India: A History. Revised and Updated

I should explain that I only read the second half of this book, from about 1600 when the British became involved. I bought it because I wanted to know more about the British East India Company, and also wanted an overview of the history since partition. For these purposes the book was great. On Amazon.co.uk many reviews refer to the book being hard work to read, and many American reviews describe it as dry. I found it neither, although it did take me thirty or forty pages to tune into the author's style, which is really high-grade journalism, not to question his scholarship. It reads like an articulate lecture by someone who thoroughly understands his subject. One reviewer said you need some prior knowledge. Perhaps you do. I came to the book with knowledge of post-independence India being only what I had gleaned from newspapers over the years, but that was enough. I had also many years ago read Gandhi's autobiography, which is a book that sticks in the mind. Regarding the East India Company and the development of British rule, Keay dispels any notion of the British as avuncular colonists. When push came to shove they were decisive and at times brutal. We Brits like to appear as nice imperialists. Effective yes; nice, not unless it was convenient. Having said that the Brits and Indians appear to have had a certain mutual regard. The story since independence is complex and fast-moving and I felt Keay told the story with conviction. He doesn't burden his text with footnotes, jargon or prevarication and plonks his opinion down on the page, which is just as well given how much he has to tell. He has a tendency to try and see the positive in authoritarian actions by different rulers, for example Indira Gandhi and Bhutto. Gandhi instituted a rule of emergency but according to Keay she did it temporarily in order to sort out a raft of administrative disasters, which she did before returning the country to democracy. I enjoyed what I read of this book very much and would recommend it.

Being an Indian myself, I have gone through our history labouriously over the 10 years in primary schooling. This book covers it all exceedingly well and also relates too other civilizations / events around the world. Nowhere did I find it wanting for details. There were several eyeopeners as the history was narrated in stark impartial reality - so it was refreshing after being misled by the grandeurs depicted on some dramatised versions on Indian TV. The only fallback is that the language is a bit complex and is not suited for continuous and smooth reading. I think this has been mentioned by one more reviewer. Some may also find it too detailed as it takes great pains to cover all events and dynasties, and justify the conclusions by stating archelogical evidences. However, I do not regret buying it and will recommend to anyone who wishes to get an idea of Indian history.

John Keay, in writing a one volume history of one of the world's largest and oldest civilizations set himself a gargantuan task, and has pulled it off rather well. The work is not perfect, but it's merits far outweigh any defects. To begin with, the early part of the book covering the ancient times is perhaps the most difficult to follow, but when one reaches around AD 1,000 it becomes more readable. The early years, chronicling the early settler civilizations such as the Aryans and the Dravidians at times resemble a travelogue, and one may find themselves lost as some of these peoples are not adequately characterized. Perhaps the most monumental figure of ancient India, Ashoka, gets too little mention. He does receive a chapter, but such a key figure deserves much greater depth. Having said this, the book becomes far more readable and informative when it reaches the Mughal Empire, and the coverage of the British conquest, rule and ultimately independence is superbly done. A particular strength is that Keay does not take the easy way out post 1947 and simply chronicle the Republic of India, rather he gives a full coverage of the key events shaping all 3 successor states, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. It must be said that Keay's chronicling of the modern history of the Indian subcontinent is superb, and if he follows through with a modern history of India (a possibility he hints at in the introduction) I will certainly read it. However, the book, as a complete history of India succeeds, and delivers a reasonably objective and impartial account. For those who are interested purely in modern India, this book is still highly recommended as the modern section is superb. However, any enthusiast of India should at the very least attempt John Keay's chronicle of this spellbinding civilization.

I really enjoyed this. 4,000+ years of history from the Indus Valley to the Republic of India. Keay is, or at least appears to be, a master of the subject. He also seems to do a very good job of remaining objective when it comes to the more contentious parts of Indian history.

There are too many facts about something that even the author is not sure if they are true or not. Too many names sometimes without explanation appearing for the 1st time. The book is not for people who don't know much about India. Better to start somewhere else. For example, what do you think about this sentence: "Far from the interminable plains of northern India and the wooded Vindhya hills where Harsha had once sought his widowed sister, beyond the Narmada river whence the Rashtrakutas had launched their challenge for ‘Imperial’ Kanauj and the bald Deccan plateau whence the Chalukyas had interminably challenged the Pallavas, below the teak forests and hill pastures of the Eastern Ghats, in a land without winter where the Kaveri river fans out into the lushest of rice-rich deltas – there, in the extreme south of Tamil Nadu, this spectacularly traditional retort to Mahmud’s iconoclasm had been mounted by the Chola king Rajendra I." There are many sentences like this one which makes the book almost unreadable and very hard to memorise all the names, dates, etc. It's a pity...

A very detailed history. Some bits are a bit dry but overall a good read. Hasn't quite got the flair of Tom Holland or Peter Frankopan

Well written and nice to hold

Well, that was a marathon listen - 33½ hours in all. I’m not sure I’d have made it to the end if I’d tried to read it on the page. The five stars are for its educational value. My main takeaway (as I can’t pretend to remember all the detail - there’s just so much of it) is that violent sectarian factionalism is, at heart, a form of selfishness. It destroys the possibility that grandchildren and great-grandchildren might live their lives free from deep pain. Thank goodness for the secular (if imperfect) governments under which I’ve lived. India’s story underlines just how hard it is to hold together a vast, diverse population without tipping into authoritarianism, exclusion or bloodshed. There is a difficult path ahead for this extraordinarily rich and varied subcontinent as it continues to wrestle with its own diversity. If a question ever comes up in a pub quiz about anything covered here, don’t ask me! There are simply too many Rajas, Nawabs, Sultans, provinces, invasions, hatreds and mass killings for me to give a reliable answer. That said, I thoroughly recommend this book. If your main interest is in events within your own lifetime - or that of your parents - you could reasonably start around chapter 19. The modern sections are easier to relate to, though they’re no less unsettling.

Good book on Indian history. If you are going to read only one book on Indian history, you can pick this.

A very readable history of such an ancient and great civilization. Usually these kinds complete histories can be so stifling and boring — lists of dates and battles and kings. — but this book keep you interested and keeps you coming back for more. John Keay is a fascinating story teller. But this is not a story, it is real history, made quite interesting by his excellent writing.

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Das mit der indischen Geschichte ist nicht ganz einfach. Nicht nur ist diese für den Leser ein schreckliches Durcheinander von diversen Kulturen und Reichen, auch die indischen Namen sind nicht immer ganz einfach zu merken - zumal diese gelegentlich auch noch mehrfach Verwendung finden. Und dann gibt es auch noch das Problem, dass man sich über vieles streiten kann, weil die Überlieferung bis in die frühe Neuzeit eben nicht gerade anwenderfreundlich ist, also man auf viele Punkte nur indirekt schließen kann. Und das macht dann die Geschichtsschreibung in Indien zu einem Minenfeld, denn dort soll aus der fernen Vergangenheit auch immer mal wieder die eine oder andere Tagespolitik begründet werden. Als Beispiel für diese Diskussionen müssen wohl auch der Prozess und die Einordnung der arischen Einwanderung gelten. John Keay macht aus dieser Situation eine ganze Menge. Obwohl das Buch nicht gerade kurz ist, erzählt er nicht sklavisch alle Details nach sondern setzt Schwerpunkte, die ihm dann erlauben, die wesentlichen Gründe und Argumente für bestimmte Theorien nachvollziehbar machen. Ganz undogmatisch entscheidet er sich dann für eine wahrscheinliche Theorie als Grundlage seiner Darstellung, lässt aber offen, ob nicht spätere Funde oder bessere Argumente noch einmal zu einer anderen Wertung führen können. Im Kern folgt er dabei Leitlinien, die sich auch in anderen Büchern über indische Geschichte finden, er bewegt sich also auf sicheren akademischen Boden. Das einzelne seiner Stellungnahmen aber dennoch hier auf Amazon kritisiert werden, ist vieleicht verständlich, stellt aber aus meiner Sicht keine wirkliche Kritik am Buch selbst dar. Eine Freude zu lesen ist dieses Buch aber aus einem anderen Grund: Es ist einfach sehr, sehr gut geschrieben. Ich habe einmal gelesen, dass man sich dann etwas gut merken kann, wenn man eine emotionale Verbindung zu etwas entwickelt. Und da ist es mit dem Lernen von Daten und Fakten aus der indischen Geschichte eben nicht ganz einfach. Ein Reich, ein Herrscher scheint jeweils seinen Vorgänger abgelöst zu haben, ohne dass sich in der Struktur der Herrschaft wirklich etwas verändert hat. Anders: Es fällt eben gerade nicht so einfach, aufgrund der überlieferten Faktenlage die Guten und die Bösen in dieser Geschichte zu identifizieren. Keay sucht sich aber aus den vorhandenen Informationen das heraus, was die handelnden Menschen in dieser Geschichte lebendig werden lässt, er baut auf einzelnen, überlieferten Anekdoten auf und macht daraus kleine Biographien. Und die bleiben dann im Gedächtnis. Dass daneben auch die strukturellen Veränderungen dargestellt werden (Beispiel: Entwicklung der Administration bis hin zum Reich der Mogul), macht das dann zu einer wirklich gelungenen Gesamtansicht.

This book is definitely not a light read and the language can also be a difficult to follow for a lay reader. A reader with a decent understanding of Indian history will be able to follow the book, but harder for those not attuned to Indian history. Whats good about it is that it is comprehensive and detailed.