed. However, one prince triumphed over this descent into chaos. Martanda Varma consecrated the dominion of Travancore, destined to become one of the most obedient pillars of the British Raj, by deftly marrying Western arms to Eastern strategy.

36. REBEL SULTANS: The Deccan from Khilji to Shivaji

Manu S. Pillai’s Rebel Sultans tells the story of the Deccan from the end of the thirteenth century to the beginning of the eighteenth. This book takes us from the age of Alauddin Khilji to the ascension of Shivaji and is crowded with spellbinding stories and compelling characters. As we negotiate intrigues at the courts of the Bahmani kings and the Rebel Sultans who overthrew them, we witness the dramatic rise and fall of the Vijayanagar empire. From Chand Bibi, a valiant queen stabbed to death, to Ibrahim II of Bijapur, a Muslim prince who worshipped Hindu gods, to Malik Ambar, the Ethiopian warlord, and Krishnadeva Raya on Vijayanagar’s Diamond Throne, they all emerge in these pages as we travel through one of India’s most arresting swaths of history.

37. FALSE ALLIES: India’s Maharajahs in the Age of Ravi Varma

The maharajas of India have customarily been portrayed as petty despots consumed by lust and luxury. Bejeweled parasites, they were said to be more concerned with elephants and palaces than with schools and public works. The British cheerfully propagated the notion that brown royalty required ‘enlightened’ white hands to guide it, and by the twentieth century, many Indians had bought into the stereotype, viewing princely India as teeming with imperial stooges. Even today, the princes are either remembered with frothy nostalgia or dismissed as greedy fools who played no role in the formation of modern India. Manu S. Pillai refutes this viewpoint in this brilliantly researched book.

38. Rajaraja Chola: Interplay Between an Imperial Regime and Productive Forces of Society

When Rajaraja Chola ascended to the throne, the Tamil kingdom entered a period of centuries of grandeur. He left a magnificent legacy that has not faded even after a thousand years. We see powerful productive forces at work during his regime, newly liberated by advances in manufacturing and trade.

The reader can vividly experience the turbulent developments of this period thanks to interesting facts and riveting analyses.

39. The Other Side of Silence: Voices from the Partition of India

The partition of India in 1947 resulted in one of the most nightmarish human events in history, with over twelve million people displaced amid a massive frenzy of murder, rape, and abduction. These violent realities were buried in silence for decades, even though the memories of brutality never faded. The Other Side of Silence by Urvashi Butalia was the first major work to unearth the personal trauma of the partition. It is unquestionably a classic, meticulously locating the individual experiences and private pain at the heart of this cataclysmic event.

40. Borders and Boundaries: Women in India’s Partition

In 1947, India was both freed and divided. Partition affected everyone in some way, but it had a particular impact on women as they struggled to rebuild their lives. What made them feel at home in this land of redrawn borders? What did nation mean to them? Religion? Community? What about liberty itself? We get another perspective, from the margins of that momentous time, through the stories of women and an accompanying narrative that situates them in a social and political context, and look anew not only at how history is written but at those age-old boundaries of religion, community, gender, and nation.

41. Partition: The Long Shadow

Essays on the lasting effects of partition Partition’s dark vestiges have cast a long shadow over the lives of people in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Not only did the borders were drawn in 1947 and redrawn in 1971 divide nations and histories, but also families and loved ones. The essays in this volume break new ground in Partition studies, delving into topics like art, literature, migration, and notions of ‘foreignness’ and ‘belonging.’ It draws attention to previously unaddressed areas of partition, such as the northeast and Ladakh.

42. The Footprints of Partition: Narratives of Four Generations of Pakistanis and Indians

After Partition, the Journey of Partition. We are still trying to understand the phenomenon of British India’s partition and the subsequent formation of two antagonistic countries. Millions of people were displaced, thousands were slaughtered, and families were split up and redefined as home became alien land and the unknown became home. Much has been written about it, but no writer, storyteller, or poet has been able to explain the madness of Partition. Anam Zakaria, a Pakistani researcher, attempts to understand how the perception of Partition and the ‘other’ has evolved over time by using the oral narratives of four generations of people, primarily Pakistanis but also some Indians. Partition memories have been repackaged through state narratives, and attitudes have only hardened over time. Warfare, religious extremism, and terrorism have all left new imprints on 1947. This book chronicles the journey of Partition after Partition.

43. Train to Pakistan

India’s partition was one of the most dreadful periods in recent Indian history. It has been depicted in various media since the 1950s. While most of those focused on the socio-political causes and effects, Train to Pakistan is a novel that captures the essential human trauma and suffering in the face of such terror and crisis. The novel begins with a description of Mano Majra, a small village with a Muslim and Sikh population that suddenly becomes part of the Indian-Pakistan border. Mano Majra, an idyllic and peaceful village, resorted to love and harmony in the face of all odds until external factors impeded all the harmony. The odds begin when a train carrying the bodies of Sikhs and Hindus arrives in Mano Majra. Riots and strikes reached an all-time high, with Sikhs and Hindus on one side and Muslims on another.

44. The End of India

‘I thought the nation was coming to an end,’ Khushwant Singh wrote, reflecting on the violence of Partition that he witnessed over a half-century ago. He thought he’d seen the worst India could do to herself at the time. However, following the violence in Gujarat in 2002, he had grounds to suppose that the worst was yet to come. Khushwant Singh forces us to confront the absolute corruption of religion that has made us among the most vicious people on the planet by assessing the communal violence in Gujarat in 2002, the anti-Sikh riots of 1984, the burning of Graham Staines and his children, and the targeted assassinations by terrorists in Punjab and Kashmir.

45. Why I am an Atheist and Other Works

In India’s struggle for independence, the name Bhagat Singh became synonymous with revolution. This young boy altered people’s perceptions of freedom. He was well-read and fought hard for his own, his comrades’, and his countrymen’s rights. A conversation with a friend quickly turned into a self-evaluation for Bhagat Singh, leading to a rant about why he chose to be an atheist. Even in the face of death at such a young age, his uncanny observation prompts him to raise some pertinent questions. On another occasion, he was dissatisfied with his father’s courtroom defense of his innocence and chose to write him a letter. This book is a collection of eighteen of his valuable writings from both inside and outside the walls of incarceration, which show us the resilience in his words and the heroism in his subsequent actions.

46. Annihilation of Caste and other essays

Dr. B. R. Ambedkar wrote a series of essays in which he discussed caste discrimination and Hinduism. Ambedkar, determined to abolish social stratification, published “Annihilation of Caste” (1936), in which he condemned the caste system. The collection of essays elaborates on the persecution of the lower classes. Ambedkar’s concerns The caste system prevailed due to endogamy, according to the restrictions on inter-caste relationships. Ambedkar is remembered fondly in modern India for his tenacity in elevating the status of the marginalised and providing them with persistent hope.

47. Nationalism

Nationalism is a collection of Tagore’s lectures given during the First World War and the Swadeshi movement in India. It emphasises Tagore’s political and philosophical views on human comprehension and its lack of strength for power and material hoardings. It expounds the idea of moral and spiritual growth for human welfare with eloquence and interpretation. The lectures are written in lucid, figurative, poetic verse and are a critique of his views on spirituality and humanity.

48. The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian History, Culture and Identity

India is a vastly different country, with many unique pursuits, significantly different beliefs, widely disparate traditions, and a tremendous feast of viewpoints. The Argumentative Indian compiles an illuminating collection of writings by Nobel laureate economist Amartya Sen that outline the importance of understanding contemporary India in light of its long argumentative tradition. Sen argues that understanding and applying this rich argumentative tradition is critical for the success of India’s democracy, the defence of its secular politics, the elimination of inequalities based on class, caste, gender, and community, and the pursuit of sub-continental peace.

49. The Discovery of India

During his confinement at Ahmednagar for partaking in the Quit India Movement (1942 1946), Jawaharlal Nehru wrote the book The Discovery of India. The book was written during Nehru’s four years in prison, and it is his way of paying homage to his beloved country and its rich culture. The book began with ancient history, with Nehru writing extensively on Vedas, Upanishads, and textbooks from that era, and ended during the British Raj. The book provides a broad overview of Indian history, culture, and philosophy, and the television series does the same. The book is regarded as one of the best works of Indian history writing.

50. Karl Marx on India

Karl Marx’s articles in the New York Daily Tribune, which were initially published in English and were based on events in various countries around the world, are a distinct genre among his works. There is no doubt that Marx’s work for his Tribune articles not only influenced his later theoretical work (one major result being his inclusion of imperialism as a factor in the genesis and expansion of capitalism), but also provided him with an opportunity to pursue the general principles of his method of historical materialism to the study of complex circumstances prevalent in various parts of the world. The Tribune’s portrayal of pre-colonial and colonial India is a classic example of such application. The audacity of Marx’s explanation of India’s pre-colonial “non-history”; the remarkable insight into the nature of colonial rule that distinguished it from all previous conquests of the country; the lucidity of the presentation of the dialectical materialism of colonial impact; the passionate sympathy for the Indians’ suffering; and, at the same time, the utterly dispassionate account of the historical course that opened up before the country, purely independent of Marx.

51. The History and Culture of the Indian People: Volume 6: The Delhi Sultanate

This volume focuses on the period when foreign Muslim conquerors, primarily of Turkish origin, established “effective suzerainty over the greater part of India.” The popular belief that after Muhammad Ghurfi’s conquest, India formed a Muslim empire with various dynasties is not supported by facts. The preceding volume demonstrated that the majority of India remained free of Muslim dominance until nearly the end of the thirteenth century A.D.

52. Guilty Men of India’s Partition

In his insightful book Guilty Men of India’s Partition, Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia recounts the painful days when the decision to divide India and the two communities—Hindus and Muslims—was made.

In a candid conversation with his readers, he identifies the leaders and circumstances responsible for the partition. In the midst of influential leaders with political power, he shares his experiences of being sidelined, his efforts being deterred, and his prescient foresight being ignored.

53. The Age of Wrath: A History of the Delhi Sultanate

The Delhi Sultanate period (1206–1526) is frequently depicted as a time of chaos and anarchy, with plundering kings, tumultuous dynasties, and the aggressive encroachment of Islam on India. However, it was also the era that saw the establishment of a pan-Indian empire, on which the Mughals and British later built their respective Indian empires. The meeting of Islam and Hinduism also influenced India’s architecture, literature, music, and cuisine. Abraham Eraly vividly recreates this fascinating era, combining erudition with powerful storytelling, and analysis with an anecdote.

54. Muslim Rule in Medieval India: Power and Religion in the Delhi Sultanate

For over three centuries, the Delhi Sultanate ruled northern India. The era, marked by temple defilement and mosque creation from temple wreckage, is a lightning rod for debates on communalism, religious identity, and inter-faith conflict for many South Asians. Fouzia Farooq Ahmad deconstructs key aspects of governance and religion in this complex and contentious period using Persian and Arabic manuscripts, epigraphs, and inscriptions. Why were small groups of foreign invaders and administrators able to dominate despite cultural, linguistic, and religious divides? And how much did people respect the authority of sultans they knew nothing about?

55. India in the Persianate Age: 1000-1765

Remarkable… This brilliant book stands as a significant memorial to an almost forgotten world. The Spectator’s William Dalrymple A monumental new history of India from the Middle Ages to the arrival of the British. The Indian subcontinent may appear to be a self-contained world. It has developed its own religions, philosophies, and social systems, despite being surrounded by vast mountains and seas. Nonetheless, between the eleventh and eighteenth centuries, this ancient land was in close contact with the peoples and cultures of East and Southeast Asia, Europe, Africa, and, in particular, Central Asia and the Iranian plateau.

56. The Sultanate of Delhi (1206–1526): Polity, Economy, Society and Culture

This book, written in an easy-to-read style for students and lay readers, attempts to provide a comprehensive view of the Delhi Sultanate government from 1206 to 1526. It is split into two sections. The first section covers political events and the Sultans’ dynastic history, while the second section covers administration, various land issues, social life, including two major religious movements, and other cultural aspects such as architecture and sculpture.

57. The History and Culture of the Indian People: Volume 8: The Maratha Supremacy

This book describes the period of invasion and intensification of India’s two great military powers, the Marathas and the Sikhs, as well as the foreign powers, one of which would eventually play a dominant role in the history of this continent. It covers the period from the death of Aurangzib in 1707 to the third Anglo-Maratha War in 1818, which saw the end of Muslim rule, the rise and fall of the Maratha empire, and the establishment of the British empire in India.

58. India: From Curzon to Nehru & after

A classic study, first published in 1969. Anecdotal experiences, collaboration with Gandhi and Nehru, Indian politics, and authorities This is a thought-provoking and intriguing memoir that takes the reader from a Punjab village to the highest levels of power in New Delhi.

59. Renaissance State: The Unwritten Story of the Making of Maharashtra

Among the largest, wealthiest, and most influential constituents in the country. A huge state in name and deed, it has been the cradle of people and events that have shaped India. Girish Kuber tells the story of the Renaissance state.  He chronicles a number of lesser-known tales, the social reformers who were far ahead of their time, the evolution of movements of the right and left, as well as for Dalit identity, and the long tradition of this great land of always standing up to Delhi in his vast sweep of the region’s politics, society, and history from the time of the Satavahanas down to the present day.

60. The Lost Diary of Kastur, My Ba

The reader hears from Kasturba for the first time in her own words in The Lost Diary of Kastur, My Ba. It gives a glimpse into what it was like to be married to the ‘Mahatma’ through day-to-day activities. Here was a woman witnessing history being made, observing and comprehending the process while also participating in it. It also tells of her two imprisonments that year, not because she was Bapu’s wife, but because she was herself engaged in satyagraha. This book, written a century and a half after Kasturba’s birth, finally presents her as her own person, a woman of substance.

61. The Holocaust of Indian Partition: An Inquest

The consequences of India’s partition are still felt today, more than a half-century later. The two-nation theory sowed a schism between Muslims and non-Muslims that has proven difficult to bridge. More significant, however, was the one million-person loss of life and the uprooting of nearly eighteen million people in 1947. Based on extensive and in-depth research, The Holocaust of Indian Partition sheds new light on what Jawaharlal Nehru outlined as a man-made Greek tragedy.

62. Lahore: A Sentimental Journey

Pran Nevile’s memoir “Lahore: A Sentimental Journey” transports us to pre-partition Lahore. Nevile proclaiming the culture of the time in this tickling throwback of the city, spanning from customs and traditions to religion and politics. It’s truly inspiring to see how various institutions have evolved and transgressed over time, representing the city as a living entity.

63. Lahore: Book 1 of The Partition Trilogy

In the months leading up to Independence, Jawaharlal Nehru and Vallabhbhai Patel meet with British Viceroy Dickie Mountbatten in Delhi to discuss the fate of the nation. Sepoy Malik returns to Lahore from the Great War, hoping to win his sweetheart Tara’s hand in marriage, only to find divide-and-rule in place, and love, friendships, and familial bonds tested. Lahore is a behind-the-scenes look at the agreements and political deviousness that gave India its freedom, the price for which was batwara. While the men make the decisions and wield the swords, the women bear the brunt of the carnage that rages through India during its cruelest summer ever.

64. Awakening: The Story of the Bengal Renaissance

Bengal experienced an extraordinary intellectual flowering in the nineteenth century. Bengali prose appeared, as did the novel and modern blank verse; old arguments about religion, society, and women’s lives were disproved; great schools and colleges were established; and new ideas in science surfaced. All of these changes were spearheaded by a small group of extraordinary men and women. For the first time, a riveting story about the Bengal Renaissance is told through the lives of all its key figures, from Rammohun Roy to Rabindranath Tagore. Awakening is a stunning achievement, meticulously investigated and told with colour, drama, and passion.

65. Land of Two Rivers: A History Of Bengal From The Mahabharata To Mujib

Land of Two Rivers tells the story of one of the Indian subcontinent’s most fascinating and influential regions. The delta of Bengal was formed by the confluence of two major river systems, the Ganga and the Brahmaputra, and was known as a centre of trade, learning, and the arts since the days of the Mahabharata and throughout the ancient dynasties.

66. Hindu Temples: What Happened to Them, Vol.2: The Islamic Evidence

The focus of this book is not so much on the destruction of Hindu temples as it is on the character of Islam – an imperialist ideology of terrorism and genocide masquerading as a religion, indeed as the only true religion. It is past time for Hindus to see Islam through the lens of the great spiritual vision that has been bestowed upon them.

67. India’s China War

This is one of those rare books that sheds entirely new light on a historical chapter, and it should be read by anyone interested in international affairs. Despite its stylish and intellectually rigorous tone, it unfolds like a riveting thriller. It is a significant work of revisionist history and a gruesome study of how wars begin, both of which are superbly documented. The belief that India was the victim of unprovoked Chinese aggression in 1962.

68. Ambedkar’s India

AMBEDKAR’S INDIA is a compilation of three of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar’s most famous speeches on caste and the Indian Constitution. “When you fight for Swaraj, you have the entire nation on your side.” Fighting the caste system pits you against the entire nation – even your own.

69. 70 Years of Secularism

This book is a stocktake after seventy years of independent India, which is desperately needed today. The book tries to explain what India was like before secularism and foreign rule when it was a much more awakened, comprehensive, and affluent civilisation than most people realize, and what it became after when it became a shadow of alien domination and subversion. The cultural genocide perpetrated on India by the Nehruvian-Marxist alliance over the last seventy years.

70. Tipu Sultan The Tyrant of Mysore

This book is part of a series that will ‘de-falsify our existing history.’ We’ve seen, read, and heard about many phoney people claiming to be freedom fighters and receiving government pensions. Several of these worthies would not have been born before the Declaration of Independence, yet they succeed in such obvious manipulations. Certain rulers and chieftains have been portrayed as true heroes who fought against the British Empire.

71. 100 Great Chronicles Of Indian History: From Cave Paintings to the Constitution

A sign from the ancient world’s most sophisticated civilization. A mathematical genius’s lost notebooks. A map line that divided a country in two. Read about these and 97 other incredible documents that will take you on an extraordinary tour of India’s fascinating past, including stone inscriptions, palm-leaf and papyrus manuscripts, clay tablets, and copper plate engravings, as well as patents, posters, letters, journals, maps, and much, much more.

72. THE BEAUTIFUL TREE

“The Beautiful Tree” provides strong evidence from comprehensive early British administrators’ documents of the increasingly organized of educational institutions teaching a sophisticated curriculum in the Bengal and Madras Presidencies as well as in the Punjab, with daily school attendance by about 30 percent of children aged 6-15, where those belonging to communities classed as Shudras or even lower constituted a good number of students, and in some areas, for example, in the Punjab.

73. Hindu Pad-Padashahi

The monumental material discovered and laid under contribution by Maratha scholars, consisting of Estate records, documents, original letters, and contemporary narratives, is to a large extent confined to the Marathi language, and no attempt, with the exception of Justice Ranade, has been made to rewrite, at least concisely, the history of Maharashtra in the light that these valuable researches throw on it, in a language that would place before the Non-Maratha.

74. An Entirely New History of INDIA: Translated from French ‘Nouvelle Histoire de l’Inde’

A Completely New History of INDIA; Indian history must be re-examined and free of colonial biases and errors. Driven by Christian belief in a 6000-year-old Earth, British scholars and their Indians hire post-dated Indian history in order to fit into erroneous Western notions. It seeks to dismantle cliches, clarify controversies, and retrace the most significant periods of Indian history as accurately as possible—history much older than previously thought.

75. History of India as it Happened

We now know that not only did European colonizers write the history of India’s beginnings with the intent of downsizing, downgrading, and postdating Indian civilization, but that generation after generation of Indian historians, for their own selfish purposes, supported and propagated these wrong theories, such as the Aryan invasion, which divided India like nothing else, pitting South against North, Aryan against Dravidian, and Untouchables against Brahmans. As a result, we hope that this book will serve as a springboard for the next generation of Indian historians.

The above list consists of books from different eras of Indian history. Hope you’ll dive in to get insight into the Indian past. What we are today is a reflection of our past.