Half-Lion: How P.V. Narasimha Rao Transformed India

From being one of the earliest members of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, Vajpayee blossomed into a leading opposition MP by the late 1960s and went on to become External Affairs Minister in the short-lived Janata government and, finally in 1999, to head the first non-Congress government to complete a full term in office. That it was a coalition government made the feat all the more remarkable and testifies to the fact that though wedded to a right-wing political ideology, Vajpayee did not believe in the politics of exclusion.

There is perhaps no political figure in modern history who did more to secure and protect the Indian nation than Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. The Man Who Saved India is a sweeping, magisterial retelling of Sardar Patel's story. With fiercely detailed and pugnacious anecdotes, multiple award-winning, best-selling writer Hindol Sengupta brings alive Patel's determined life of struggle and his furious commitment to keep India safe. This audiobook brings alive all the arguments, quarrels, and clashes between some of the most determined people in Indian history.

The Dramatic Decade focuses on one of the most fascinating periods in the life of this nation, the decade of the 1970s. This was when India found herself engaging with the true meaning of democracy. Drawing from personal diary extracts, conversations with key players of the 1970s, and vital secondary literature, Pranab Mukherjee presents an exceptional portrait of a complex nation.

As the world once again confronts an eruption of authoritarianism, Gyan Prakash's Emergency Chronicles takes us back to the moment of India's independence to offer a comprehensive historical account of Indira Gandhi's Emergency of 1975-77. Stripping away the myth that this was a sudden event brought on solely by the prime minister's desire to cling to power, it argues that the Emergency was as much Indira's doing as it was the product of Indian democracy's troubled relationship with popular politics, and a turning point in its history.

Written by Singh’s media adviser and trusted aide, the book describes Singh’s often troubled relations with his ministers, his cautious equation with Sonia Gandhi, and how he handled the big crises from managing the left to pushing through the nuclear deal. Insightful, acute, and packed with political anecdotes, The Accidental Prime Minister is one of the great insider accounts of Indian political life.

P. V. Narasimha Rao (or PV, as he was popularly known) has been widely praised for enabling the economic reforms that transformed the country in 1991. From the vantage point of his long personal and professional association with the former prime minister, best-selling author Sanjaya Baru shows how PV's impact on the nation's fortunes went way beyond the economy.

The Coalition Years begins its journey in 1996 and explores the highs and lows that characterized 16 years of one of the most tumultuous periods in the nation’s political history. It is an insightful account of the larger governance phenomenon in India - coalition politics - as seen through the eyes of one of the chief architects of the post-Congress era of Indian politics.

Drawing from a vast range of original archival documents across India and abroad, this biography in two parts - the first focusing on the years leading up to his incarceration and eventual release from the Kalapani - puts Savarkar, his life, and his philosophy in a new perspective and looks at the man with all his achievements and failings. 

Jawaharlal Nehru wrote The Discovery of India during his imprisonment at Ahmednagar Fort for participating in the Quit India Movement (1942-1946). The book was written during Nehru’s four years of confinement to solitude in prison and is his way of paying an homage to his beloved country and its rich culture.  

Josy Joseph draws upon two decades as an investigative journalist to expose a problem so pervasive that we do not have the words to speak of it. The story is big: that of treacherous business rivalries, of how some industrial houses practically own the country, of the shadowy men who run the nation's politics. The story is small: a village needs a road and a hospital, a graveyard needs a wall, people need toilets. A Feast of Vultures is an unprecedented, multiple-level inquiry into modern India, and the picture it reveals is both explosive and frightening.

Did ancient India witness the Great Flood? Why did the Buddha give his first sermon at Sarnath? How did the Europeans map India? Combining scholarship with sparkling wit, Sanjeev Sanyal sets out to explore how India's history was shaped by its geography - answering questions you may have never thought to ask. Moving from geological and genetic origins to present-day Gurgaon, Land of the Seven Rivers is riveting, wry, and full of surprises.

At midnight on 15 August, 1947, India left the British Empire. This defining moment of world history had been brought about by a handful of people:Jawaharlal Nehru, the fiery Indian prime minister; Mohammed Ali Jinnah, leader of the new nation; and Louis and Edwina Mountbatten, despatched to get Britain out of India. Within hours of the midnight chimes, their dreams of freedom and democracy would turn to chaos, bloodshed and war.

In his first book, India’s Wars, Air Vice Marshal Arjun Subramaniam sought to give independent India’s military exploits up to 1971 their rightful place in history. At the same time, it was also a tribute to the valour of the men and women in olive green, white and blue. In Full Spectrum, he takes the story forward by recounting in detail how the armed forces have dealt with military conflicts, insurgencies and unconventional warfare from 1972 to the present day. 

This thrilling narrative, with its wealth of little-known facts takes the listener on a journey through the life of independent India’s first law minister, a formally converted Buddhist who wholeheartedly dedicated himself to initiating various movements for the social and political betterment of the Dalit community. This book presents a fascinating outlook on Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar’s political aspirations and promises to be an engaging and enrapturing story. 

On 23 May 2019, when the results of the general elections were announced, Narendra Modi and the BJP-led NDA coalition were voted back to power with an overwhelming majority. To some, the numbers of Modi's victory came as something of a surprise; for others, the BJP's triumph was a vindication of their belief in the government and its policies. Irrespective of one's political standpoint, one thing was beyond dispute: this was a landmark verdict that deserved to be reported with intelligence and without bias. Rajdeep Sardesai's new book, 2019: How Modi Won India, does just that.