• The best books on Contemporary India - An Area of Darkness: A Discovery of India by V.S. Naipaul
  • The best books on Contemporary India - Ants Among Elephants: An Untouchable Family and the Making of Modern India by Sujatha Gidla
  • The best books on Contemporary India - English, August by Upamanyu Chatterjee
  • The best books on Contemporary India - Countdown by Amitav Ghosh
  • The best books on Contemporary India - Spring, Heat, Rains: A South Indian Diary by David Shulman

The best books on Contemporary India, recommended by Kapil Komireddi

As the world’s biggest democracy, India could be an inspiring example of how a multiethnic, multilingual country with many different religions can come together to form a vibrant state with equality enshrined in its constitution. But all that is in danger of going down the drain, as the country transforms into a brutally exclusionary Hindu-supremacist state under the leadership of Narendra Modi, says Kapil Komireddi, essayist and author of Malevolent Republic: A Short History of the New India. Here, he talks us through how the country got to where it is now and recommends five books that present a “comprehensive picture” of contemporary India.

  • The best books on The Mughal Empire - Negotiating Mughal Law: A Family of Landlords across Three Indian Empires by Nandini Chatterjee
  • The best books on The Mughal Empire - The Princes of the Mughal Empire, 1504–1719 by Munis Faruqui
  • The best books on The Mughal Empire - Millennial Sovereign: Sacred Kingship & Sainthood in Islam by A. Azfar Moin
  • The best books on The Mughal Empire - Culture of Encounters: Sanskrit at the Mughal Court  by Audrey Truschke
  • The best books on The Mughal Empire - Writing Self, Writing Empire: Chandar Bhan Brahman and the Cultural World of the Indo-Persian State Secretary by Rajeev Kinra

The best books on The Mughal Empire, recommended by Richard M. Eaton

The Mughals ruled the Indian subcontinent for three centuries, a multicultural empire that brought together an extraordinary mix of Mongol, Islamic, Persian and Indian practices, religious beliefs and philosophies. Here, historian Richard M. Eaton, a professor at the University of Arizona, chooses some of the best scholarly works on the Mughals that shed new light on how the empire functioned.

  • The best books on Mumbai - Ravan and Eddie by Kiran Nagarkar
  • The best books on Mumbai - Em and the Big Hoom by Jerry Pinto
  • The best books on Mumbai - Miss Laila, Armed and Dangerous by Manu Joseph
  • The best books on Mumbai - Rediscovering Dharavi by Kalpana Sharma
  • The best books on Mumbai - Stars from Another Sky by Saadat Hasan Manto

The best books on Mumbai, recommended by Saumya Roy

It’s one of the most densely populated, vibrant cities in the world, combining enormous wealth with dire poverty. It’s India’s financial and commercial capital, home to the glamour of Bollywood and the movie industry, but it has somehow managed to defy modernization. Saumya Roy, journalist, author and co-founder of a nonprofit that made loans to the city’s poorest entrepreneurs, recommends her favourite books on Mumbai (aka Bombay).

  • The Best South Asian Novels in Translation - Phoolsunghi by Pandey Kapil, translated by Gautam Choubey
  • The Best South Asian Novels in Translation - The Bronze Sword of Tengphakhri Tehsildar by Indira Goswami, translated by Aruni Kashyap
  • The Best South Asian Novels in Translation - The Upheaval by Pundalik Naik, translated by Vidya Pai
  • The Best South Asian Novels in Translation - Battles of Our Own by Jagadish Mohanty, translated by Himansu S. Mohapatra and Paul St-Pierre
  • The Best South Asian Novels in Translation - Sarasvatichandra by Govardhanram Madhavram Tripathi, translated by Tridip Suhrud

The Best South Asian Novels in Translation, recommended by Jenny Bhatt

The writer and translator Jenny Bhatt selects five key works of South Asian literature, all historical novels available in English translation, that showcase the richness and diversity of the region’s lesser known languages: from a modernist classic decrying the depradations of the coal mining industry to a ‘loose, baggy monster’ of a Victorian novel exploring utopian ideals.