India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy

by Ramachandra Guha

A new edition (the 3rd) of India after Gandhi by Indian historian Ramachandra Guha is due out in 2023. It’s already available in India, but won’t appear until July in the UK. This is one of the best books on modern India—according to people we’ve interviewed on Five Books—and well worth reading for Guha’s historical perspective on the latest political developments.

Recommendations from our site

“It is a tremendous work of scholarship, at around eight hundred pages. For a history of a billion people spanning over six or seven decades, one could write a much longer book. So, it is remarkably concise and to the point.” Read more...

The best books on Modern Indian History

Dinyar Patel, Historian

“As a book on recent India, it’s one of the best, maybe the best, that I’ve read – a mammoth amount of information, put together in a way that anybody can read.” Read more...

The best books on The Indian Economy

Kaushik Basu, Economist

“What’s good about this book is that it’s almost like a conversational argument with the reader. It’s a very lively history. It makes you think. You’ll read one page and you’ll agree. You’ll read another page and you’ll disagree. And it gets right inside that period of the first few decades after independence in a way that I don’t think any other book does.” Read more...

The best books on India

Patrick French, Biographer

“This is a very detailed account of India over the past 60 years in one single volume. It’s a sort of one-stop shop on India. It is pro-Nehru, so it is a very secular view.” Read more...

The best books on India

Lord Meghnad Desai, Economist