Histories of India for Beginners
The following two companion volumes, although old, may be the best and easy bet for beginners
History of India by Romila Thaper
History
of India
by Percival Spear
New and notable works:
The
Idea of India by Sunil Khilnani (for modern Indian history, consult
this Nehruite work)
A
New History of India by Stanley A. Wolpert (new edition of an old classic)
India
Britannica : A Vivid Introduction to the History of British India
by Geoffrey Moorhouse
A
History of India
by Hermann Kulke
Raj
: The Making and Unmaking of British India
by Lawrence James
Cultural History and Aesthetics
Myths
and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization (this is a small gem)
by Heinrich Zimmer
The
Wonder That Was India (well-known survey, brilliantly written)
by A. L. Basham
The
Dance of Siva : Essays on Indian Art and Culture
by Ananda Coomaraswamy
Historiography
Aryans and British India
by Thomas R. Trautmann
Dominance
Without Hegemony : History and Power in Colonial India
by Ranajit Guha
The
Nation and Its Fragments
by Partha Chatterjee
Another
Reason
by Gyan Prakash
Provincializing
Europe
by Dipesh Chakrabarty
The East India Company : Trade and Conquest from 1600
by Antony Wild
Recent Popular Books and ephimera:
The Making of India: A Historical Survey
by Ranbir Vohra
India: A Siege Within
by M.J. Akbar
India : From Midnight to the Millennium
by Shashi Tharoor
The Last Days of the Raj
by Trevor Royle
India
: A History
by John Keay
Discovery
of India
by Jawaharlal Nehru
The
Baburnama : Memoirs of Babur, Prince and Emperor
by Babur
A
Yoga of Indian Classical Dance: The Yogini's Mirror
by Roxanne Kamayani Gupta
India and Pakistan : The First Fifty Years (Woodrow Wilson Center Series)
by Selig S. Harrison
Our Bones Are Scattered : The Cawnpore Massacres and the Indian Mutiny
of 1857
by Andrew Ward
Dawning of the Raj
by Jeremy Bernstein