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Fulbright to India Guide – 2021-2022
Suggested Reading and Media
We believe that reading fiction and non-fictions books about India will help you gain deeper understanding of Indian society and culture. Here is a list of books on various topics in India that one can read to understand India better. It is not an exhaustive list, but a representation of diverse opinions in the form of books from various personalities on India.
India-History/Modern India
Indian Culture and Society
Religion and Philosophy
Politics and International Affairs
Business and Economy
Fiction/Literature
Documentaries
TV/Movie suggestions
India-History/Modern India
- A History of India by Burton Stein
- A Concise History of Modern India by Barabara Metcalf and Thomas R. Metcalf
- Modern South Asia: History, Culture, Political Economy by Sugata Bose and Ayesha Jalal
- The Great Partition: The Making of India and Pakistan by Yasmin Khan
- India: A History by John Keay
- Modern India: The Origins of an Asian Democracy by Judith M. Brown
- India After Gandhi by Ram Guha
- Critical Events: An Anthropological Perspective on Contemporary India by by Veena Das
- Incarnations: India in 50 Lives by Sunil Khilnani(podcast also available)
- Interpreting India by Carnegie India (podcast hosted by acclaimed historian Srinath Raghavan)
- Elementary Aspects of Peasant Insurgency in Colonial India by Ranajit Guha
- The Other side of Silence by Urvashi Butalia
- Everyday Lives, Everyday Histories: Beyond the Kings and Brahmanas of Ancient India by Uma Chakravarti
- A History of Modern India by Bipin Chandra
- Other books are linked here : 53 Best Books on Indian History (The Complete Guide) (bookgeeks.in)
Indian Culture and Society
- Religion, Caste, and Politics in India by Christophe Jaffrelot
- The Argumentative Indian by Amartya Sen
- Everyday Life in South Asia by Diane P. Mines
- Critical Themes in Indian Sociology by by Sanjay Srivastava, Yasmeen Arif, Janaki Abraham
- The Caravan Magazine (The Caravan (caravanmagazine.in))
- Duke University Press – South Asia (Browse by New Books (dukeupress.edu))
- Grand Tamasha (podcast produced by Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Hindustan Times)
- Daughters of Parvati: Women and Madness in Contemporary India by Sarah Pinto
- Disquieting Gifts: Humanitarianism in New Delhi by Erica Bornstein
- White Saris and Sweet Mangoes: Aging, Gender, and Body in North India by Sarah Lamb
- Cultures of Servitude: Modernity, Domesticity, and Class in India by Raka Ray
- The Construction of Religious Boundaries: Culture, Identity and Diversity in the Sikh Tradition by Harjot Oberoi
- Annihilation of Caste : The Annotated Critical Edition by Dr.B.R Ambedkar, Annotated and Introduction by Arundhati Roy
- Ants Among Elephants by Sujatha Gidla
- Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
- Reconceptualising gender: Phule, Brahmanism and Brahmanical patriarchy” By Uma Chakravarti
- Conceptualising Brahmanical Patriarchy in Early India : Gender, Caste, Class and State | Economic and Political Weekly (epw.in)
- With Respect to Sex: Negotiating Hijra Identity in South India (Worlds of Desire: The Chicago Series on Sexuality, Gender, and Culture) 1st Edition by Gayatri Reddy
- Servants of the Goddess: The Modern-Day Devadasis by Catherine Rubin Kermorgant
Religion and Philosophy
- Religion in India: Past and Present by Alan Babb
- A Journey Through Ladakh: Encounters with Buddhism by Andrew Harvey
- Perspectives on Modern South Asia: A Reader in Culture, History, and Representation by Kamala Visweswaran
- Storytellers, Saints, and Scoundrels: Folk Narrative in Hindu Religious Teaching by Kirin Narayan
- Sikhism: An Introduction by Nikky-Guninder Kaur Singh
- Buddhism in India: Challenging Brahmanism and Caste by Gail Omvedt
- Antigod’s Own Country: Counter culture in Kerala by A.V. Sakthidharan
- The Hindus: An Alternative History by Wendy Doniger
Politics and International Affairs
- The Makers of Modern India by Ramachandra Guha
- The politics of vishwas: political mobilization in the 2019 national election by Neelanjan Sircar
- Contemporary South Asia 28(2) 2020
- Capital: The Eruption of Delhi by Rana Dasgupta
- The Nation and its Fragments by Partha Chatterjee
- Unsettling Memories: Narratives of the Emergency in Delhi by Emma Tarlo
- Colonialism and its Forms of Knowledge by Bernard Cohn
- Provincializing Europe by Dipesh Chakrabarty
- The Delhi Riots: Three Days in the Life of a Nation by Chakravarti and Haksar
- Ethnic Conflict and Civic Life: Hindus and Muslims in India by Ashutosh Varshney
- Jotirao Phule and the Ideology of Social Revolution in India by Gail Omvedt
- A good list of books on Indian politics :7 Must-Read Books On Indian Politics | The Curious Reader
Business and Economy
- India Transformed: 25 Years of Economic Reforms edited by Rakesh Mohan
- Business and Politics in India edited by Christophe Jaffrelot, Atul Kohli, and Kanta Mural
- Poverty Amid Plenty in the New India by Atul Kohli
- Economics and Political Weekly (Economic and Political Weekly | (epw.in)
- Development as Freedom by Amartya Sen
Fiction/Literature
- City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi by William Dalrymple
- The Salt Inspector and Other Stories by Munshi Premchand/Pawan Kumar Pandey
- Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie
- The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh
- The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
- The Shadow Lines by Amitav Ghosh
- The Case of the Love Commandos by Tarquin Hall
- The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
- Amrita Pritam
- Train to Pakistan by Khushwant Singh
- The Girl in the Garden by Kamala Nair
- A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
- Ghachar Ghochar by Vivek Shanbhag
- Saadat Hasan Manto
- Ismat Chughtai
- Leila by Prayaag Akbar
- Latitudes of Longing by Shubhangi Swarup
- A Burning by Megha Majumdar
- White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
- Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Kathrine Boo
Documentaries
- The Story of India (BBC, Michael Wood)
- The Great Indian Railway (National Geographic)
- Powerless
- Ram ke Naam
- I am Gurgaon (2009): https://youtu.be/oMwceo7nVLY
- India Untouched (2007): https://youtu.be/fvke6ycgkL4
TV/Movie suggestions
- The Lunchbox
- PK (Netflix)
- Eeb allay ooo! (Netflix)
- Made in Heaven (Amazon Prime)
- Panchayat (Amazon Prime)
- Taj Mahal 1989 (Netflix)
- Lagaan
- Uski Roti
- A Suitable Boy
- Stories by Rabindranath Tagore (in Hindi on Netflix)
- Viceroy’s House
- Manto
- Delhi Belly
- Sairat
- Dangal