As the means of travel and communication improved over the millenia, people across the world now have a common set of news and that will possibly translate to a common history for later. Few hundred years back every region had its own unique history and a few thousand years back every village or town had its own. In that sense there might no such thing as a national history.
Therein lies the problem of writing an Indian history , specially once that goes back more than a few hundred years back. Several attempts have been made - notably Discovery of India by Jawahar Lal Nehru. The breadth of the topic is sure to intimidate anyone attempting to approach it. This book does a tidy job of balancing the breadth and depth of this topic within 275 odd pages.
It starts with theories of Homo Sapiens arriving on the subcontinent moving on to the migration of the Aryans and the Harrapan civilization. In his description of this period the author seems to be influenced by Tony Joseph's Early Indians (Another interesting book that addresses , well as the same suggests - Early Indians) This is followed by Maurya / Ashoka empire and the 'Classical Golden Age' of the Gupta's. Muslim rulers such as the Delhi Sultanate , Deccan Sultanate and the Mughals are covered - including the contemporary Rajputs and Marathas. South Indian dynasties such as the Chola's , Chera's , Pandya's etc are discussed as well.
The book covers the arrival and the occupation of the British as well as the freedom struggle. It even comments on India after the british rule - all the way upto Modi raj. (Suffice to say, the author would not be counted as a modi bhakt).
I think this is a good effort and a great place for a concise breadth view of Indian history. One amusing note was that the author seems to go out of his way to trivialise the brutality of some of the muslim rulers. Those minor hiccups notwithstanding - This is a book I would recommend.
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