India: A History cover art

India: A History

A History

Preview
Free with 30-day trial
Prime logo New to Audible Prime Member exclusive:
2 credits with free trial
1 credit a month to use on any title to download and keep
Listen to anything from the Plus Catalogue—thousands of Audible Originals, podcasts and audiobooks
Download titles to your library and listen offline
₹199 per month after 30-day trial. Cancel anytime.

India: A History

Written by: John Keay
Narrated by: Mike Fraser
Free with 30-day trial

₹199 per month after 30-day trial. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for ₹2,525.00

Buy Now for ₹2,525.00

About this listen

The most authoritative and highly regarded single-volume history of India – from ancient time to the modern day. Five millennia of the sub-continent’s social, economic, political and cultural history are interpreted by one of our finest writers on India and the Far East.

India’s history begins with a highly advanced urban civilisation in the Indus valley, regressing to a tribal and pastoral nomadism, and then evolving into a uniquely stratified society. The pattern of inward invasion plus outward migration was established early: from Alexander the Great via the march of Islam and the great Moghuls to the coming of the East India Company and the establishment of the British Raj.

Older, richer and more distinctive than almost any other, India’s culture furnishes all that the historian could wish for in the way of continuity and diversity. The peoples of the Indian subcontinent, while sharing a common history and culture, are not now, and never have been, a single unitary state; the book accommodates Pakistan and Bangladesh, as well as other embryonic nation states like the Sikh Punjab, Muslim Kashmir and Assam.

In this brilliant new edition, John Keay continues the narrative of India’s history – covering events from partition to the present day and examining the very different fortunes of the three successor states: Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Republic of India. Based on the latest research, this is an indispensible history of a country set to be a definitive influence on the future of world economics, politics and culture.

(P)2024 Echo Point Books & Media, LLC
Ancient Asia Civilisation Colonialism & Post-Colonialism India Politics & Government South Asia World
All stars
Most relevant
I was a bit surprised to see how poorly rated this fine book was. I realised upon reading that drivel that these reviewers were hoping for propaganda and were not ready for a comprehensive, detailed and dispassionate history of the subcontinent.

Great book, ignore the salty reviews

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Dear Indians, don’t read or listen to this book. While it gives an overall perspective of India’s history from Europe’s point of view, it is full of lies and propaganda. The author claims that the episodes of the Ramayana occurred after those of the Mahabharata, while calling the latter a great Holocaust. He states that Shiv was not a Vedic god and asserts that the rishis who wrote the hymns of the Rigveda didn’t know their meaning. He continues to push the false narrative of the Aryan Migration theory—that Sanskrit and Sanatan were the result of a foreign migration into India—an utter lie. Throughout the book, he maintains the Western propaganda of the “Aryanisation” of the Indian subcontinent. He discredits our own history, calls Shivaji Maharaj a rascal, sanitises Mohammedan customs, demonises Hindu beliefs, claims the Charkha on the Indian flag was a Muslim invention, sanitises Razia Sultan, Tipu Sultan, and Alauddin Khilji, quotes the anti-nationals Irfan Habib and Romila Thapar, draws false parallels between the Mahmudian and Chola atrocities, among many other distortions!


This book deserves 1 star, but I give it a 2 stars rating, because he is one of those writers that accepts the fact that the number widows burnt as a result of the tradition of Sati was blown out of proportion. He accepts that it was a British propaganda.

Propaganda

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.